America's New Know-Nothings

Newsweek and MSNBC ^ | May 28, 2007 | By Fareed Zakaria

[bd476]

Reagan's Lessons for the GOP on Immigration

Four of the Republican nominees once had sensible views on immigration. Apart from McCain, all have now backtracked.

In 1989, Ronald Reagan made his farewell address to the American people and summed up his view of the United States. "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life," he said, "but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. [I]n my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here." Today, all the Republican Party can talk about are walls, fences, border guards and attack dogs.

Snip

The compromise immigration bill worked out in the Senate by Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kyl is imperfect. But in broad terms it solves many of the problems with the current immigration system and, in Kennedy's words, "brings millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America."

Snip

In 1996 Rudy Giuliani clearly identified it: "The anti-immigration issue that's now sweeping the country in my view is no different than the movements that swept the country in the past," he said. "You look back at the Chinese Exclusionary Act, or the Know-Nothing movement—these were movements that encouraged Americans to fear foreigners, to fear something that is different, and to stop immigration." He was right then. But the Republican Party he wants to lead is becoming the modern incarnation of the Know-Nothings.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yeah : )

[kabar]

Ed Meese Knows It's Amnesty

[calcowgirl]

In 1996 Rudy Giuliani clearly identified it: "The anti-immigration issue that's now sweeping the country in my view is no different than the movements that swept the country in the past," he said. "You look back at the Chinese Exclusionary Act, or the Know-Nothing movement—these were movements that encouraged Americans to fear foreigners, to fear something that is different, and to stop immigration." He was right then. But the Republican Party he wants to lead is becoming the modern incarnation of the Know-Nothings.

Ah, yes. "Anti-immigration." Continuing to not distinguish between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration.

[DTogo]

LEGAL immigrants: Welcome to America!

ILLEGAL immigrants: GO HOME!!

[Spirochete]

What exactly was racist about posts 35 & 36?

[grey_whiskers]

BUT...BUSH HAS TAKEN FAR MORE ACTION ON TERRORISM.

You mean like arranging for bombing the sleeping quarters of Qadaffi in Libya?

If Dubya had ordered the bombing of Ahmadinejad's house, maybe I'd listen.

And you forget what the Reagan economy was like after the 70's.

The problem is, Bush's profligate spending is like the liberal spending (together with an unpopular foreign war, imagine that) of the 1960's.

Thanks to Bush, we may be heading for another round of stagflation: and with too much federal debt to allow us to prime the pump to get out of it.

Nice try, though.

[edsheppa]

Nothing any more :-).

[Spirochete]

The thrust of jordan8's remark was that the left hates white America, that is, an America with a White majority. What's racist about that?

Futhermore, he stated (I'm paraphrasing) that our current immigration policy, engineered by Ted Kennedy, is a leftist policy designed to destroy that majority. What's racist about that?

His "Zyklon-B" comment could be construed as inflammatory, but not racist.

[edsheppa]

Haha, right.