Immigration's bad guys

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 5, 2007 | Jonah Goldberg

[gpapa]

ENOUGH Emma Lazarus. For many of us, the definitive pro-immigration speech comes from Bill Murray in "Stripes": "We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans. With a capital 'A.' And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts…. But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more lovable than the mutt. Who saw 'Old Yeller'? … I cried my eyes out."

Murray's speech may lack poetry and intellectual rigor, but most Americans have a similar visceral attachment to our national immigration story. To be perceived as anti-immigration is to be seen as un-American.

[MinimizeGovernment]

a dying horse tends to crap a lot.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

The LA Slimes is so pathetic, they have to quote a crappy B-movie. Anything to sell America down the river... And Stripes was a crappy movie degrading to our military. Traitors...

[goldstategop]

Jonah Goldberg gets the narrative wrong. Americans like and admire legal immigrants, who come here in compliance in our laws and who wait a long time for the cherished privilege of becoming an American citizen. As a first generation legal immigrant, I can you that's a special feeling. I'm an American by naturalization. There is no difference between me and Americans born here. What Americans resent are people who flout our laws and then demand a reward for it. The politicians oblige. If we're against this, its not because we're rakes who've forgotten America's greatest success story; on the contrary its because we're attached to the idea of patriotism and expect everyone to honor flag and country. Its our elites who have insulted what we hold dear in our hearts.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[FremontLives]

Let’s shut down the borders and the smuggling... but when you go after Stripes, you go too far.

[LS]

Well, let's think about that movie a bit. The context of the speech was that Bill Murray's unit of misfits had accidentally "fragged" its SGT. with a grenade, and Murray took over the chore of making the unit capable of passing final inspection. After giving the pep talk, he molded the disparate group into . . . a singular, cohesive unit (you might even say, an American society) in which they had indeed become soldiers. So much so, in fact, that by the final scene, they performed intricate drills that the other "regular" units could not---all because they had given up their "individuality" (in this context, their previous nationality) and become one with the "unit," i.e., America.

Put that in your little crack pipe and smoke it, LA Times.

[Lakeshark]

If you read the whole article, you'll discover he doesn't get the narrative wrong at all.

He's warning conservatives they should not accept the stereotyping of themselves as anti-immigrant when they're not.

[LadyNavyVet]

A good read. Goldberg evicerates the politicians calling conservatives racist. I’m surprised the LA Times ran it.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Stripes was a crappy movie that portrayed our military as a bunch of idiots...

There is nothing comical about being a United States' soldier.

[goldstategop]

We're anti-ILLEGAL immigrant. No conservative has ever been against legal immigration. Somehow the Democrats have pulled off a neat political trick conflating the two. People know there's a difference and its a moral one. But that tell to those closed minds convinced we're bigots and racists.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[twonie]

They were probably in a hurry and did not read the entire thing before publishing it. It could happen!

[heywaitadarnminute]

Even girly bow-tie wearing neogays like Goldberg get a few items right sometimes. As he does with this article.

Americans have no problem with LEGAL immigrants because almost all of us are related to such folks. Folks that came here legally..DUH!

When will the president come out for legalized murder, rape, burglary, etc? If you can have legal immigration and illegal immigration why not?

[Teacher317]

There is nothing comical about being a United States' soldier.

You have clearly never been drinking with soldiers.

Either that, you were the humorless 2nd LT that was mercilessly mocked... and in hilarious ways.

[LadyNavyVet]

Except it’s not the Democrats conflating the two this time. It’s our very own President, his cabinet members and spokespeople and several “Republican” Senators. I don’t mind being called racist by liberals, since namecalling is all they know. But when members of my own party do it, I get outraged.

What Bush et al don’t seem to have realized is that when you have to resort to namecalling, you’ve already lost the argument.

[LadyNavyVet]

So true. Sometimes, in the military, humor is all that keeps you going.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

You have clearly never been drinking with soldiers.

Either that, you were the humorless 2nd LT that was mercilessly mocked... and in hilarious ways.

I was a W-5... I earned what I got...

[Christopher Lincoln]

Not quite right. As I remember it, the sergeant was indeed injured accidentally, but it was not the fault of his men, but of an idiot officer.

[Labyrinthos]

Jonah Goldberg gets the narrative wrong. Americans like and admire legal immigrants, who come here in compliance in our laws and who wait a long time for the cherished privilege of becoming an American citizen. As a first generation legal immigrant, I can you that's a special feeling. I'm an American by naturalization. There is no difference between me and Americans born here. What Americans resent are people who flout our laws and then demand a reward for it. The politicians oblige. If we're against this, its not because we're rakes who've forgotten America's greatest success story; on the contrary its because we're attached to the idea of patriotism and expect everyone to honor flag and country. Its our elites who have insulted what we hold dear in our hearts.

You need to email this to Jonah Goldberg.

[sageb1]

Good analogy.

[tumblindice]

`Groundhog Day’ was a better movie and more relevant to the issue of the invasion of our country by Mexicans, and President Bush’s attempt to apologize to them while insulting/demeaning his base.
And Caddyshack. Coneheads. And the Chevy Chase films.
All deeply allegorical. Yeah, pure fried gold, Jonah.