Posted on 11/14/2007 11:15:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
New York Governor Spitzer's back-down on drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants just cements illegal immigration as the Great Elite Back-Down Issue.
It was noticed years ago that the gap between elite opinion and public opinion on immigration issues is extraordinarily wide, as these gaps go. Some of this is naked self-interest: wealthy business types liking cheap, docile labor forces, rich folk of all stripes appreciating cheap & meek domestic servants. Some part arises from the guilty conscience that rich people always have, even in the U.S.A., known that all wealth and success is to some degree a product of dumb luck. From this you get patronizing noblesse oblige attitudes directed most particularly at those who are obviously poor. (The lower-middle classes don't seem to get much noblesse oblige directed their way.) Some comes from the "diversity" indoctrination that most elite types got while passing through their elite colleges and law schools. A big part arises from the simple and inescapable fact that elites don't share the anxieties of ordinary folk. They don't worry, as the rest of us do, about property values, losing a job, or affording health care. And then some is just that elites are better traveled and more "world-conscious" than the rest of us, and correspondingly, they are less attached to their own nation and its citizenship.
Whatever the reason, the gap is huge, and elite types keep falling headlong into it. It's hard not to smile at the spectacle. On this topic, our ruling classes are just simply clueless. It's a huge, major case of not getting it.
We saw this most wonderfully—I cherish the memory— last year with those big ¡Sí se puede! marches. The first round of demonstrations was addressed by a raft of big Democrat panjandrums—Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, etc. The second round, a few weeks later, was addressed by... nobody. The Kennedys and Clintons all had pressing engagements elsewhere, it turned out. I was smiling about this for weeks. Elite Back-Down One.
Same thing with the various congressional attempts at "comprehensive immigration reform." Our Senators stir themselves from their oak-paneled offices and antique-leather armchairs to cook up a new scheme to amnesty all those polite, nice folk who are doing their yard work for them. Seems like a great idea! Then suddenly they can't hear themselves talk for the roar of phone calls and faxes coming in from their constituents. Elite Back-Down Two. It's all totally baffling to them. Who are these people making such a fuss about a perfectly reasonable, humane proposal?
It's us, buddy, the great unwashed. This is still a democracy we have here. Try to keep that in mind, eh?
What’s Hillary’s stance du jour on the issue?
Who can keep track of her stances on the issues. You'd need a scorecard.
By the way, did everyone know that 6 to 8 other states DO already issue licenses to aliens? Michigan and New Mexico are two of them. That really needs to be fixed too.
hehe, nice.
“What’s Hillary’s stance du jour on the issue?”
The greatest agenda of the Democratic Party is Amnesty ASAP. Illegals turned legal will get Democrats enough votes, probably 10 million more then Republicans, to be able to lock in every election for the next 20 years.
I’m curious. What makes one part of the “Great Elite”?
Wealth?
Education?
Pedigree?
Wall Street hacks who want cheap labor.
In this particular context, one who would sell our culture down the river for cheap labor.
People attempting glibness need to understand their subject matter.
“Wall Street hacks who want cheap labor.”
Aren’t most illegal immigrants employed by elsewhere?
“one who would sell our culture down the river for cheap labor.”
What if it’s some guy with a grade 3 education who owns a landscaping business in Appalachia that’s not doing particularly well?
Would you count him as member of the Great Elite?
Fixed ;^)
A big part arises from the simple and inescapable fact that elites don't share the anxieties of ordinary folk.
Boy Howdy. A million bucks a month could relieve me of a lot of 'anxieties'.
Illegals with drivers’ licenses will accomplish the same thing. This is why I have marvelled at all the Republican support for sucking in the barbarian hordes, especially Bush. Why does he want to relegate his Republican Party to the dustbin of electoral history? With these people voting the Democrats have locks on all National offices for probably two generations and, given the shock that a sudden Democrat/socialist monopoly of power at the national level and in most of the states will give the system, probably forever. The Constitution will suddenly be rendered gibberish and we will leapfrog Europe in socialist development and in the drive for new third world status.
Wall Street hacks like Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic.
Yeah that guy who runs an airline, then complains about oil consumption. Yeah that guy who put all of his money in offshore trusts to avoid paying taxes anywhere, then preaches about global warming.
Is this the future?
Wide?
Not necessarily. He'd count as a Not-so-Great-Elite. Exploiting cheap labor does not make one elite: clothes and deodorant, however, can go very far in this regard.
:-)
Well put. This country could use more map readers like yourself. Unlike comprehensive immigration reform, I can comprehend what you're saying.
I got your six-pack, you ‘lil monkey!
“elites don’t share the anxieties of ordinary folk.”
OK, that sounds better than anything anyone else has come up with.
But, as you hinted with your comment about how many of your anxieties would be relieved if you were to receive a million dollars a month, most anxieties that ordinary folk share are related to finances, in one way other. So, on your view, the elites are the people with sufficient wealth they don’t have worry about paying the mortgage, putting their kids through college, getting layed off, etc etc.
Wouldn’t that mean most of the Great Elite are Republicans?
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