Immigration is the issue (The main reason for Perry's decline)

"Every winner of Florida's Presidency 5 straw poll has gone on to win the GOP nomination. And if that tradition continues this year, Herman Cain will be the Republican nominee in 2012. He overwhelmingly won the straw poll, nabbing 37 percent of the votes. That put Cain more than 20 percentage points ahead of Rick Perry (15 percent) and Mitt Romney (14 percent). … Many of the straw poll delegates expressed frustration at [Perry's] poor debate performance Thursday night, along with irritation at his immigration positions." – National Review Online, Sept. 24, 2011

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The mainstream media are desperately attempting to gloss over the real reason that Rick Perry self-imploded at the Florida straw poll. It wasn't that his debate performance was poor, although it certainly was. The reason Rick Perry is imitating Fred Thompson's rapid decline from favored frontrunner to candidate-in-crisis is because the debate revealed the depths to which his pro-immigration position runs counter to that of most Republicans.

The various myths about Ellis Island notwithstanding, the American people have always been moderately anti-immigration. While their political elite has studiously labored to replace them with a new and more dependent people for the last 50 years, Americans have never accepted the general concept of open immigration from around the world. More importantly, they know they have been lied to from the very beginning by the advocates of immigration, and they understand that neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party can be trusted to defend their interests versus the interests of the corporations that seek the ever-lower wage rates that come with the expansion of the labor supply.

However, this American distaste for mass immigration was somewhat concealed by the credit-driven real-estate boom of the previous 20 years.

Another reason why in-state tuition is scary.

RAZA STUDIES: Anti-Americanism Disguised as Ethnic Studies
Townhall.com ^ | August 27, 2011 | Rachel Alexander
FR Posted on Monday, August 22, 2011

The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) is in a contentious fight with the state of Arizona over its controversial Mexican-American Studies program---known as “raza studies,”---- agit-prop of the far left La Raza, coming to a school near you. A state law went into effect in Arizona on January 1, 2011, banning the teaching of ethnic studies in K-12 schools. It was prompted by an investigation into TUSD’s ethnic studies curriculum by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne when he was State Superintendent of Schools.

The program is known as “raza studies,” which means race studies, championed by organizations like the far left organization National Council of La Raza. The course does not simply teach Latino youth about their heritage, it goes well beyond that. The textbooks teach Latino youth that they are mistreated by America, training them to become radical anti-American activists.

Textbooks include “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and “Occupied America.” Another text "gloats over the difficulties our country is having at enforcing its immigration laws." Benjamin Franklin is vilified as a racist. White people are referred to as “gringos” and “oppressors” of Latino people. “Privilege” is described as related to a person’s ethnicity.

At a TUSD school board meeting on May 10, one upset mother read excerpts from the textbook An Epic Poem: " My land is lost and stolen, My culture has been raped......we have to destroy capitalism…overthrow a government that has committed abuses….to the bloodsuckers, the parasites, the vampires who are the capitalists of the world: The schools are tools of the power structure that blind and sentence our youth to a life of confusion, and hypocrisy, one that preaches assimilation and practices institutional racism."--SNIP--

"Captain Gardasil" addresses La Raza.

"Did he promise to put 'raza studies' in every school."

The various myths about Ellis Island notwithstanding, the American people have always been moderately anti-immigration.

I read a lot about America ca. 1880s-1900. There's always been a consistent bias against the Newbies because they look/sound different and work cheaper than anybody else. (Some things never change). The hook is that by the second or third generation these people had all assimilated and become productive citizens.

The deal then was that various ethnic organizations took them under their wing, got them jobs and eased the transition. Nowadays, these new organization show the illegals the address of the nearest welfare office and instruct them on how to game the social services system.

As a former volunteer reading tutor of Middle School students, I consistently ran into stories by teachers of parents forbidding their kids to read/speak English at home as "Spanish is your heritage". Far too many of these illegals don't want to become Americans, just live like them - and then cop an attitude when citizens complain.

Two million LEGAL immigrants come into the USA every year. That is another New York City every four years! We have to open discussions about legal immigration, not just illegal immigration. We can start by just asking the question, how many immigrants should we let into the country every year? What should be the limits? I would like to see one of the Presidential candidates ask this question. When one of the liberals or rinos try to lay a guilt trip on a conservative, he should reply with this response, “We need to have a national discussion about legal immigration. We need to ask the people what they think should be the right number of immigrants every year.” This would side step the liberal accusations and would put the question to the American people.

Where are we going to put all of these people? What will our grandchildren’s futures be like? These are some questions that should be asked of the American people.

I am no fan of Herman Cain and his Federal Reserve connections, but if he is astute enough to ride the anti-immigration wave that Rick Perry inadvertently created at last week’s debate, he may have the potential to become a credible candidate for the nomination.”

Perry created that wave years ago when he was pushing for guest worker programs. I still don't understand why Perry won't change his stance now - Conservatives didn't like guest worker programs when Bush, McCain, and Perry were pushing them in 2006 and 2007 and they don't like them in 2011.

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