I do not like “going down” fighting. Because then you are dead and nothing is gained. But if you like that outcome, go ahead because it is your right to fail completely and totally ala Todd Akin.
I would rather gain some valuable results such as closing the borders if that is the first requirement in a immigration reform bill. If not, then I have no use for it. Rand Paul’s bill stipulates closing borders as pre-requisite to other items.
If you hold out for a “pure” bill meaning all illegals must be deported, the result will be no closing of borders, and more illegals will keep flooding in.
Illegals are collecting welfare benefits now!
Illegals are known to be voting now!
Illegals are holding jobs now!
Illegals are working for cash and paying no taxes now!
With your ideology, get prepared for more illegals flooding in.
So you actually trust that any secure-the-border-first provision would actually be enforced, or adhered to?
But let’s say it is. Let’s say we do get real border security out of it. My question remains; what kind of future to you think a remotely conservative GOP has where mass legal immigration continues? How do we appeal to a liberal group like Hispanics w/o becoming much more liberal on a whole host of issues?
If we adopted the standard left/libertarian solution to illegal immigration, and massively increased already mass levels of legal immigration to the point that pretty much anyone who wanted to come could do so legally, then that would be a worse disaster than allowing illegals to continue to flood in.
And I’m not talking about a pure bill. Deportation should of course be a part of the strategy, but I don’t think we should try to deport all illegal aliens. We should at least try self deportation/attrition through enforcement for several years. It’s frustrating now to hear many attributing Romney’s loss to this when he didn’t campaign on it in the general, and never tried to actually explain what it means. We should try it. Let’s see how many illegals would voluntarily leave. The choice is not between mass deportation and a path to citizenship. There is a lot of middle ground. I wouldn’t even care if a sizable number of illegals stayed permanently...if they are never allowed to bring in relatives and if overall legal immigration were greatly reduced.
And I thought Akin should have dropped out of the race. It still bothers me that we pissed away two Senate seats with Akin and his fellow idiot Mourdock. And this wasn’t a case like Vermont, where someone as awful as Mike Castle was probably as good as we could hope for in that state. This was Missouri and Indiana, where conservatives can and do win...so long as they don’t fall into obvious abortion question traps and make statements that sound as if they were scripted by David Axelrod.