Posted on 06/18/2007 5:58:53 AM PDT by John Galt 72
Illegal Immigration: Amnesty for the Sake of the Common Good Is No Good
by Matt Carrothers
June 18, 2007
Many words have been typed, speeches made and talk radio monologues delivered questioning the reasons behind President Bushs passionate pleas for awarding amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens. In a Washington Post editorial last week, Bushs former speechwriter Michael Gerson provided compelling clues about the presidents guiding ideology on the issue. Gersons lament that Americans would dare criticize Bush for abdicating his constitutional duty to enforce our laws should rightfully offend the millions of conservatives who have supported their president.
Gerson opens his diatribe against those strange Americans who want to enforce our laws, protect our borders and defend our sovereignty by castigating them as nativist. He writes, The immigration debate is a reminder to the memory-impaired that President Bush ran and won in 2000 as a different kind of Republican meaning the kind that isn't libertarian or nativist.
The nativist charge is a polite way of saying that Americans who do not swim in the polluted sludge of multiculturalism are racists. The opponents of illegal alien amnesty should consider it a victory of sorts that the Senate amnesty bills promoters are reduced to employing the rhetorical staples of the liberal left.
Looking back at the 2000 presidential campaign, Gerson notes that Bush was clear in his desire for a federal role in improving education, humane immigration reform, (and) Medicare prescription drug coverage. Gerson added, Bushs first major policy address of the campaign, which I helped prepare, talked of seeking the common good, asserted solidarity with the poor and declared that the American government is not the enemy of the American people.
In other words, amnesty for illegal aliens will benefit the alleged common good of America.
Atlas Shrugged author Ayn Rand also had something to say about the liberals exalted desire for a common good. She wrote in a 1944 Readers Digest article, Throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of representing the common good . . . Horrors which no man would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear conscience by altruists who justify themselves by the common good.
Rand, raised under the tyranny of Lenins Russia, knew of the disastrous outcomes that accrue from public policies deemed to have a common positive benefit. Similar to collectivist economic schemes, amnesty for the illegal aliens in our midst would wreak horrific damage on both our economy and our unique American culture. The proponents of amnesty are not altruists, but abettors of cultural destruction.
The common good is also a favorite pursuit of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL). Clinton stated at a June 2004 fundraiser in San Francisco, We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. At least Clinton was honest. To achieve a common good, citizens must first lose their liberties.
In the July/August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Obama writes, We lead not only for ourselves but also for the common good. Interestingly, Gerson himself currently works as a Senior Fellow at the . . . Council on Foreign Relations.
In reality, those who clamor for a common good do not seek a state of goodness for just the United States. Like their socialist ideological comrades, purveyors of the common good dream of a world free from sovereign borders and nativist tendencies. Gersons appeal for a common good reeks of the wretched fumes of the multiculturalist fire that has already engulfed our great American institutions, and now threatens to burn down our borders completely.
Gerson then turns his ire toward political activists, who to him are curiously resolute in their beliefs and demand a voice in public policy debates. He writes, Today, in both parties, fundamentalism is again the fashion; authenticity is the prime directive. Talk-radio conservatism assaults the most obviously Catholic elements of Bushism a role for government in compassion and a welcoming attitude toward immigrants.
Gersons desire for a welcoming attitude toward immigrants begs two questions. First, should our welcoming arms also embrace illegal immigrants, a modifier he conveniently omitted?
Second, if Bush seeks compassion toward the downtrodden and a welcoming attitude toward illegal aliens, why doesnt he simply remove the border patrol agents? While he is at it, why not rewrite all of our immigration laws? That is, from now on no one who comes to our shores or borders is here illegally? By this logic, wouldnt an absence of laws produce an abundance of compassion?
President Bush introduced himself to American voters as a compassionate conservative, a characterization that Gerson sought to cement through his speechwriting. We now know, however, that compassionate conservatism is neither compassionate nor conservative. Compassion is not defined by the absence of laws, but by the equal application of laws in a representational republic with free economic markets.
Lost completely on Gerson is the ironic fact that multiculturalism produces absolutely zero outcomes common to all citizens. Instead, amnesty for illegal aliens would result in a fragmented America in which those who are cavalierly granted citizenship will soon come to resent the very nation and her citizens that awarded it. Free riders are not grateful for the blessings inherent in American citizenship and our abundance of opportunity. They will only demand, and likely receive, more of our nations bounty through a myriad of new and uncompassionate government programs.
© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Please, please dont be so good to me...
Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! Its NOT OVER!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Mexican peasants and rooted Americans are not interchangeable. Imagining that they are serves no purpose but to undermine; accomplishes nothing of real value to any people.
The pursuit of an undifferentiated humanity is a compulsion driven form of lunacy, which will not bear critical examination. It has gathered so many supporters, simply because most people do not want to incur the hissing barrage of slogans and hateful epithets, which have proven the only argument for the internationalists.
For the considerations that should go into any immigration bill: Immigration & The American Future.
The time has come to take the fight to those who will not stand up for America, but pretend to have altruistic intentions. They are not true altruists, only a bunch of pathetic neurotics, who project their sick emotions to others.
William Flax
CALL! CALL! CALL! CALL! AND KEEP CALLING TILL THE LINES FRY!
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti illegal immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them. This is a bipartisan issue not a Conservative or Liberal issue BUT AN AMERICAN issue.
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
-— George Washington
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