AZ-Sen. 2010: Hate the Law, Not Arizonans (Meghan McCain attacks conservatives as "wingnuts")

The Daily Beast ^ | 2010-04-26 | Meghan McCain

[rabscuttle385]

My home state’s new immigration law may be seriously flawed, but it’s trying to solve a serious problem.

Although I live in New York City, I still consider Arizona, where I was born and raised, to be my home. So for the past week, when it seems that my entire state came under fire from the national media because of its controversial new immigration law, I’ve found myself very protective of Arizonans, as I try to reconcile not only the politics but the emotions behind that law.

Let me say upfront that I do not support the bill that was signed by Governor Jan Brewer. I believe it gives the state police a license to discriminate, and also, in many ways, violates the civil rights of Arizona residents. Simply put, I think it is a bad law that is missing the bigger picture of what is really going on with illegal immigration. The concept that a law-enforcement official can stop an individual when “reasonable suspicion exists that a person is an alien, who is unlawfully present in the United States” is essentially a license to pull someone over for being Hispanic.

But I also understand why this law came into existence in the first place. Due to the continued failure of the federal government to secure Arizona’s borders, along with the rampant drug smuggling that has gotten increasingly worse over the years, emotions have been running high. However, the issue seemed to hit a fever pitch when a prominent Arizona rancher, Robert Krentz, was shot and killed last month by someone who was believed to be an illegal immigrant. I was in Arizona when Mr. Krentz was killed and it was major news, bringing the issue of drug smuggling and illegal immigration front and center in state politics. The murder eventually led both Gov. Brewer and my father to call for federal officials to send more National Guard troops to the Mexican border.

Thus far, I think that both Arizona legislation and the national media have done a poor job articulating the real problems with illegal immigration in Arizona. And like all things in this country, partisan politics is getting in the way of actually solving the problem in an effective manner. I emailed a good friend of mine who lives in Arizona and also works in politics to ask him what he thought of the law and he answered: “Arizona is ground zero for the wingnuts. There’s a problem with illegal immigration and no one wants to do anything constructive about it so you get crap like this.”

And when a flawed law is magnified through the prism of extreme partisan politics, it only looks worse. With President Obama calling the law “misguided” and the mainstream media painting Arizona out to be a rogue state, all it does is make people go to greater lengths to defend their position. I think unless you are from a border state and have actually seen firsthand the effects illegal immigrants have on your community, I don’t think you can truly appreciate the complexities of the problem and how it should be litigated.

In the end, the saddest part for me is that we are all losing with this immigration law. Arizona is being shown in a negative light in the media, and once again Hispanic voters in Arizona have yet another reason to distrust the Republican Party. And the issue of immigration has now become so politicized that I seriously wonder if anything can be done to combat the real issues. In the meantime, Arizona ranchers are being shot and killed and very little has been done to prevent it from happening again.

Meghan McCain is a columnist for The Daily Beast. Originally from Phoenix, she graduated from Columbia University in 2007. She is a New York Times bestselling children's author, previously wrote for Newsweek magazine, and created the website mccainblogette.com.

[rep-always]

Keep talking, missy. Maybe the good people of Arizona will throw your idiot, rino father out with the garbage this time around.

[Lawgvr1955]

So, Meghan, what is the answer? It is apparent you have none.

Typical Leftist. They always want an omelet, but they don't want you to break any eggs in making it. Stupid.

[onemiddleamerican]

Wasn’t this heifer’s 15 minutes up about 18 months ago?

[greedo]

Arizona is ground zero for the wingnuts.

She might be getting these talking points directly from her father.

If that's the case, in due course she will refer to Hayworth supporters as "gooks."

[meyer]

She might be getting these talking points directly from her father.

I'm sure that she is. They're playing a Senatorial version of "good cop - bad cop" except in this case, it's bad Senator, worse Senator's daughter. Both need to find something else to do with their ample time.

[Tainan]

Them tits ain’t brains.

[RoadTest]

Who cares what you think? Even your ol’ man has become irrelevant.

[Niteranger68]

Megan...half of the people who hear you don't even know you. The other half who know you don't like you. Just shut up already!!! If we want your opinion, we'll give it to you!!!

[driftless2]

She identifies a problem, says nobody wants to do anything about it, and then criticizes certain people for doing something about it. Again, why does Meghan McCain think shes’s a conservative? Or does she?

[Luke21]

She muzzled herself. So did his old lady for that gay rights thingy. Now if we can just throw out Stupid John.

[AuntB]

Does anyone believe this airhead isn’t doing her father’s bidding??? McCain can’t come out with his usual bs over border issues because the AZ voters might actually figure out what he’s all about.

View’: Meghan McCain Blasts Tea Parties
Sen. John McCain’s daughter says the movement is filled with “innate racism.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/meghan-mccain-blasts-tea-parties-9777706

[AuntB]

Don’t MISS this video!

Flush the John...Johnny’s GOT to go!

VERY accurate and hilarious!

http://www.theterryandersonshow.com/AUDIO/HTML/100328-BootRINO-McCain.html

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJobkdeho88

[Siena Dreaming]

Notice neither Meghan nor her "friend" suggest any solution.

They just complain and say things are a mess. Well, everyone already knows that.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

[HiJinx]

Ping!

[Deb]

Well, Megs, what if fat, illegals invaded the Pillow-Titted-No-Talent-Heiress market?

[Uncle Miltie]

“Arizona Governor Jan Brewer last week signed a new law into effect that authorizes local police to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 60% of voters nationwide favor such a law, while 31% are opposed.” - Rasumussen

[Eagle of Liberty]

Meghan McCain attacks conservatives as "wingnuts"

This is precisely why Thomas Paine included the following in Common Sense:

To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent degree of honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

[Rastus]

Thanks. I had to come up with some way to sum up my feelings about the McCains. ;-)

[VRWC For Truth]