>> What’s really dumb about Paul’s comment is that for some reason he’s trying to give the impression that conservatives aren’t accepting of Hispanics.<<
That’s because it’s really, really, easy to find all kinds of comments on conservative forums where conservatives themselves give the impression they aren’t accepting of Hispanics. Start at the beginning of this post and read all the comments, for example. You’d have to be a pretty thick-skinned Hispanic to sort out the difference between anger at illegal immigration and anger at Hispanics, and don’t deny that you won’t find at least some of the latter in these comments.
You said “we don’t accept illegally entering the country by anyone.” The problem is that we have done exactly that under both GOP and Democrat administrations. Okay, you can argue that the GOP under Bush wasn’t conservative if you want, but still, Hispanics entered the country illegally even under Reagan.
I completely agree with the sense of what you write, but not your conclusion. And I particularly disagree with your made-up-out-of-whole-cloth conclusion that Paul therefore wants to embrace illegal behavior with open arms. He’s trying to solve an existing problem and build a political consensus to get it done. If that consensus is ever to be built, it had better include HIspanic citizens here legally, or the GOP can kiss off the Hispanic vote for decades.
As soon as someone stands up and recognizes that we have to deal with the reality that there are millions of working illegals here and looks for a way to address the issue via green card legalization, they suddenly become pariahs to the “No Amnesty” crowd. You are marginalizing yourselves without even realizing it.
If any of you think your heated letters to Boehner got him to change his mind on addressing amnesty, you’re wrong. You just got him to wait until after the Senate hopefully goes GOP, after which amnesty will be addressed, and not in the way the “No Amnesty” crowd wants, either.
In that environment, Senator Paul is showing terrific courage to wade into an issue that needs addressing. He does so knowing full well the lambasting he’ll get from the no amnesty crowd and has my respect for doing so.
My comment in my post stands: Conservatives already accept Hispanics and have for a long, long time.
I had hopes for Rand Paul, but if he goes down the amnesty road, then I abandon him. Period. It is insane to bring additional workers into an economy with record numbers of its present citizens not working.
That has absolutely NOTHING to do with racism, (which is really Rand Paul's accusation.) It has to do with reality. You injure Americans of all ethnic backgrounds by driving down wages and enticing them into the welfare cycle.
My pointed letter to my own congressman (across town from Boehner's district) has been supported by him. He'll not be voting for amnesty anytime soon...or for its clandestine sibling, comprehensive immigration reform.
I'm now perplexed about Rand Paul's game. I've always been taught to follow the money.