To Republicans on illegal immigration: don’t do it!
The National Review lays out the reasons why passing a bill right now legitimizing illegal immigrants would be a bad, bad idea.
I wouldn’t have thought this needed to be spelled out at this point. But apparently it does, because according to all reports I’ve read so far, the Republicans are poised to pass such a law.
This is exactly the sort of thing that gets conservatives shrieking against the sellout “establishment” Republicans on the Hill, and in this case I join them. If this bill is passed it will be a deep betrayal of both the Republicans’ constituency and the best interests of the nation.
So, why are they so close to doing it? Well, this is one reason:
In this it reflects the obsession of the business establishment, for which the answer to the dire employment crisis among low-skilled workers is always to import more low-skilled workers.
Money talks, nobody walks, as the old ad used to say.
But there’s another reason, and it’s an even stupider one, IMHO: the idea that this will somehow bring the Republicans more votes. Memo to Republicans: au contraire. Hispanics aren’t going to thank you for it. The people (Hispanic and otherwise) who like the idea of amnesty want real amnesty, and know that it’s far more likely to come at the hands of the Democrats. And the entire Republican Party is likely to turn on you for it.
As Bill Kristol wrote recently in the Weekly Standard:
Speaker Boehner…should announce that he will not bring any immigration legislation to the floor this session. If there’s one thing that could blow up GOP chances for a good 2014, it would be an explosive debate over immigration in the House. The only sure way to avoid such a debate is not to let anything onto the floor in the first place. Once even an innocuous-sounding measure gets passed, then the pressure to go to conference with the loathed Senate bill will be great. And whatever ultimately were to happen, activists would spend months worrying about and agitating against a betrayal by the leadership, business interests would spend months urging such a betrayal, and Republicans would be consumed by infighting and recriminations on an issue that does them no short-term political good. Bringing immigration to the floor insures a circular GOP firing squad, instead of a nicely lined-up one shooting together and in unison at Obamacare and other horrors of big government liberalism. Since there really is no need to act this year on immigration, don’t. Don’t even try.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This would be a huge, self-inflicted wound. Why Boehner et al might consider it a winner can only come down to money in the end: their own financial support must depend on it. And yet, if they do this, I don’t see how the voters can ever trust them again, even the remaining few who still trusted them up to this point. It seems to me they’ll be signing their own political death warrant. Can money save them from that?
There is an old saying that goes: Republican see democrats as dumb and the Democrats see the Republicans as evil. sigh… In this case I’d say the roles are reversed and in fact among the conservative base they are commonly referring to their own party as the “Stupid” party. At least where their base is concerned.
sigh..
Even Conservatives have adopted the incorrect/inaccurate “Immigrants” instead of the spot-on “ILLEGAL ENTRY” and “ILLEGAL ALIENS”.
Makes me crazy. They’re NOT “Immigrants” if they’ve entered our country ILLEGALLY.
An immigration ill that contains any version of amnesty will be the death of the Republican Party. I have given notice to my congress critter that such a vote shall spell my last contribution to and vote for ANY Republican.
It seems to me that not only is this supremely suicidal idea proof of Congressional Republican’s primary and true allegiance to big business, but it also shows how encased in the “inside the Beltway bubble” congressional Republlcans are, how disconnected from and dismissive of their base they are.
Unless, of course, they see their base as, in reality, just being big business, only donning the mantle of conservative republicanism and appealing to the “rubes” in flyover country when they need their votes, then dismissing them from consideration and their consciousness.
The bulk of both parties “elected reps.” are just corporate lobbyists.
They are counting on us to be LowInfoVoters / NoInfoVoters, blindly punching the party ticket.
What they don’t seem to realize is that “Business” looks at them as “expendable”. As in easily replaced / cannon fodder.
Do they even realize that the money cuts off when they leave office?
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You can count on the GOP also pushing for a massive bailout for the “Health Care Insurance Industry” as well.
They took the money for “Part D / Prescription Coverage”, remember?
They seem to have completely forgotten the conservative voters reaction to that … strange how that money effects memory.
What’s even more frustrating is that even if they pass a bill that is a conservative’s dream (tightening the border, lots of deportations, etc.), Obama will simply ignore the parts he doesn’t like. So what’s the point?
I’ve been to some gatherings of the big-money donors, and the general impression I gathered is that many of them are utterly unconcerned with American values: they see those of us who are old-fashioned patriots as a bunch of impractical, troublesome hotheads who don’t realize that The Business of America Is Business, Period. Their approach to politics is entirely utilitarian. Democrats, by this reasoning, can be bought and controlled as easily as Republicans, and all are tools of the big-money boys.
Of course there’s a lot of truth to that: they are doing realpolitik, not “I Love America” politics. They don’t like the Left’s tendency to interfere in their business, but they love the Left’s accrual/concentration of Power. So the reasoning seems to be: The Left concentrates power centrally; the Big Money boys buy the Leftist politicians, and then the Big Money boys control the levers of Power themselves, through their proxies.
I think they calculate that, since $$ is the lifeblood of every political career, that will be enough to control said politicians. They are, in other words, deciding to ride the tiger.
In an ice-in-your-veins way this might even make sense: BUT. Everywhere the Left has taken power, they’ve been able to trump, co-opt, and destroy the Big Money Boys. So what are they counting on? the BMB?
Us. They’re counting on good old Americans with American values to be the brakes on full-on totalitarianism.
@Wolla Dalbo So are you suggesting that the Democrats are in favor of amnesty for purely humanitarian reasons and owe “Big Business” no allegiance?…. ohh lord.. I just laugh when I type that.
I wonder if the republicans involved are concerned about the party’s survival, or their own.
Retirement as a long-serving congressworm is pretty fat even if you haven’t had a lot of generous friends along the way, which I suspect most of them have.
We will not watch or listen but we would watch his impeachment with popcorn!
Obama praised commie Pete Seeger for “showing us the way to go.”
And his wife praised Jane Fonda a couple of days ago.
A theme developing here?
Has the time come say to “America used to be free?”
Communism is a cancer. Obama is a disease.
My comment was meant to be in the State of the Union post.
More proof of how ill that phony Pres makes me
Ignore the displacement of Americans. Ignore the causes which motivate over one million people annually to emigrate from their homes. Just do it! Go along to get along.
who wants this and why?
It depends on the who doing the wanting.
In the case of Demoncrats, it’s pretty obvious: new recruits to the entitlement addiction guaranteed to vote Demoncrat for ever.
In the case of establishment Republicans, amnesty is a move designed to drive the Tea Party and Conservatives out of the Republican Party. Boehner, McConnell, John Cornyn, the Chamber of Commerce, High Tech hiring managers and farm picker hiring managers want the Tea Party and Conservatives gone. These people know that by supporting Amnesty, the T&C (Tea Party & Conservatives) are going to bolt from the Republican Party.
And those who want the T&C out of the Republican Party never really have been about winning elections and making change. They are about distracting everyone while the growth of Big Government marches relentlessly.
When you look at it this way, it all makes perfect sense … force the T&C to purge themselves from the Republican Party so the RINOs can go back to business the way it was before T&C’s came along.
Wrote to my Congressman and posed these questions in so many words: “Given that constitutionally we are all equal before the laws, does declaring a certain class of residents exempt from various federal mandates, not compromise Congress’s authority to impose laws on all citizens? If Congress and the Federal Administration can apply laws willy nilly, do citizen not have the moral right to observe them in the same manner? What happens, for instance, if on 4/15, 11 million “citizens” opt not to participate in the federal mandate to pay income tax? Suppose a class action suit were presented declaring that since Congress has illegally excused certain people from paying taxes, and meeting the other obligations imposed on legal residents, those outside of the privileged class are also exempt from those mandates?”
Silly. Perhaps. But, Congress and the Obama administration are playing with fire, and Americans are liable at some point to hold their feet to it.
This is a big part of the problem in CA; all the illegals who moved here and their children, moving the politics left.
Not one word about what will happen when illegal immigrants are legalized. 11-33 ‘undocumented’ democrats means permanent one party rule in America. It means exponential growth in the 47% who do not pay federal income taxes. It means a permanent majority dependency class. It means the end of America, as we have known it.
This will be far more than a huge, self-inflicted wound and a deep betrayal of both the Republicans’ constituency and the best interests of the nation.
This is treason by any other name.
Though it will not erupt immediately, this will make civil war unavoidable. The GOP establishment will have the blood of millions upon its hands and all for money, power and transitory influence. Never have so few betrayed so many.
I agree that enabling illegal immigration will strengthen the Democrat constituency, which will weaken anti-progressive forces. What to do? Support with dollars and encouragement only politicians and organizations that are firmly against any action … Contribute to Neoneocon, FAIR (Federation for Am. Immigration Reform), Numbers USA, Center for Immigration Studies, Joe Arpaio, CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization), etc. I just contributed $250 to Neocon.
I think the Establishment GOP figures, “eh, WHO ELSE are the rubes back in Flyoverville gonna vote for??? They’re NOT going to give their votes to the Dems, so — hey, we’re safe!!! “
On a slightly different note:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/28/Immigration-less-than-2-percent-of-Obama-s-State-of-the-Union-speech
I said in another post that Obama didn’t seem as focused on immigration reform as he could be, but I didn’t know why.
The SotU speech seems to confirm this.
Even if you think he’s keeping his powder dry by letting the RINOs do the heavy lifting, he could still be more involved in the process…at least urging bipartisan cooperation from Pelosi. Yet, he isn’t (at least not overtly).
Oldflyer says: “Americans are liable at some point to hold their feet to it.”
To which I reply, at what point would that be? Beyond the point of No Return? We have already passed that point. Stick a fork in us, for we are done, cooked, but still wait for some point to arrive. We are at 149 degrees, and the point will be at 150, no wait, 155, err 160. Remind you of any frogs you know?
“I think the Establishment GOP figures, “eh, WHO ELSE are the rubes back in Flyoverville gonna vote for??? They’re NOT going to give their votes to the Dems, so – hey, we’re safe!!! “ A_Nonny_Mouse
That and ensuring that the donations from their ‘masters’ keep coming in…seem the most likely explanations for their otherwise suicidal behavior.
And it has always worked before. Their historical ignorance of the Whig party and the resultant formation of the Republican party of which they control is truly, irony writ large. Evidently it is not just generals who “prepare for the last war”, but politicians as well, when considering the future.
But it is not just a case of the old, set-in-their-ways politicians who ignore the handwriting on the wall. During Obama’s SOTU speech, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), among a few others rose and applauded when Obama called for what Ryan KNOWS is amnesty. They also know full well that Obama will not enforce any provisions he dislikes, rendering any bill toothless when it comes to border enforcement and restriction of future illegal immigration. They stood while the majority of Republican’s had the political acumen to stay seated in disapproval of Obama’s push for amnesty. Of course, it’s their votes that will reveal where their actual loyalties lie.
Ryan’s been corrupted much like Chamberlain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time
Good intentions, probably, but good intentions has never been enough to offset the evil.
The Republican Leadership is a pack of blind cowardly fools. They have this idea that the Hispanics will vote for them if they sign on to the Democrat agenda of amnesty. We tried that. RONALD REAGAN signed an amnesty bill and Hispanics still don’t vote conservative. No wonder the base (tea party) has given up on that pack of fools.
For all the talk of bailing out of today’s almost totally compromised Republican Party and starting a Third, truly Conservative Party, as I understand it, the game is massively rigged by both existing major parties so as to prevent the rise and to hamper the effectiveness of such a Third Party.
After all, is has been both the Republican and Democrats who have written all the rules for and set up the structure of our election system, have filled each State’s vital Secretary of State position; such Secretaries of State the officials who are the arbiters and judges of each State’s election matters and disputes.
There are millions—likely tens of millions–of conservative voters who increasingly feel betrayed by the current Republican Party, by Congressional Republicans, and Republican candidates for office, who are Republicans in name only (and given highly slanted MSM reportage, who can easily sift out the few real conservatives from the mass of RINOs).
Given the roadblocks and handicapping rules, regulations, and conditions that Democrats and Republicans have created to hamper and block the rise of an effective Third party, and their access to hundreds of millions in funds from their backers–who obviously what to see things continue as they are, is it possible to create a party outside of the existing system that can garner the tens of millions of votes, the plurality in a three man field necessary to put a truly conservative president in office, while fighting off both the Democrats and their MSM plus establishment Republicans?
Moreover, can this be accomplished before Obama and Co. and succeeding Democrat/RINO Presidents do so much damage to the Republic, transmogrify it to such an extent, that it will be impossible to return it to anything resembling what it used to be?
Moreover, remember, no matter how hard a truly conservative President or succession of Presidents might work at restoring the Republic, there will inevitably be many residuals that will not change, changes in public attitudes and expectations, many public policies, structures, and actions, rules and regulations in place that, even if somewhat modified, will have more of a Leftward political /public policy slant than they would have had, had Leftists Presidents and policies not instituted or “transformed” them.
Absent a massive sea change in public sentiment, plus several miracles, the rise and victory of a Third Party doesn’t seem likely, so the infiltration, subversion, and takeover of the Republican Party from within by real conservatives seems eminently more doable.
I agree with Dalbo’s assessment of the odds.
But let’s not forget that even if the US wins a civil war or conflict internally, Europe’s nuclear arsenal will, in a few decades, fall entirely under Islamic Jihad control.
Even in 2008, time was running out. If the US does not constitute a consensus or union of patriotic will before the deadline, the nation will end up dead one way or another.
It’s not like a bunch of individualists are going to fight a war against the Left and then suddenly say they are now obedient and quiet under the Republican party afterwards. Internal conflicts will expand, not decrease, in the near future.
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