Jun 28 2007

Will The GOP Honor Representative Government?

Published by at 6:26 am under All General Discussions,Illegal Immigration

There is a lot of speculation running out there that the immigration bill will fail its cloture vote test this morning. Clearly it will be close. But I think there are enough GOP members who honor the process of democracy more than winning on one issue. After years of bitching and moaning about how all conservatives want is an up-or-down vote on measures dear to them, and after years of Bush being in their corner for them, I think they will take salvaging the process over the immigration bill.

Why? Primarily because they are losing the battle and destroying the party. They are not convincing anybody. While Rassmussen runs polls about “amnesty” the polls about ‘guest workers’ and ‘paths to legal status’ show the same lopsided support. They know deep down the red herrings they floated failed and made them look either petty or like they keep grasping for technicalities to cover up for something. We had the canard no one does anything about the issue – while the bill’s opponents propose the “Do Nothing Now” strategy! That was irony at its best.

We had the myth we could not process criminal record checks from fingerprints in 24 hours because some people confused a passport with a fingerprint check. OK, so some are little less edcuated on the finer details of law enforcement (a surprising number of which hold law degrees – figures). We had the myth we couldn’t process 12 million fingerprint checks without serious investment. I busted that myth when I noted the FBI’s IAFIS fingerprint system, the largest in the world with connections to major international systems, had processed 100,000 prints a day. And it is easy to expand capacity. That made the check for criminal records a paltry 3 month affiar – if all the illegals came in on day one, which we know is unrealistic fantasy.

Recently a reader posted a real bizarre concern. Seems we are not a perfect species and we have imperfect systems. I guess Ted Kennedy was forced to admit our 97.5% accuracy rate in records management would create 300,000 errors if used on 12 million people. Oh well, I guess some people panic at the mention of typos. Heaven knows I create a lot of typos and I have seen the spelling police out there.

But this last example proved the silliness and vacuousness of the opponents. Some of the worst of the far right have likened illegal immigration to a cancer on our society. Hyperventilating as usual, it was a good analogy to address with the 97.5% accuracy rate. The deniers, the DO NOTHING NOW types, are pretty responding to the medicine for this supposed cancer by saying “no thanks, I will live with the cancer until I find a cure that is guaranteed 100% effective”. And people wonder why I call them ‘amnesty hypochondriacs”.

This bill will be more than 70% effective. I doubt it will reach 95% – but future adjustments can get it there. That range of 70-95% effective is damn good for new policy, but reasonable. It is not the doom and gloom fantasies of the far right and or the far left. So it is not the bane of our existence as the hypcochondriacs claim. The bane of our existence is hyperventilating exaggeration that insults wide swaths of this country who did nothing seriously wrong. THAT is what needs to deported – the unreasonable hate.

One of the worst myths from the far right is Mexico is a criminal, socialistic, disease ridden place which is trying take over this country. Mexico has its problems, but few countried on this planet have our standard of living. They are all lesser places to some degree. So using that as some reason to insult a people and a culture is the purist of the ugly American stereotypes and is why people hesitate our efforts to protect ourselves internationally. But even here at home that kind of biased rhetoric does damage. The irony of the far right’s arguments can be seen in the fact those people who left Mexico (and other places south), who left their families behind and wandered at great personal risk into a foreign land, did so because they too saw how much better America was. And they stayed and brought their family here and raised them because they wanted to share in the American dream. They were not bringing disease and crime, they were fleeing it.

So to claim those who come here illegally (and many legal residents and citizens once were here illegally) are the disease ridden criminals of a corrupt culture is as insulting and unfair as it gets. Every society has its criminals. At this point, with the ludicrous irony flying, I cannot help but note that Geoffrey Dhalmer (sp?), the human cannibal, was pure bread American. As I watch the far right turn on its own one could forgive someone from using the broad stroke exaggeration method of debate to make a connection!

But a better analogy is Tammy Faye Baker. When I hear Hannity whine about how he cannot believe what is happening in this country, and Laura Ingraham whine about process and procedure, all I see are Tammy Faye’s with dripping mascara running down their cheeks. They have cried ‘wolf’ so many times and nothing has been there that they have become comical. The ultimate irony in this comedy is the proposed solution: DO NOTHING NOW! This is such a bad situation and there is no hope in this bill the only answer is to do…..

Nothing! But of course when people point out the flaws in the opposition, the harm they are doing to the nation and the party, and the true bigots and racists in their midsts, the opposition goes Tammy-Faye on us. “El Presidente Jorge insulted us, the triator”. The irony is so thick it is amazing. So now we will see who are Senators, and who are Tammy-Faye’s crying out because they know God put them on this Earth to save America from the evil illegal aliens raising their families down the street, and of course from the dreaded typos in the government’s records. We have a choice. Either be serious and let America’s representative bodies VOTE on these measures, or listen to the hysterics for another 10 years.

I think a lot of people realize it is better to pass this, stop the civil war, and make more changes later. But then there are the suicidal ones who would be happy to fall on their sword and leave the GOP in the minority for decades – and see real amnesty arise when Dems take control of both houses of Congress and the Oval office. Because that is the choice they fail to see. This IS the best Hutchison, Chambliss and others will see in their lifetime. It is all down hill from here.

I suspect cooler heads will prevail, they will honor their core beliefs in representative government, many will honor a promise they made to El Presidente Jorge to give this thing a fair vote, and many will realize this is the best they will see for decades to come. That might tip the GOP from disaster. But what do I know. I thought they would avoid disaster in 2006. And right now they don’t even have people like me in their corner any more.

134 responses so far

134 Responses to “Will The GOP Honor Representative Government?”

  1. SallyVee says:

    I just found an interesting TCS column in my mailbox. I’ll paste just the first and last paragraphs:

    How the Mexican Immigration Problem Will Solve Itself

    As the debate over illegal immigration from Mexico rages in Washington and across the country, and as the administration’s reform bill hangs by a thread, few Americans are aware that this problem will automatically decline and eventually become a vague memory.

    […] The main point for the United States is that we have only a temporary problem with illegal immigration from Mexico. For another decade or a bit more we must attempt to limit such entry, but then the problem will fade like the smile on the Cheshire Cat. Lou Dobbs, Rep. Tancredo and their xenophobic friends can calm down and relax.

    See:
    http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=062807C

    And there’s lots of data out there indicating many natural economic forces at work… none of which ever entered this “debate” because it wasn’t sexy enough or incendiary enough to generate a FoxNews Alert. The factors mentioned in the column, along with other common sense factors & variables indicate that this suicidal brawl was not necessary at all, but part of a small minority’s deeper paranoia and loony agenda. Did I mention that I actually heard Laura Ingraham laying out the “New World Order” conspiracy last week? Yeah, and guess who’s at the nexus of it… it’s a four-letter word that begins with B and ends with H.

  2. satrist says:

    President Bush has a lot to do before he leaves office…has to get that SUPER highway built, change the world’s money system to one currency, move the world toward ONE religion and oh yeah…get that North American Union thing going….so many conspiracies, so little time.

  3. SallyVee says:

    “…so many conspiracies, so little time.

    Now there you go being a genuine satirist… thanks. Made me laugh out loud.

  4. satrist says:

    hahaha

  5. Aitch748 says:

    The main point for the United States is that we have only a temporary problem with illegal immigration from Mexico. For another decade or a bit more we must attempt to limit such entry, but then the problem will fade like the smile on the Cheshire Cat. Lou Dobbs, Rep. Tancredo and their xenophobic friends can calm down and relax.

    See:
    http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=062807C

    Now this is a fine article, assuming the facts are all on the up-and-up (e.g., on Mexico’s fertility rate). The bit about Mexicans taking some of our culture back down to Mexico makes sense, too.

    Wouldn’t that be a real kick in the head if the death-before-compromise hard right will have turned out to have shot themselves in the foot over a problem that just might be going away in a couple of decades anyway?

  6. crosspatch says:

    I agree with that. Also, many Americans are retiring and moving to Mexico. There is a development boom going on all along the Pacific coast. Many of the people that have a Mexican landscaper are moving to Mexico because the cost of living is too high to retire in California. So the landscapers and roofers and housecleaners are moving back to mexico to service that economy.

    Not to mention Mexico’s liberalized abortion laws will begin to trim the population in general. But watch what happens when the boomers retire and 1/3 of our workforce is out of the labor market. We are going to sorely need those immigrants then.

    Or else factories and other businesses are going to close. Think about that for a sec … just about every small business owned by a boomer is set to close in the next 10 to 15 years.

  7. Bikerken says:

    So I lift my margarita glass in a toast, “All hail the irrelevant!”

  8. For Enforcement says:

    I’m sure the Rich Americans moving to Mexico and taking their Mexican houseboys and gardeners with them as servants is really gonna go over like a lead balloon.

  9. crosspatch says:

    It isn’t seen that way. It is seen as the rich Americans moving down there and creating a demand for jobs so they don’t have to go to America to find work.

    http://www.banderasnews.com/0704/re-puntamita.htm

  10. crosspatch says:

    That link was to an article about the area where some friends of mine just bought a really nice place. It cost them about $250K. The house across the street from me is selling for $949K (3br tract ranch home built in the early 1960’s … nothing special).

    http://www.banderasnews.com/real-estate/sales/homes.htm

    It is currently all the rage for Silicon Valley retirement locations.

  11. rlqretired says:

    Satrist – I certainly hope he did say a prayer for me and someone up there read it for sure.

    Dale – The traitor call may be a little strong but the Presidents desire to achieve his goal to give amnesty to 12-20 million illegals by forcing that abomination of a bill through the Senate without a final copy of the bill even being available to those that opposed it and by trying establish that clay pigeon maneuver as a new Senate precedent comes pretty close. The bill itself was a security loophole disaster.

    Cobalt – Your scenario assumes al-Qaeda is single headed. It is not. Self-inspired Radical Islamists are worldwide and I believe some of the Fort Dix six were found to have come across the Mexican border. Also, I didn’t say these nuts are particularly smart but they are determined.

    Rest assured, if that Mexican bomb does go off, impeachment proceedings will follow shortly. Remember the questions after 911, when did the president first know this was a national security problem??

  12. Cobalt Shiva says:

    Rest assured, if that Mexican bomb does go off, impeachment proceedings will follow shortly.

    The two groups that eagerly look forward to and pin their political hopes on successful terrorist attacks taking place in this country:

    1. Islamist terrorists and their sputniki.

    2. “True patriot” conservatives.

    Why is that?

  13. crosspatch says:

    Mexico city has not decided to allow abortions in the first trimester so we will begin to see the fertility rate (number of births per person) begin to drop and in 20 years time you should see the population of Mexico growth of Mexico begin to ease. I am not commenting of the morals of that move, simply the impact of it.

  14. crosspatch says:

    Oops, meant “has decided” not “has not decided”