Jun 13 2007
The Only Path Forward For The GOP
I am spending the day as a proud father watching his son graduate from college, so if your posts get caught in the spam filters that is why they are stuck. The oldest daughter graduated from college a few weeks back. If I don’t respond to comments, that is why. So while I am gone I have the solution to the GOP’s divide.
I posted something similar over at Wizbang on a DJ Drummond post asking how can we, the right, move forward again. I thought I would post a version of it here too. The problem we have is one group in the conservative coalition is blocking the desires of another group of the coalition – one headed by Bush and with membership that is from the full spectrum of the GOP base. The anti-amnesty crowd have been trying everything they can to dump those portions of the bill which deal with the illegal aliens who have been here a long time. And in doing so they have questioned the motives and characters of those on the pro-bill side of the debate. For this to end the opposition must end.
There must be common cause and common ground to repair the rift. No bridge no repair. You don’t have to support all aspects of compromise bill to support those portions you believe will do the most good. But you do need to accept elements and ideas and proposals from others in order to govern. No bill will address every possible issue or problem. It fills some holes, leaves others for another time. It will have good elements and not so good elements. All bills are this way. Time to face the facts and either repair the rift or cement it into place.
The anti-amnesty crowd need to come back into the coalition and realize they must respect the wishes and goals of the broader GOP and conservative community. They must or it dies. Focus on those pieces you believe in and put your energies into making them the best you can.
You don’t have to support the hole bill. You don’t have to like the bill’s popular provisions for the existing illegal aliens. But to undermine your allies and attack them is wrong. Oppose, do not fight to the death in a scortched earth campaign. Lose some, win some. Don’t torpedo everything. The GOP is going to be scarred for a long time if this impasse is not fixed, and soon. The bill supporters have not tried to take out any elements that they may not necessarily support or find to be workable solutions. They agreed to create common ground. That is all they can do. It is now time for the opposition to realize they have gone beyond any benefits to party and country and they must mend the rift.
There is no alternative. If the GOP is to rise again it will because diverse groups can come together and trust each other in common cause. It is a reasonable path out. Support your favorite element, tolerate those from others in the coalition. Or kiss the whole thing good-bye.
Addendum: It should be noted successful parties come together on hard issues. Parties that fail are the ones who cannot muster a consensus. Rule of life.
Your touchiness amuses me. 😀
One only has to look at what has happened to Germany to see what is in store for us once all these illegal socialist immigrants are given amnesty and citizenship. Socialsim means takign from the rich and giving it to the poor. Or so that is what it is supposed to mean. They see the US as fullof rich people and will vote to redistribute the wealth just as the East Germans did in Germany when the country was reunified. Prior to reunification, West Germany was an economic powerhouse with a robust economy. East Germany was a basket case with everyone being equally poor. After reunification, the communist citizens of East Germany elected a Socialist Chancelor and demaned socialist porgrams. the country has gone down hill ever since. You never hear of Germany as being a powerhouse.
I wish I could same the same for your inane and pathetic attempts at reasoned and rational argument.
A town of 8,000 in Texas made Spanish it’s offical language and all municipal business is conducted in Spanish. The mayor, who admitted he came to the U.S. 20 some odd years ago as an illegal, does not speak English.
Is this assimilation that the pro-illegals want to tell us about? A man, who has been in the U.S. for over 20 years, cannot speak English. What is wrong with that picture?
So what you say? It is only one small town. But what happens when a city the size of El Paso does the same? Or San Antonio, where the majority of the population is Hispanic? Maybe LA, where the number of illegal, Spanish speaking people are growing by the year?
Assimilation will not happen. Not as long as we print ballots in Spanish, phone bills and utility bills in Spanish, labels on food products in Spanish, signs in Wal-Mart in Spanish and most businesses hiring at least one Spanish speaking employee. If you moved to France and everyone catered to your language, English, would you learn French? You would not even try and there would be no reason for you to learn French.
We have removed the desire to assimilate. It is that simple. And don’t tell me that we have done it to be politically correct. If we were politically correct, and just being nice, we would print all those things mentioned above in Farsi, Cantonese, Italian, German, Polish and every other language that you can name.
And if you look at who pushed the issue of so many things in Spanish, you would not like what you see.
I also don’t swallow the argument that we should allow the illegals citizenship because we need their labor. That almost sounds like we’re importing a class of slaves–don’t you think they would want better for their children than picking strawberries, mowing the grass, etc? One generation from now, we’d be in the same position, only much worse. If American citizens won’t mow the grass for X dollars, then the grass will go unmowed until the rate rises to Y dollars. Americans will then mow the grass. Illegal aliens suppress the wage scale, undoubtedly.
More REAL analysis, that PROVES, once and for all, that all of AJ’s opinion on this topic, masquerading as “analysis”, is totally bogus: The Republican’s Hispanic Delusions!
And Proof of what R05 says: Let the Segregation Commence!
If anyone doubts the power of language in a culture, they should look at Canada. It’s the most peaceful country in the world! But they are about to break into two smaller countries because of the competition between French and English. It looks like Quebec will succeed very soon, either this year or next, in breaking with Canada and become it’s own sovereign nation.
I noticed someone on this blog make a statement about sovereignty being overrated or something to that effect. It does not surprise me that one with that attitude would be supporting this amnesty bill. Somebody that stupid should never take part in conversations about actions affecting the sovereignty of any nation. They need to get out and travel a little bit and see how dead serious other countries take it when you enter their borders.
You can be an Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic-American and demand that you get special consideration because you are a minority. But now, my own late-great state of Texas is a majority-minority (or is it minority-majority?) state. Americans of the paler shade are now a minority. Are they given minority status? Nope. But what happens when the entire nation is a minority-majority populace? Will white Americans then be entitled to minority status and special consideration (like lower test scores to enter universities)? Will the testing be lowered for white women applying for the Denver Fire Department like it has been for African-Americans?
smill, don’t swallow that crap about “doing the jobs Americans won’t do”. If 24% of all farm workers are illegals, who makes up the other 76%? Martians? If 50% of all sheetrockers are illegals, are the other 50% from Venus? No, they are Americans who ARE willing to work for the wages offered.
And remember one thing; we have the Great Society that make it fine to live on welfare. Take away the welfare, and those who find it easier to live on Uncle Sam’s Plantation instead of having the pride to work a job, any job, to support your family will be the children of those who, with one sign of the pen by the President, will be legal and able to raise their kids to live on the welfare they will then be eligible for.
Right Apache, because I hear nothing but “reasoned and rational argument” when you start screeching about MILLIONS! of people in protests flying the MEXICAN FLAG! and MILLIONS! of people using FAKE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS! Not hundreds or thousands but MILLIONS!
Because those people who still haven’t set their hair on fire are so stupid, they should never take part in conversations about actions affecting the sovereignty of any nation!
Momdear1, you are so right as always. Germany is a great example of what happens when you merge two very different nations. They are having so many troubles there now, they are wishing they hadn’t re-unified. Those members of the Rectal Ostritch Nation just don’t want to actually confront any problems, it’s so much easier to pretend they don’t exist and accuse other of hysterics when you tell them about it. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. When I post about the things I see down here with the hugh influx of illegal mexicans, I’m not talking about the future, I’m talking about right now. I want to grab those ostritch morons by the ear and take them on a personal tour like the ghost of ostrich past, present and future. They don’t want to believe that this is as big of a problem as it really is becuase if they did they would have to admit they were WRONG. And that’s what this is all about, bull headed stubborness!
Bikerken, I can take you to a section of Houston where I used to live (the Sharpstown area) where all the signs are now in Vietnames or Chinese. Every shop, every 7-11 everything, in a foreign language. This is not just a small area, but just 30 years ago was one of the nicest areas of Houston. I will have to admit that I got a laugh out of seeing the 7-11 sign in Vietnamese.
Now this hugh neighborhood, that was once the middle income crown jewel of Houston, is rampant with gang violence. Even the Houston police don’t like to go there.
After I moved from Sharpstown, I was back there to go to a favorite shop which I learned quickly had moved. I was amazed that in just five short years the area had become a ghetto. Once nice houses had bars on the windows and doors, every shop had bars on the windows and it was a sad, sad sight.
We are being told that peoples with different socio-political ideals will assimilate. Yet……we have people who have lived here most of their lives who still cannot speak English because THEY DON’T HAVE TO.
We are being told that most Hispanics are Catholic so they will have strong values. But look at the unwed mother rate among Hispanics. Look at the percentage of those incarcerated compared to their percentage of the population. Illegals, at least those from south of our border, have a Pan-Am view of society that is far different from our own. By making someone from a corrupt nation legal, that is not going to change the fact that they will still view police and politicians as corrupt since that is what they have been taught by their own socieities.
R05 & Bikerken, read the two links I posted above, you’ll see you are both Dead On!
Dale, look at any Latino nation. Any one of them. There is extreme class distinction. There are government owned utilities, gasoline companies, radio stations, etc. and the government provides the bulk of the jobs. The citizens of those nations have been raised to think this is the way it should be. Corruption is a way of life so they grow up learning that to get ahead, one must also be corrupt. So adding more immigrats from socialist nations will never increase conservative numbers. Quite the contrary, it will add numbers to those politicians who adhere to semi-socialist political views. That means those like the mayor of LA and Democrats who never met a social welfare program they didn’t like.
Let’s talk about values: the major part of drugs smuggled into our nation are of what ethnic group? The cayotes are who? If they paying cayotes $2,000 to bring them into the U.S. ($15,000 for Arabic illegals) where are they getting the money to do that? Unemployed people do not gather together $2,000 even with family help.
A.J. – thank you for being a Dad. Your son’s graduation is a bright spot in the midst of this interminable brawl!
I’m down at the bottom of the roller coaster again. Just listened to Laura Ingraham “interviewing” Press Sec’y Tony Snow earlier today. More like badgering the witness… and waiting for any 1-1/2 second hole to throw a hot barb. I wonder if she ever listens to replays of her own show. It’s available free at the top of the list here:
http://lauraingraham.com/pg/jsp/charts/streamingAudioMaster.jsp;jsessionid=D509BCF70EAAE4F7520A788E28521F93?dispid=302&headerDest=L3BnL2pzcC9tZWRpYS9mbGFzaHdlbGNvbWUuanNwP3BpZD00MjQ1
To me it is a great example of the non-conversation, non-debate being conducted in the echo chamber. But you might agree when Laura says, with no apparent irony, she “sees the conservative coalition dissolving before her eyes…”
Medved has a blog item about immigration fatigue/exhaustion. (Count me among those who need 30 days of bed rest!)
[SNIP] There’s another factor that makes much of talk radio feel like an echo chamber, or the “amen corner,†with the same impassioned arguments deployed again and again and again (“What is it about illegal that you don’t understand?,†“If you reward people for breaking the law, you’ll only get more law-breaking,†“It’s unfair to all the patient legal immigrants to let the illegals cut to the front of the line,†“why don’t they just enforce the laws we have, before we make new laws†etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.)
Each of the arguments against the bill can be answered, patiently and substantively, but it’s wearying to go through the same points repeatedly when people on all sides of the argument seem so unwilling to listen.
After several weeks of near hysteria, I believe that most Americans have begun to suffer (appropriately) from “immigration fatigue†– or even “immigration exhaustion.†Angry people let off steam by expressing their righteous wrath repeatedly. The rest of us begin to feel fatigued by all the indignation and apocalyptic talk.
See:
http://michaelmedved.townhall.com/blog/g/bd94cd18-6060-4101-a80a-6716ebfa3063&comments=true#commentAnchor
(don’t look at the comments unless you’ve got blood pressure meds nearby)
I think your advice for the GOP is right on target. But I don’t see any olive branches falling off the tree… yet. Maybe, one can hope, the screeching demands get the loudest and most obnoxious right before they peter out. Not sure. I’ve never witnessed anything like this before… I just know it is beyond rational mortal control at the moment. Peace be unto you and yours.
Well, it would appear that President Bush is going to hang Scooter Libby out to dry. No apparent pardon coming from the White House.
I voted for President Bush both times. I have supported him through thick and thin. I stood him for him against all of the liberals here in Oregon with all of their non-stop bashing.
On the illegal immigration bill, he and I disagree. But that’s okay. I firmly believe that he is following his heart. We just don’t agree on where his heart is leading him. No biggie.
But now this? Now he is going to permit this injustice? He’s going to let Scooter go to jail????? WTF!!! Armitage revealed her name and he wasn’t even prosecuted!!! So Scooter gets to serve a sentence in Armitage’s place????
It’s getting more and more difficult to defend President Bush. One more incident like this and I will probably just throw in the towel.
Yet another Rasmussen Reports shows that AJ & those like-minded are in the MINORITY on immigration and the current Senate bill. No anmount of spinning & ridiculous ranting (“it’s either this bill or nothing wil get done for a decade”, or “opposing this legislation will destroy the GOP”, or it must be “comprehensive”/everything at once, etc.) and name-calling can change the fact that vast majority of voters want border security and an end to the flow of illegal aliens first & foremost.
And it’s good politics. If Bush were behind legislation that focused only on border security and stopping illegals his poll numbers would go up. If Dems were to block this from being legislated, they would be in weak position with voters. If Dems were to get behind some version of this focused legislation, then it would be good for all, and either way Bush looks good and repubs are helped. Of course, there’s little chance the dems & cape cod orca (Teddy K) would go along with such a bill.
In any case, a bill was already passed and money obligated for building 870 miles of fence. And a new immigration bill is not needed to hire & fund more border agents or INS workers and others involved with immigrants and entry points to our country.
A lot of what is (was) in this bill is strikingly similar to the ’86 legislation. Now that the problem has gotten 5 – 10 times worse (2 million illegals to 12-20 million illegals), what gives these supporters so much confidence that suddenly we will be able to enforce the same laws that were ignored 20 years ago? while at same time granting instant legal status to millions, thereby incentivizing so many more.
The closed & shady way this bill was crafted, and the attempt to rush thru for passage before it could be scrutinized & debated should give one pause (at minimum). Our leaders can do better; US taxpayers & citizens deserve it.
One of the reasons I oppose this bill is that I never agree with the opinions of most of the people who are for it. I will tell you this. I would rather be on the side of Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and others who think like them than with the likes of Jaun Williams, Geraldo Riveria, Alan Colmes, Ted Kennedy, et al. There is a class of people in this country who will do anything to reduce it to third world status just to prove that our Capitalist Society is a failure, just like their beloved Communism. They never support anything unless it furthers their goals. Which is to bring us all down to third world status. So if these traitors are for it, there is good reason to suspect it isn’t what they say it is.
As for Scooter Libby. Did I not read in Robert Novak’s blog that Libby’s law firm represented Bill Clinton in the impeachemnt proceedings and that was the reason the Republicans backed off from filing criminal charge against both Bill and Hillary? If this is true, let his ass rot in jail. Not for the Valerie Plame game but for what he did to save the Clinton’s image so they coudl foist Hillary off on us as if she were a pure as the virgin snow becuasse no charges were ever filed against her. A pox on the lot of them.
There is a class of people in this country who will do anything to reduce it to third world status just to prove that our Capitalist Society is a failure, just like their beloved Communism. They never support anything unless it furthers their goals. Which is to bring us all down to third world status.
With each passing day, it is becoming more and more difficult to argue against that statement.
Dale,
The UCLA story (“Let the segration commence”) paints a vivid picture of what liberals do. More & more of this inanity is in store for the rest of the country unless people wake up. This balkanization & victimization is anti-American, but is becoming more “mainstream” due to the liberals monopoly of academia and the complicit media.