It seems that not only liberals can make a point of mischaracterizing an opponent's position: From John at Power Line
Liberals keep telling us that polls show that most Americans want a comprehensive solution to the immigration problem that includes some form of amnesty and a guest worker program. Maybe so. But somehow, it's hard to find a Congressman or Senator who thinks that his own constituents see the issue that way. Today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist filed cloture on a motion to vote on the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which provides for construction of 700 miles of fence along the Mexican border.
Oh Puhleaze.
I have to admit I am so sick of this issue that I really do not give a damn, but it should be remembered that Karl Rove was one of the liberals making this point. When he is not busy being an evil fascist genius he is a liberal. Fancy that.
Only the most fanatical believe that a guest worker program and a wall are somehow mutually exclusive. In fact when Bush spoke to the nation on this issue, he made a point of saying that the border must be secured. That is the easy part. The fact that certain people chose to ignore that part of his speech is no one's fault but their own.
A wall is easy compared to dealing with the approximate 50% of illegals who came into the country legally {and for whom that wall would have offered no deterrent}, not to mention the people already here. The hard part is the detention centers, and the law enforcement people and the courts etc that will be required to process more people more quickly. Then there is the increased efforts to catch the people hiring illegals not to mention the very real fact that certain parts of the economy need the labor. That is the point of the guest worker program. Dealing with these realities rather than creating a crisis where there need not be one is not a liberal thing to do, it is just common sense. And most Americans know that.
Maybe after this vote the Buchanan wing of the party will be satisfied enough to back off for the rest of the election season and stop giving aid and comfort to Nancy Pelosi.
Terrye,
ReplyDeleteThe outcome in the AZ-08 primary is driving this one. I didn't believe the Tancretins had the muscle to pull it off and the fact that did despite opposition and money from the national party is significant. This time I don't think the outcome is going to be precisely what the Pew/Soros people were looking to achieve.
rick:
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is going to be what Tancredo wanted to achieve either.
They will start the wall and low and behold all those other problems are still going to be there. They can either ignore them or deal with them. Like I said, I have gotten so disgusted with people over this issue that I don't much care.
But I do think this issue can be a potential plus for Democrats if they handle it correctly.
I saw a report on CNN about Canada's guest worker program. Companies who need cheap laborers put in their request for how many they need to the government. The government ships in temporary workers from Mexico. When the job is finished, they're shipped back.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed that everyone was pleased with the arrangement. The workers got jobs, made money. The companies got their cheap labor. The government didn't have to worry about the workers sticking around forever.
Sounds good to me as a plan we might find satisfying as well.
That still doesn't solve the problem of what to do about the illegals who have come and stayed in America. That still needs to be solved, somehow. Or not. I don't know.
But this immigration thang consists of many parts. Building a wall is only one of those parts. But I don't see that everything has to be solved in one fell swoop.
Syl:
ReplyDeleteI saw a report on Fox about that program. It did look promising and so far as I could tell no one was really complaining about it. In fact I wondered if that was kind of what Bush was thinking about with the guest worker program.
david:
ReplyDeleteThe thing that annoyed me was not the idea of doing the wall first, it was the fact that the nativists were so nasty about the whole thing. It goes without saying the wall will get done first, but it also goes without saying it is not some miracle cure for our problem with illegal immigration.
For instance the idea that a wall was not only all we needed, it was some sort of crime to even discuss something like a guest worker program now or ever will only play into the hands of Democrats because most people support comprehensive reform.
If the House had not tried to make illegal entry a felony in the first place and started the whole debate off with a big fight they could have gotten their wall without any where near the nonsense. I know I lost a lot of respect for a lot of people over this.
Rick:
ReplyDeleteBesides they were right on the border, The race in Rhode Island and Utah were not and so the far right guy did not win. But of course Rhode Island was about more than immigration. Tancredo picked a district most likely to go with what he wanted and tried to make the result national.