Republicans and the Illegals part 2

Thomas Sowell writes in The Conservative Voice:

The percentages vary a little from poll to poll, as is usually the case, but these polls agree on one thing -- the public's top priority on the immigration issues is controlling the borders. They prefer the tougher bill passed by the House of Representatives to the weaker approach of the Senate.

The House of Representatives bill has been depicted in much of the media as harsh or draconian, as if it is a terrible thing to make illegal entry into this country a crime. The House bill is what is supposed to have sparked massive protest demonstrations around the country by illegal aliens and their supporters.

Those demonstrations may have impressed the media and intimidated politicians but they didn't change many minds among the American people. A majority of Republicans, Democrats, and independents all favor the tougher House bill. The percentages differed among these groups but they were all majorities.What is really striking is that 53 percent of Hispanics supported the House bill. The loudmouths at the demonstrations did not speak for all Hispanics.

[Snip]

The irony in all this is that the Republicans could turn the tables on the Democrats and put them on the defensive, instead of being on the defensive themselves.

There is no reason other than politics why amnesty and border control have to be in the same bill. It will take time to see how various new border control methods work out in practice and there is no reason to rush ahead to deal with the people already illegally in this country before the facts are in on how well the borders have been secured.

Separate border control legislation would force the Democrats to stand up and be counted on this issue, without the political cover of a package deal. Some of the more weak-kneed Republicans also want this political cover but taking away the package deal would do far more damage to the Democrats.

Legislation dealing solely -- and seriously -- with border control might be difficult for some Congressional Republicans to vote for but it would be a political nightmare for the Democrats in Congress. And a bill takes just 51 votes to pass in the Senate.

Unfortunately, President Bush has pushed the package deal and used the straw man argument that we cannot find and deport millions of people, even though virtually no one has said that we could.

From his lips to God’s ears.

What explains the Republican’s continued pursuit of a policy which is alienating their most loyal voters? The only thing I can come up with is that they believe that their base will turn out for them anyway.

Didn’t the late Lee Atwater tell George HW Bush that he could safely ban the importation of “assault rifles” because gun owners “had nowhere else to go”? Well gun owners didn’t have anywhere to go. They certainly didn’t go to the polls in November, sending Bush the Elder to a well deserved defeat. Of course HW’s violation of his “no new taxes” pledge got the credit for his loss.

The first thing that Bush the Younger did when he got to the White House was to cut taxes. No matter how far to the left he has allowed himself to drift he has never wavered on his support for tax cuts.

Two years after Bill Clinton was elected president Democrats lost control of congress in large part because of the Brady Bill. Since that time Democrats have run from gun control at the national level and have been reluctant to press for it at the state level. The anti-gun lobby has spent the last decade fighting largely unsuccessful battles attempting to slow the progress of the “shall issue” concealed carry laws which have swept the nation. It now appears that they will spend the next decade fighting unsuccessful battles to slow the progress of “castle doctrine” laws.

The fact that Republicans and Democrats have “found religion” on taxes and gun control demonstrate that politicians can learn. They are capable of changing their behavior and that the change can stick through at least several election cycles. All that is needed is for the message to be delivered in a language that they can understand.

The language that politicians speak better than any other, their “heart language” if you will, seems to be “Defeat At The Polls”.

My advice is to reward the House Republicans with reelection. After all the House immigration bill is a good one. It makes illegal immigration a felony and focuses on border control. These are the things that the nation wants and needs.

The Senate, on the other thing, has proven itself to be a dysfunctional body full of craven cowards. With very few exceptions (Tancredo and Hayworth come to mind) none of them deserve reelection (the fact is they don’t even deserve to live in this nation).

Is it possible that the Senate Republicans can get the message before the election? Could be. I don’t think they will. They have shown such blind arrogance that I don’t think that anything short of being handed a pink slip by the voters will get through to them, but I could be wrong.