OH boy is this a sensitive subject.
On a former blog I talked about this 24/7 it seemed. I fought very hard and was outspoken in my support for immigration reform as put forth by the Bush administration. I have left it alone somewhat the last couple of months because well I am pretty scarred over it. I did not like being called a RINO, a traitor , and a million other names. It left me pretty emotionally depleted. However at the risk of offending those that read my blog that differ we have to talk about it. I am very concerned that we(THE GOP) have no chance of getting the WHITE HOUSE because of how it played out. I am looking at Florida and Nevada right now and I am scared to death for the GOP.
This post is going to be one of my first ones to sort of wade back into it. However I am going to let the Godmother of the Catholic Blogsphere The Anchoress do the talking pretty much. Please go read her post Immigration Debacle: All-or-nothingism begat nothing. The comments are very interesting. Let me talk about a few of them
One poster said in response to the Anchoress :"Wow, am I getting tired of being smeared by my own side as a bigoted, venomous member of the no-nothing party" Of course she did no such thing. The problem was the people that were against the Presidents views did a horrid job of policing their own. Yep their was racism. I am not saying it was all racist at all. But there was segement that was not called out.
I agree with Commenter Terrye when he said:
No bigotry? Oh puhleaze, of course it was there and while I am not saying everyone on the Tancredo/Malkin side of the issue is a bigot, I heard very few of them trying to shut up the people who were.
When Linda Chavez was told to get her ass back to Mexico and she had to point out the fact that her family is not only not from Mexico, they have been in this country for centuries…very few hardliners backed her up. No siree, they just got all self righteous about the fact that she minded getting ugly threats via email.
When I was called a traitor and an open border fanatic for supporting something other than the all or nothing line coming from the hardliners…all of a sudden I am the one who is supposed to be apologizing. I don’t think so. Most people support improved border security and a path to citizenship for certain people. Only the fanatics see the two as mutually exclusive. That is why whenever they see a poll that says most people think border security is a priority they think everyone is like them. I would say the same thing if a polster asked me, but that does not mean I think Tancredo is anything but a kook.
And to listen to Gingrich go on about this now when he did absolutely nothing about the problem during his tenure as Speaker of the House is just parr for the course with the hardliners. All talk, no action. They spend half their time demanding something be done and the other half making sure the status quo remains in place.
When I heard people making outrageous comments such as if the bill passes millions of legal immigrants will be deported…or that the bill allowed terrorists to roam free or any of the other over the top accusations against comprehensive immigration reform I thought people had just lost their minds. When I heard and read comments about Jeb Bush’s Mex wife and brown skinned son and people stinking of refried beans and on and on, the number of people brave enough to stand up and say that kind of stuff was not acceptable were appallingly few and far between. But the people who want to get self righteous about being lumped in with the bigots are thick as flies. There is an old saying..lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
Let me say a AMEN to that. There are more people than you think that are "conservative" and Republican leaning that got just fed up with how we were treated. Many of us were kicked off forums and banned for just saying we thought the President was right.
I realize that some that supported the bill might have gone over the line too. However it was nothing like what we had to experience. I even received some threats about a year ago that were very concerning,
Perhaps that is why I have been silent on this since I started this blog for the most part. I felt pretty wounded and still am. However Conservatives and republicans that agree on 9o percent of the issues have got to learn to talk to each other on this issue in a respectful tone. The tenor of that debate has already leaked over into other issues. IF that is allowed to happen we are doomed.
This is just one effect of how this has been mishandled. I have not even got into the Hispanic vote yet. Anyway more to come. THe issue cannot be ignored. The hispanics and especially those that Rush Limbaugh said "not to pander" too that have been voting increasing GOP are going to ask questions and demand positions. We better be clear what they are or we shall lose in 08.
Monday, September 17, 2007
A Look Back At The Immigration Debate and Its Consequences
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2 comments:
Every September, I recall that is more than half a century (62 years) since I landed at Nagasaki with the 2nd Marine Division in the original occupation of Japan following World War II. This time every year, I have watched and listened to the light-hearted "peaceniks" and their light-headed symbolism-without-substance of ringing bells, flying pigeons, floating candles, and sonorous chanting and I recall again that "Peace is not a cause - it is an effect."
In July, 1945, my fellow 8th RCT Marines [I was a BARman] and I returned to Saipan following the successful conclusion of the Battle of Okinawa. We were issued new equipment and replacements joined each outfit in preparation for our coming amphibious assault on the home islands of Japan.
B-29 bombing had leveled the major cities of Japan, including Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo.
We were informed we would land three Marine divisions and six Army divisions, perhaps abreast, with large reserves following us in. It was estimated that it would cost half a million casualties to subdue the Japanese homeland.
In August, the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima but the Japanese government refused to surrender. Three days later a second A-bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese government finally surrendered.
Following the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese admiral said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..." Indeed, they had. Not surprisingly, the atomic bomb was produced by a free people functioning in a free environment. Not surprisingly because the creative process is a natural human choice-making process and inventiveness occurs most readily where choice-making opportunities abound. America!
Tamper with a giant, indeed! Tyrants, beware: Free men are nature's pit bulls of Liberty! The Japanese learned the hard way what tyrants of any generation should know: Never start a war with a free people - you never know what they may invent!
As a newly assigned member of a U.S. Marine intelligence section, I had a unique opportunity to visit many major cities of Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, within weeks of their destruction. For a full year I observed the beaches, weapons, and troops we would have assaulted had the A-bombs not been dropped. Yes, it would have been very destructive for all, but especially for the people of Japan.
When we landed in Japan, for what came to be the finest and most humane occupation of a defeated enemy in recorded history, it was with great appreciation, thanksgiving, and praise for the atomic bomb team, including the aircrew of the Enola Gay. A half million American homes had been spared the Gold Star flag, including, I'm sure, my own.
Whenever I hear the apologists expressing guilt and shame for A-bombing and ending the war Japan had started (they ignore the cause-effect relation between Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki), I have noted that neither the effete critics nor the puff-adder politicians are among us in the assault landing-craft or the stinking rice paddies of their suggested alternative, "conventional" warfare. Stammering reluctance is obvious and continuous, but they do love to pontificate about the Rights that others, and the Bomb, have bought and preserved for them.
The vanities of ignorance and camouflaged cowardice abound as license for the assertion of virtuous "rights" purchased by the blood of others - those others who have borne the burden and physical expense of Rights whining apologists so casually and self-righteously claim.
At best, these fakers manifest a profound and cryptic ignorance of causal relations, myopic perception, and dull I.Q. At worst, there is a word and description in The Constitution defining those who love the enemy more than they love their own countrymen and their own posterity. Every Yankee Doodle Dandy knows what that word is.
In 1945, America was the only nation in the world with the Bomb and it behaved responsibly and respectfully. It remained so until two among us betrayed it to the Kremlin. Still, this American weapon system has been the prime deterrent to earth's latest model world- tyranny: Seventy years of Soviet collectivist definition, coercion, and domination of individual human beings.
The message is this: Trust Freedom. Remember, tyrants never learn. The restriction of Freedom is the limitation of human choice, and choice is the fulcrum-point of the creative process in human affairs. As earth's choicemaker, it is our human identity on nature's beautiful blue planet and the natural premise of man's free institutions, environments, and respectful relations with one another. Made in the image of our Creator, free men choose, create, and progress - or die.
Free men should not fear the moon-god-crowd oppressor nor choose any of his ways. Recall with a confident Job and a victorious David, "Know ye not you are in league with the stones of the field?"
Semper Fidelis
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC
WW II and Korean War
Job 5:23 Proverbs 3:31 I Samuel 17:40
http://www.choicemaker.net/
VOTE HUCK ! He's The Man! jfb
James, some remarkable material here. Very well done. I will reprint some of the material from you and Anchoress. Comment on the Marines is also a wow! piece.
It's hard to go across to some otherwise bright people that don't see that all political actions have consequences. Immigration is one of those issues.
steve maloney
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