Mark Ellis
Don't do it, GOP
By Mark Ellis
On my Mother's Day visit to the old folks at home, I said this to my 86 year old mother, a lifelong, proud Democrat: "If they pass immigration reform without securing the border you will live to see the end of the Republican Party."
She didn't think about it too long before saying, "But I want there to be two parties."
Mom hasn't lost one iota of her God-given good sense.
But any Republican, House or Senate, who fails to ensure ironclad border security before any pathway to citizenship will only prove that he or she is not that smart. Such a failure might also prove that the GOP's immigration doves have compromised self-preservatory instincts.
What we're left with if we're left with a pathway and no security is a Republican party destined to join the Whigs in the dustbin of history.
"But we can't appear adverse to Hispanics," the path-makers say, "We need their votes to win."
Better to go down fighting on principle. If one of those principles is not a secure national border and an end to illegal immigration-enabling, then, in the words of Metallica, nothing else matters. The Democratic Party will experience an unprecedented windfall. The Republican Party will become a feisty relic on the periphery of power, for how long, if not forever, is anyone's guess.
With the debate simmering to a boil, commentator and author Ann Coulter has expertly deflated two abiding myths about the undocumented alien problem. The issue has been painted by some in such a way as to suggest that the current status of the situation is a significant concern to a majority of Americans.
Coulter says that amnesty is what really scares people. Many citizens sense that the "living in the shadows" trope may actually have an economic upside, given the Schumer/Rubio Gang of Eight alternative.
Myth two is that Hispanics are somehow natural-born Republicans, hard-working with traditional values, a people who will someday vote more conservatively. Coulter disagrees, characterizing immigrant Hispanics as "hopeless Democrats, and "the people most likely to access social services."
Republican lawmakers should listen to Ann Coulter, and they should listen to my mother.
If some iteration of amnesty is passed without thoroughly protecting the border, our nation will experience chain-migration that will make the invasion following Reagan's well-meant 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act look like the road to Woodstock.
And before another Republican gets near the White House, Senator Marco Rubio could well be occupying the honorary Pat Buchanan paleo-emeritus chair for the 2038 season premiere of Hannity.
Hispanics who have entered the country illegally – hardworking, traditionalist, and desperate though they may be – will immediately upon gaining citizenship and the right to vote incontrovertibly support a big-government social welfare state. Example: They will vote en masse for a candidate like Hillary Clinton, even if a Hispanic candidate like Marco Rubio is her opponent.
And what about those aspirational Hispanics waiting in immigration's legal line? They respected the process, followed the law, and cared enough about coming to America to try and do it right.
Aren't they more likely the real immigrant Republicans?
© Mark Ellis
June 19, 2013
On my Mother's Day visit to the old folks at home, I said this to my 86 year old mother, a lifelong, proud Democrat: "If they pass immigration reform without securing the border you will live to see the end of the Republican Party."
She didn't think about it too long before saying, "But I want there to be two parties."
Mom hasn't lost one iota of her God-given good sense.
But any Republican, House or Senate, who fails to ensure ironclad border security before any pathway to citizenship will only prove that he or she is not that smart. Such a failure might also prove that the GOP's immigration doves have compromised self-preservatory instincts.
What we're left with if we're left with a pathway and no security is a Republican party destined to join the Whigs in the dustbin of history.
"But we can't appear adverse to Hispanics," the path-makers say, "We need their votes to win."
Better to go down fighting on principle. If one of those principles is not a secure national border and an end to illegal immigration-enabling, then, in the words of Metallica, nothing else matters. The Democratic Party will experience an unprecedented windfall. The Republican Party will become a feisty relic on the periphery of power, for how long, if not forever, is anyone's guess.
With the debate simmering to a boil, commentator and author Ann Coulter has expertly deflated two abiding myths about the undocumented alien problem. The issue has been painted by some in such a way as to suggest that the current status of the situation is a significant concern to a majority of Americans.
Coulter says that amnesty is what really scares people. Many citizens sense that the "living in the shadows" trope may actually have an economic upside, given the Schumer/Rubio Gang of Eight alternative.
Myth two is that Hispanics are somehow natural-born Republicans, hard-working with traditional values, a people who will someday vote more conservatively. Coulter disagrees, characterizing immigrant Hispanics as "hopeless Democrats, and "the people most likely to access social services."
Republican lawmakers should listen to Ann Coulter, and they should listen to my mother.
If some iteration of amnesty is passed without thoroughly protecting the border, our nation will experience chain-migration that will make the invasion following Reagan's well-meant 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act look like the road to Woodstock.
And before another Republican gets near the White House, Senator Marco Rubio could well be occupying the honorary Pat Buchanan paleo-emeritus chair for the 2038 season premiere of Hannity.
Hispanics who have entered the country illegally – hardworking, traditionalist, and desperate though they may be – will immediately upon gaining citizenship and the right to vote incontrovertibly support a big-government social welfare state. Example: They will vote en masse for a candidate like Hillary Clinton, even if a Hispanic candidate like Marco Rubio is her opponent.
And what about those aspirational Hispanics waiting in immigration's legal line? They respected the process, followed the law, and cared enough about coming to America to try and do it right.
Aren't they more likely the real immigrant Republicans?
© Mark Ellis
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