Jim Terry
Ram it, cram it, jam it
By Jim Terry
When I was a young man searching for political direction, an older fellow, a co-worker and lifelong Democrat, explained the difference in the two major political parties. He said, "The Democrats have a paternal view of government. You know, big daddy, sugar daddy, we'll take care of you. The Republicans don't ."
That pretty much cinched my direction because, in 1965, I figured a government that had gotten us into a war on the other side of the world in a place that I had never heard of-Vietnam- was not who I wanted looking after me.
Being paternalistic and trying to help people is one thing. But, the method our national politicians have adopted in recent years of ramming, cramming, and jamming laws down the throats of Americans isn't paternalistic, it's bullying.
Obamacare is an example of government ramming, cramming, and jamming a massive, comprehensive law down the throats of people who have never supported it. Now, its supporters are saying it is, "... a train wreck about to happen," and "... it rivals tax reform in its capacity to confuse Americans."
Politicians at all levels have come to understand that when they pass simple two or three page ordinances at the local level, state laws or federal laws at those levels, the public can, and often does, get it. And sometimes the politicians feel the heat. But, when they pass massive omnibus bills no one, including themselves, gets it. Often, by the time the consequences of their actions surface they are long gone and don't have to face any heat.
The Gang of Eight's senate passed 350,000 word comprehensive immigration bill (that's about equal to Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov which is easier reading) is another example of congress ramming, cramming, and jamming something down Americans' gullets. The administrative rules to implement it will add millions more words which will not be comprehensively understood.
No pre election poll in the past fifteen years asking participants to rank issues by priority has ranked immigration in the top five issues. Now, the Washington politicians propose to ram, cram, and jam something down the throats of not only American citizens, but illegal immigrants as well, which they may not want.
Marco "Soft as Mashed Potatoes on Illegal Immigration" Rubio's plan to give amnesty to millions of current law breakers has as its signal theme a path to citizenship as the reward for invading the United States.
A Pew Research Center report released in February of this year reveals some interesting poll and research results and opens the door for some conclusions not favorable to the path to citizenship supporters.
According to the report, only 36% of the of the five million legal Mexicans in the U.S. who are eligible to be naturalized have been naturalized. This is about half the rate of legal immigrants from other countries.
But the astounding number, and the one which deflates the argument of Marco "Soft as Mashed Potatoes on Illegal Immigration" Rubio and his seven intellectual dwarf cohorts, shows that sixteen years after the 2.7 million illegal immigrants who were granted amnesty and obtained green cards, which put them on that path to citizenship under the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act, only 40% had naturalized.
If all those illegal immigrants who were offered substantially the same deal in 1986 as the one being offered today were not beating down the doors of the Department of Immigration and Naturalization to traverse that pathway to citizenship then, why should we think that the current lawbreakers want to become citizens today?
In their world, if enough people violate a law, Washington politicians find it politically expedient to blame the law instead of the lawbreakers.
The problem is not with the current immigration laws, it is with the current politicians who, when they raise their hand to take an oath of office, believe that a supernatural anointment direct from Heaven flows through them and gives them an omniscient mind and the right to ram, cram, and jam laws down our throats.
© Jim Terry
July 14, 2013
When I was a young man searching for political direction, an older fellow, a co-worker and lifelong Democrat, explained the difference in the two major political parties. He said, "The Democrats have a paternal view of government. You know, big daddy, sugar daddy, we'll take care of you. The Republicans don't ."
That pretty much cinched my direction because, in 1965, I figured a government that had gotten us into a war on the other side of the world in a place that I had never heard of-Vietnam- was not who I wanted looking after me.
Being paternalistic and trying to help people is one thing. But, the method our national politicians have adopted in recent years of ramming, cramming, and jamming laws down the throats of Americans isn't paternalistic, it's bullying.
Obamacare is an example of government ramming, cramming, and jamming a massive, comprehensive law down the throats of people who have never supported it. Now, its supporters are saying it is, "... a train wreck about to happen," and "... it rivals tax reform in its capacity to confuse Americans."
Politicians at all levels have come to understand that when they pass simple two or three page ordinances at the local level, state laws or federal laws at those levels, the public can, and often does, get it. And sometimes the politicians feel the heat. But, when they pass massive omnibus bills no one, including themselves, gets it. Often, by the time the consequences of their actions surface they are long gone and don't have to face any heat.
The Gang of Eight's senate passed 350,000 word comprehensive immigration bill (that's about equal to Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov which is easier reading) is another example of congress ramming, cramming, and jamming something down Americans' gullets. The administrative rules to implement it will add millions more words which will not be comprehensively understood.
No pre election poll in the past fifteen years asking participants to rank issues by priority has ranked immigration in the top five issues. Now, the Washington politicians propose to ram, cram, and jam something down the throats of not only American citizens, but illegal immigrants as well, which they may not want.
Marco "Soft as Mashed Potatoes on Illegal Immigration" Rubio's plan to give amnesty to millions of current law breakers has as its signal theme a path to citizenship as the reward for invading the United States.
A Pew Research Center report released in February of this year reveals some interesting poll and research results and opens the door for some conclusions not favorable to the path to citizenship supporters.
According to the report, only 36% of the of the five million legal Mexicans in the U.S. who are eligible to be naturalized have been naturalized. This is about half the rate of legal immigrants from other countries.
But the astounding number, and the one which deflates the argument of Marco "Soft as Mashed Potatoes on Illegal Immigration" Rubio and his seven intellectual dwarf cohorts, shows that sixteen years after the 2.7 million illegal immigrants who were granted amnesty and obtained green cards, which put them on that path to citizenship under the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act, only 40% had naturalized.
If all those illegal immigrants who were offered substantially the same deal in 1986 as the one being offered today were not beating down the doors of the Department of Immigration and Naturalization to traverse that pathway to citizenship then, why should we think that the current lawbreakers want to become citizens today?
In their world, if enough people violate a law, Washington politicians find it politically expedient to blame the law instead of the lawbreakers.
The problem is not with the current immigration laws, it is with the current politicians who, when they raise their hand to take an oath of office, believe that a supernatural anointment direct from Heaven flows through them and gives them an omniscient mind and the right to ram, cram, and jam laws down our throats.
© Jim Terry
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