So did Mike Huckabee, who told The Dallas Morning News last week that “it’s not my place to agree or disagree” with what happened in Arizona. If it’s not the place of a talk-show host and prospective presidential candidate to take a stand on an issue of this moment, whose place is it? There are few profiles in courage among the leaders in this G.O.P. — only a lot of guys hiding under their desks.Rich then points it that the folks around Bush are actually much less enthused, perhaps seeing that the Latino vote is going to be necessary to win elections.
The most important point in the piece is that there is no firebreak between Arizona and the rest of the country. Demagogues in other states and at the national level are already taking the Arizona laws and trying to apply them elsewhere. As I have said before, while I take some glee in implosion of the Republican Party, it does take at least two functional parties to make a democracy work.
These dynamics are making me re-think the joy I felt when I discovered the counter-intuitive findings about xenophobia and irredentism in Eastern Europe. In that locale, hate can have a positive side, creating restraint rather than aggression towards neighboring countries. But there is little upside to American xenophobia (or racism) as there is no irredentism to deter.
Rich conveniently leaves out the fact that GOP leaders as varied as Marco Rubio, Tom Tancredo, and Meg Whitman have all spoken out opposing those potentially profiling provisions in the law. Typical.
ReplyDeleteThe groundswell in the border states against illegal immigration has a wide variety of sources, many of them legitimate grievances against the spread of drug violence and illegal employment. I don't discount for a moment that racial factors (which I really can't understand- I don't see why anyone should look down on people who are willing to work hard for a better life) matter in some cases, but I doubt that's why 57% of Arizonans support the law.
Rather than pursue this law, the common-sense solution to me seems to be: 1. Legalize and tax marijuana. 2. Vastly expand the legal-worker visa process, for all types of jobs 3. Use as much police force as necessary to secure the border and cut off smuggling routes 4. Punish employers who continue to hire illegal immigrants (and pay them lower wages). Taken together, these would all go much farther than anything in this bill to actually stop illegal immigration and still keep our economy strong. But they require federal action, which seems to be not forthcoming thanks to both parties' extremes.