Not only have I not watched the Republican so-called debates (real debating, almost a lost art, is done with facts, logic, and rhetoric); I refuse even to read about these imbecilic exercises. They're a lot of tosh and I have better ways to budget my time -- or at least more enjoyable ways to waste it.
But dad gum, this morning a headline caught my eye. Mitt Romney stuck his neck out:
Mitt Romney called the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law a model for the country, and blasted the Obama administration for challenging it in court.
"I will drop those lawsuits on Day One," Romney said in response to a question on illegal immigration during a GOP candidate debate in Mesa, Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the bill, was in the audience.
"I'll also complete the fence, I'll make sure we have enough Border Patrol agents to secure the fence, and I will make sure we have an E-Verify system and require employers to check the documents of workers," he added.
Maybe I missed something, but this seems like the first time anybody seeking the nomination has said anything that actually matters. For one shining moment, a would-be presidential tongue spoke words that were not either (a) standard electioneering platitudes or (b) about ridiculous "issues" like contraception that legal entities, particularly at the federal level, should be shy of addressing.
Of course, in practical terms, Romney's statement is pretty much weightless. He said it in Arizona, with an upcoming primary, and where non-Mexicans would overwhelmingly agree. Nothing will bind him to it. And no president should be able to set immigration policy on his own, although our current Marxist scalawag and his predecessor have ignored the law and the Constitution.
Finally, illegal immigration is only a subset of our overall immigration insanity. Even in rapidly Islamizing Europe, politicians openly discuss how much and what kinds of legal immigration there should be. So far, that is taboo in the U.S.
Despite all those reservations, Romney's claimed position is reassuring -- if only because he judged it politically advantageous to express it.
2 comments:
Romney is likely to be as bad on immigration as our last 4 presidents.
On this issue, Republicans are truly the "stupid party," having bought into the silly notion that Hispanic immigrants and their offspring are "natural conservatives." Abortion, gay marriage, taxes, limited government...don't make me laugh. Poor people vote for the politician who promises them goodies, period.
If there were even a shred of evidence that Hispanics were conservative, there would be a very loud, very militant faction in the Democratic party shouting for the borders to be sealed and legal immigration to be drastically reduced. But there is no such faction, which ought to tell you everything you need to know.
(And yes, I am aware that the Sierra Club and ZPG were bought off long ago. There would still be noise coming from some quarter, somewhere but there isn't. All the activism to get the immigration mess under control is on the right.)
As a former subject of His Excellency here in the Peoples' Republic, that word weightless says it all.
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