It really doesn’t matter exactly how the recent amnesty (but we won’t call it that) bill went down in flames. Some say that it was too liberal for team “R” and didn’t go far enough to meet the demands of team “D.”
Of course, each of the teams were internally conflicted in that a large amount of Democrat money comes from organized labor, and even if the union bosses are privately in favor of massive immigration so that it can emerge as another issue they can lie to their members about “fighting against,” the rank and file is against it—plain and simple.
The Republicans are highly conflicted in that certain senators were carrying the clueless president’s water on this, despite what the folks back home had to say. In every poll taken on this issue, a majority of respondents is against the growth of immigration in general, and against illegal immigration by a huge measure, with amnesty surely not being the answer.
Before the great defeat, various pundits were saying that the Republicans “had” to pass this thing to curry favor with this mythical important Hispanic voting bloc that somehow favors illegal immigration. And even if this legendary group exists, what good does it do to pander to them, while losing the rest of the electorate?
The conventional wisdom is that we have passed the point of no return on this matter, based on the combined effects of:
- Abortion
- The self-esteem movement, in conspiracy with the education cartel fostering the notion that much work is beneath contemporary young Americans
- The prevalence of the Nanny state whereby Uncle Sugar will take care of you so why work?
- The slave labor lobby, apparently convinced that their business model only works when the cost of labor approaches zero, even as many lower-end jobs are being eliminated via automation and the Internet
As the story goes, since the US as we used to know it is disappearing, we might as well live under the illusion of a good economy propped up by the actions of illegal immigrants. Or, put another way, if we’re going down the tubes anyway, we would rather do it rich than do it poor.
But a funny thing happened on the way to oblivion. The public woke up and voiced their concerns to their feckless elected officials. Even though Tom Tancredo is probably the only elected official on the Hill who is an anti-immigration hawk, the immigration traitors—and this includes Bush himself—couldn’t overcome the bad PR and the division within the Senate. Thus, the bill died.
While the defeat of one stupid bill hardly means that we have turned the corner on this issue, it does put the congressional ne’er-do-wells on notice that if you’re going to try to ram something this awful down the throat of the public, you’ll have to be a bit more clever. Indeed, they would have to be far more clever than they have the ability to be.
In the meantime, those of us who would like to at least slow down the selling out of America can rejoice in the chilling effect this outcome will most definitely create.