March 28, 2006

A Democrat Says Supporting Amnesty Spells D-e-f-e-a-t For His Party In 2006, 2008

By Donald A. Collins

Ok, fellow Democrats, we are on the high road to election losses this year and in 2008—even though Bush is the most incompetent and dangerous President ever to serve in that office.

Why?  Because it now appears our elected Democratic representatives in the US Senate and House are going to authorize another massive amnesty–some 12 million illegal aliens now living here will get work permits–against the overwhelming wishes of American citizens.

In doing so, as Jack Martin, Director of Special Projects at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), puts it in an email:

"The message sent abroad [is] that the U.S. will condone and accommodate illegal immigration. It seems to me that the many people who would try to stop illegal immigration and accommodate those already here are unrealistic. It basically is not possible to do both the former and the latter. Accommodating the past problem assures that the future problem remains unsolved. That puts us on a never-ending escalator of perpetual mass immigration with its attendant population increase. The only way to break the cycle is make an example of those here now with a policy of intolerance in order to send abroad the message necessary to turn off the future illegal flow. That position may appear draconian, but it essential to a true solution."

Lou Dobbs of CNN is much more ferocious in his commentary, saying on the NBC Today Show on March 28th that the amnesty proposals now up for discussion in the Senate are a "sham," basically ignoring the best interests of American citizens, particularly damaging to the middle class.

So what are my Democratic leaders saying as they happily vote to give legality to these illegal workers? 

Hillary Clinton says of the House enforcement bill, HR 4437, "it is hard to believe that a Republican leadership that is constantly talking about values and about faith would put forth such a mean spirited piece of legislation."  [Mrs. Clinton Says G.O.P.’s Immigration Plan Is at Odds With the Bible, By Nina Bernstein, New York Times, March 23, 2006]

Senator, as a past contributor to your campaigns, let me be even more mean spirited: 

You have gotten your last donation from me.

And I encourage others to withhold contributions from any candidate from either party who votes for this amnesty.

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) are delighted with the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). It has approved legislation that clears the way for millions of illegal aliens to seek US citizenship without having to leave the US. Of this proposed bill, Senator Kennedy said, "All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening." 

But some Judiciary Committee Republicans balked—meaning the Democrats on the committee provided the votes to carry this abomination out to the full Senate.

Two polls just released show that 58 percent of Americans are against a temporary worker program and 69 percent do not believe that illegal aliens should have a path to citizenship.   Another poll shows that 89 percent believe illegal immigration is a big issue.

This issue could very likely be the Democrats’ Waterloo!

In talking recently with numerous traditional Democrats around the nation, I find almost all are against what their party leaders are doing on this legislation.  

While the Bush Administration is urging another large amnesty, many brave Republicans are saying now is the time to truly fix this burgeoning issue.

The open border/ethnic crowd may win–but only with Democratic support–as the spines of many Republicans are stiffened to the point where they will come out looking, to the majority of voters, like the only ones who will stand up for American citizens. 

Of course, many Republicans leaders are being very tricky too. 

As Bay Buchanan of Team America notes in an email:

"Senator Frist, who has for months claimed his bill would be enforcement only, failed to mention his bill also increases legal immigration by one million a year, which is a backdoor amnesty. And he also expected a guest worker provision will be added as well!  By many calculations that brings the number of new foreigners coming to our shores in the next ten years to 25 to 30 million–not including the millions of illegals that will follow". 

However, the impression, despite Bush’s lousy record will remain, that at least some of our Republican leaders are the only ones willing to stand up and defend our borders, our economy, our culture and our Rule of Law.

And let’s explode the biggest myth of all, courtesy of Robert Samuelson, whose timely March 22 article in the Washington Post, explains precisely why we do not need cheap uneducated illegal immigrant labor.

"Guest workers would mainly legalize today's vast inflows of illegal immigrants, with the same consequence: We'd be importing poverty. By and large, this is a bad bargain for the United States. It stresses local schools, hospitals and housing; it feeds social tensions (witness the Minutemen). To be sure, some Americans get cheap housecleaning or landscaping services. But if more mowed their own lawns or did their own laundry, it wouldn't be a tragedy." [We Don't Need 'Guest Workers', March 22, 2006]

It's a myth that the U.S. economy "needs" more poor immigrants. The illegal immigrants already here represent only about five percent of the labor force, the Pew Hispanic Center reports. In no major occupation are they a majority.  Since so many of them are unskilled, their contribution to the economy is minimal.

Thus if our Congressional Democrats join selfishly in abetting another huge amnesty, they fail the trust which the vast majority of Americans put in our party for decades—from the time of FDR to the point at which those principles began to break down in the last decades of the 20th Century.

By the time of Clinton, it was strictly who paid the bill and principles be damned. Democratic leaders went with the flow, regardless of how illogical and immoral and irresponsible it was.

And now my party is going to continue to pay the price—which, unless we alter course, will be another period out of power and worse, the continuing attack on our nation and our best interests.

Inertia and greed will have been our downfall.