In the depressing panorama of today's political world, I thought Rand Paul might be an encouraging exception. For one thing, a statement in 2010 [2] indicates that Rand might get the demographic question, when he said
If you look at new immigrants from Mexico, they register three to one Democrat, so the Democratic Party is for easy citizenship and allowing them to vote. I think we need to address that.
But Rand Paul's apparent recent support for amnesty threatens to nullify the good that he has done.
Senator Paul delivered a response to to the State of the Union Message under the banner of the Tea Party Express (view here [3]) and he had some good things to say. Of course he's right about out of control spending, and it's great that he's calling for the (long-overdue) assertion of congressional authority over an out of control executive. Amen to that!
But when it comes to immigration, it sounds like Rand Paul just doesn't get it [4]. Here's what he says (beginning a few seconds shy of the nine-minute mark):
We're the party that embraces hard work and ingenuity. Therefore we must be the party that embraces the immigrant who wants to come to America for a better future. We must be the party who sees immigrants as assets, not liabilities. We must be the party that says 'if you wanna work, if you wanna be an American, we welcome you'.
Excuse me, but this sounds like over-the-top Dubya-style Globalism. Saying that "If you want to be an American we welcome you" means that we have no control over our own immigration and naturalization policies. Anybody in the world- no limits. What? Doesn't Rand Paul understand that continued mass Hispanic immigration (legal or illegal) is going to run roughshod over limited government and economic freedom?
Nor is this kind of libertarian globaloney likely to appeal to the white working class. But then, what contemporary national politician cares about them?