Posted by
Sanity 102 on Sunday, January 27, 2008 3:53:16 PM
What does Santorium, Hayworth, and Tancredo have in common?
All three are what the Illegal Immigration absolutists consider "real conservatives".
All three ran on the idea that anything less than the rounding up and deporting of a tenth of American's work force and sending them back home (to Mexico mainly) is Amnesty.
All three LOST.
Romney has found his "real conservative" roots and have joined the new definition of anti-amnesty cause; so much so that Tancredo has endorsed him.
Romney has spent tons of money letting people know that Huckabee supported higher education for worthy children of illegal parents.
He then went after McCain for a bill that McCain and the most conservatives of Republicans in Congress supported. A bill that was going to card illegals and penalize employers who hired illegals. This bill was also going to charge illegals fines, make them go thru background checks, and a whole host of penalties--the complete OPPOSITE definition of amnesty.
And Romney LOST...to Huckabee in Iowa...to McCain in New Hampshire and Southern Carolina.
Wait a minute.
Isn't the illegal immigration issue supposed to be THE issue?
The one the majority of Conservatives/Americans care about?
The one defining issue that separates the "real conservatives" from the RINOs?
The one the majority of talk show hosts insists are so important to the American people, that nothing, not the WOT...not the economy...not the courts...matters?
As I and a good number of bloggers have been saying...ah, no.
And right now, many of the leaders of this truly stupid miscalculation of the American people are clearly confused...and angry...and immensely frustrated.
Let me explain why the "I" issue is a loser.
And why, if people don't start getting with the program, this issue will cost the ONLY party that is serious about the WOT to lose the White House...and with that, a host of other issues that WILL effect the lives of most Americans..and the rest of the world.
1- We are a nation of immigrants. For most, we are a generation or two away from unwanted people who came to America for the same reason illegals cross the borders. Many do not make the distinction between uneducated and unskilled laborers that came here BEFORE there were laws that make it almost impossible if you do not have the wealth or the connections--and those that will sell everything they have to buy a coyote's passage.
--When you go after immigrants, people see grandpa and remember stories of the old days. And they look at what they have and the possibilities of their children, and feel uncomfortable at best. Talk of being the bottom of the "wanted" barrel hits at their family members and their family worth...and they resent old feelings of being ashamed of people in their family who came from the old country.
2- We are a nation that has spent the last 30 years apologizing for the treatment of one race of people. And I don't mean slavery.
--When the talk of Hispanics is vile, this nation that has been striving for racial equality bristles--and brings back every racial slur against every race ever perpetrated by White people.
3-We are a nation that grew up believing that walls are the antithesis of freedom which is why Reagan's call to Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" resonated with the American people.
--Talk of a wall, even if this wall is to keep people out rather than in, smacks of old time bad guys vs. good...and America this time is not the "good guys". And the fact that the talk is for a wall "for security reasons" on the "poor, non-White" Southern border and not the "affluent" and very Liberal sympathetic to anti-American would be terrorists North does not help.
4-Most Americans are NOT conservatives...they do not know who the Vice President is...they may turn in by the millions to American Idol, but radio talk show or even Fox, ah no.
---They haven't heard the propaganda--and it is exactly that--of millions of illegals crossing the Mexican borders using up all the social services. They see people--just like them--waiting in ER rooms. They know how hard it is to get social security benefits--that the government has no problem in taking contributions but makes people jump thru hoops to get their money back. They see Americans living in the streets, on drugs and begging for hangouts and Mexicans working two, three jobs and paying taxes they will never collect on.
Once upon a time, America lost her pride thru a "born again" Christian intellect that believed that you could reason with terrorist.
And got it back with a has been actor who still believed in John Wayne's America.
She lost her moral bearings with a "didn't inhale" snake oil skirt chaser who cared more about being adored than about America's security.
And lost her innocence on a September morning.
Then America went back to flag waving, hero worshiping of people in uniform.
And conservative values and ideals.
But from the ashes of 9/11 arose messagers who thought that they were more important than the message.
Who thought the message could be added on to and twisted.
And in so doing lost touch with the people to whom they were trying to send the message to.
People of immigrants...who love freedom, equality...and being the "good guys".