|
|
May 15, 2006The immigration speech - UPDATEDI’m still not writing about politics, but just skimming some righty and lefty blogs, I cannot help but notice that a number of conservative bloggers - some of whom I have long-respected - have already decided that President Bush’s speech tonight will be insufficient to the task of undoing 30 years of neglect. They’ve heard a whisper here, an idea there, and decided that if he’s not going to do precisely what they want him to do - and only that - then he needn’t even be listened to. They’ve already pre-empted him. Attention, my conservative friends - please pull back from the edge. Please take a moment to consider what has become of you: When you have reached the point that you will not even allow a man to make his speech and put his ideas out there - if you have already decided that nothing he says can be of value (or if you fear that too many might actually listen to the man and be persuaded) then you have become part of the problem. If you cannot stop down-shouting long enough to take a breath and let a man speak, then you’ve moved beyond thoughtful analysis and constructive criticism. You have become the very sort of person you’ve said you despised - you’ve embraced the tactics of those you hate. What was it St. Paul said? “All that I hate I find I am become…” If all you can do is scream loudly, work to drown out the president’s thoughts before he even expresses them and jumpstart the Caravan of Rage & Ultimate Defeat that you’ve been riding for a while, now…well, there is going to be a tragedy. The man has earned the right to be heard before you start stomping on him and tearing about in wild, reactionary frustration. I’m sorry to have to say this - I don’t mean to sound harsh. But then I am also sorry to read some of the intemperate, hyperventilated, know-it-all rhetoric I’ve just taken in. UPDATE: Ah. Predictably, the hate mail is pouring in, and you folks who are denouncing me for a traitor to conservatism (oh, my, I’ll lose sleep over that, tonight…), threatening to remove me from your blogrolls (go ahead…) and damning me as one of those “moderates who contribute nothing to history or social welfare,” (hey, I just thought I was asking for reasonable behavior from people; who knew I was a dangerous moderate…) are wasting your time, even as you prove my point. You’re so busy screeching and hopping up and down, you cannot even accurately repeat back to me my point, thus you have little credibility. My favorite so-far is the email from the fellow who believes he speaks for “all right thinking Americans” and who is looking forward to the president’s impeachment next year and declaring, “he deserves it, too, for not listening to his base.” Here is a Newsflash, Mr. Base: The President of the United States is not merely President of the Base, but of the whole country. When a president is elected, his job is not then to “do the bidding of the base” or face their wrath. I daresay you would be horrified to see a Democrat president listening only to “the base.” I respectfully suggest that when a president is elected, it does not translate into “the base gets to decide policy for the nation.” I further suggest that a president who has managed to give you 70% or so of what you, “the base” wanted has earned both his say and a calm, rational, NOT-hysterical perusal of what he is proposing before the lynching party goes off half-cocked. President Bush has certainly done a lousy job of explaining himself for the last year, and he still doesn’t know how to say, “here’s what I am thinking, now you tell me your ideas and lets hammer out a compromise,” and that is all working against him, but frankly the mouthfoaming I’m reading tells me that there can be no hammering out of a compromise. Some of the stuff I’m reading in my mailbox is (I hate to say it, but it’s the truth) offensively racist, and that will come back to bite you. You cannot believe that our growing “legal” Hispanic population is not watching this and wondering how much of your rhetoric is all about justice and how much is coming from a place less noble. Sooner or later, even Hispanics who are sympathetic to the basic idea of LEGAL immigration taking precedence over anything else, are going to say, “these are people with whom I cannot hang…” Some of this hate mail is so short-sighted as to not care that the animus being directed toward all illegal immigrants - the cry of “ship them all back” - will have the long-term effect of carving room on the “Democrat plantation” you all deride, for our burgeoning Hispanic voting block. A distinction must be made between people who have been living and working here for years - peaceably - and those who would storm the gates. Perhaps it is time for you, Mr. Base, to consider that by stringing me up for a whooping, you’re essentially chastising me for “roaming off the plantation.” This makes you different from a KosKid or a DU’er how, exactly? As I said before, “all that I hate I am become…” I have to tell you folks, your passion is not persuading. What it is doing is suggesting to me that - as he did on the issue of Embryonic Stem Cells - President Bush is trying to find a way to deal with this decades-in-the-making problem that will work in the real world, in the world “as it is,” and not as you would like it to be or wish to believe it might be. Pope John Paul II also said - often - that we had to deal with the world, “as it is,” if we were going to foment change that was just, lasting and effective. Everything a president does cannot be popular - or exactly right - all the time, but my goodness, taking into account all the ways this man has delivered, (in the face of a spineless GOP and a heated and hostile opposition) I’d say the scales still fall in his favor. Just think, once upon a time, you people loved and admired Bush for being a man who “followed his own heart and reason” and not the polls. I guess that was only true as long as his reason marched in lockstep with yours. Interesting. One of the most dangerous things about President Bill Clinton, to my way of thinking, was that he so sorely needed to be loved. You said you didn’t like the co-dependant president; but you don’t like the independant one, if he dares to dance not only with Hatfields but with McCoys as well. The McCoys don’t like it, either, of course…so right now we have a President trying to work a whole room and The Hatfields and The McCoys both have him in their shotgun sites. Hmmmm….all those guns pointed at the center? Means lots of people on both sides are going to be writhing, soon. The crap the right is sending me in my email is precisely the sort of nonsense that made me leave the Democrat party. I will not belong to a party -or a movement - that will not allow me to think for myself or express my dissent without castigating me, denigrating my faith or calling me names. A few of you have reached the DU nadir. I hope you can find your way back up. Oh, and for those of you who felt the need to lob irrelevent anti-Catholic volleys at me because I have dared to ask for some civility, your bigotry speaks volumes more about your creed than it does about mine. I believe we all weary Christ sometimes, but I have to think that some of the hate you are swallowing and regurgitating in the name of “right-thinking” America cannot be making him proud. I wonder if Christ ever thinks to himself, for this I endured all that? Related: Oh, yeah….We loved the fairness doctrine last time, right? Related: Shrinkwrapped looks at Conservative Fatigue Syndrome and relates it to an phenomena seen with early AIDS patients. I’m not so certain CFS exists. What I’m feeling right now is less fatigue than utter disgust, not just with my usual whipping boys in the media, but with “the base” as well. In another thoughtful piece, neo-neocon sees some similarities between this fatigue and Churchill’s observations on endings and beginnings. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/05/15/the-immigration-speech/trackback/ 27 Responses to “The immigration speech - UPDATED” |
May 15th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
A timely bucket of cold water, Anchoress. I needed it.
May 15th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Thank you Anchoress. My sentiments exactly. Until 9-11 I was never political. After that I found myself pulled toward the conservatives. I am also strongly pro-life. But a number of things this last year make me increasingly uncomfortable with them. They are such idealogues that no president could ever stand up to their scrutiny and still be able to govern. They are the ones responsible for the crashing of Bush in the polls recently and they are writing their own death wish.
May 15th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Immigration Nation: News and Views
This item will be updated throughout the day. Check back. 100 Million More at the Door?: Heritage Foundation claims new law allows flood over next 20 years. Malkin @ videoblog Hot Air says the Bush speech will be his “Read…
May 15th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Bush may be wrong at times, but I haven’t met a Democrat(Leftist) who was right in thirty years. Let’s not lose sight of the real choices in life. We can always work to make weak solutions better. And don’t let the fake polls fool you–polls that increase their Democrat sample everytime. They are trying to lead, not report, public opinion.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I was speaking with a bunch of strangers I met while serving on a jury. We were a cross section of our local society, and I mentioned to one of them:
You know… I sympathize with the Republicans on life and family issues, and I sympathize with the Democrats on social justice issues. If I could find a party that supported both, I would happily join it, but since I can’t, and I believe the life and family issues trump the social justice issues, I’m going to have to continue to pull Republican levers.
The guy I was talking to said: I feel exactly the same way. And I looked around and a lot of people were nodding.
Why can’t we get a party like that?
May 15th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Okay, you make sense, Ma’am. I know what I want to hear, and doubt I will. But the fact remains, he’s my President. And this is not a problem he created. He inherited it like so many other of the problems that beset the nation.
Thanks, Anchoress!
May 15th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Well said.
Intolerance and closed mindedness are found on both sides of the aisle.
Mr Bush has his hands tied- he has a base to deal with and a problem that cannot be ‘quick fixed.’ No matter how well intended the ‘experts’ and pundits, the problem will take decades to get under control.
May 15th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
The problem cannot be quick-fixed, but there are solutions that can be quickly implemented, like enforcing the laws on the books against illegal immigration. Bush has not insisted that INS and the Border Patrol do their jobs, nor has he started proceedings to deny federal funds to cities that vote to ignore federal laws.
We can also begin a wall to staunch the invasion.
We can pass laws to deny routine health services at hospitals for aliens — taxpayers pick up that tab as well as those who pay for insurance.
We can deny citizenship to babies born to illegals.
Children brought to public schools would have to prove citizenship and/or legal residence papers before being enrolled.
We can stop printing ballots and instructions in Spanish. Think of the reduced costs to companies and institutions if English only were the rule.
Finally, we can hire contractors who only hire Americans to do our projects.
Dry up the incentives and we will lessen the flow of illegals.
May 15th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Part of the reason people are reacting to President Bush’s speech before he’s given it is because the WH has released the key points already. As with all of his speeches, the press gets information beforehand. In many cases you don’t need to watch a President’s speech because it’s a known entity beforehand.
If his speech was going to be one about securing the border (something more that his base is interested in) we would know that already. That’s why people are frustrated and that’s why they’re writing it off.
Is it right to threaten to impeach him? Is it right to turn on him so viciously? No. And I think your advice is very important in that respect.
Those aspects about his personality that we admired in the past have become something that we criticize him for now. It is hypocritical.
But President Bush himself has been inconsistent on one crucial aspect: security. If security is the nation’s number one priority as we’ve been told since 9/11, then how come it isn’t on our southern border. I think that’s what gets under most people’s skin.
We have a right to disagree with his approach if we think it will endanger this nation, both from a security point of view and economically, but we should do it with facts instead of fury.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
[...] The Anchoress: when conservatives prejudge the president’s immigration speech, they have become “part of the problem …. The President of the United States is not merely President of the Base.” [...]
May 15th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Okay - heard teh speech, and I am betwixt and between. Some I agreed with, some I don’t. I don’t like wasting the time of the Nat’l Guard on this - they are not full-time soldiers and this will disrupt lives. As deploying the Guard to Iraq has. If the need is a military one, even temporary, use the Marines, Army, Navy, Hell! use the Coast Guard!
I know that deproting all thos epeople would create some hardships, so I will withold judgements until I see what his plan does. Right now it sounds to me like a kind of amnesty, despite Bush saying it isn’t. We’ll see.
The rest … well, I guess he was on point. So, Anchoress, you were right.
Big surprise there! LOL
May 15th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
And I apologize for the sloppy typing! Mea Culpa!
May 15th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I’ll be happy to answer your hate mail, Anchoress. muahahahahhahahaaaaa
I’ve got all kinds of pent-up rage to unleash on the boneheads. They want to send filth to you, I’ll send it right back.
And of course, I second your thoughts on the madness.
May 15th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Beth, you are slightly insane! Don’t ever change! LOL
May 15th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Anchoress:
I agree with you. I voted for Bush and I still support him but some folks on the right have just lost their minds.
We have young men and women in harm’s way fighting a war and now it seems some people are ready to abandon the cause and the Commander in Chief because they did not get what they wanted, when they wanted and the way they wanted it.
And yes, I too am a moderate, center right. The hardliners can call us names all they want but without us they can not win a race for dog catcher.
And racism is involved. When I read things on blogs about Operation Wetback I just hope no hispanics read that crap and think we are all like that. It would be a gift to the Democrats. And how would that help them?
May 15th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Yeah, I’ve really begun to wonder about some of my fellow travellers on the Right. This is the THIRD time in seven months that they’ve gone on a total witch hunt! First it was Harriet Miers, then it was the Dubai port thing, and now it’s Bush’s supposed mania for open borders and amnesty. I mean, these people are ready, along with the Left, to see Bush impeached! How can I continue to identify myself with these people?!!!
.
Thank you Anchoress for remaining a voice of sanity. President Bush deserves our support.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Anchoress, I consider myself to be a part of the “base” but I can tell you right now this emailer doesn’t speak for me.
I’m not a fair weather friend. I voted for this man twice and though he hasn’t done everything the way I would like it, well my husband hasn’t either.
What we are seeing is the nut wing of the far right. They ruined the party in 1964 with their ideologically purity and are hell-bent on ruining this presidency as well as the future of our country over one issue. You can’t try to reason with them because then they call you stupid, moron and other names not as nice.
Don’t let them get to you. You’re on the right side of sanity—they are not.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Anchoress,
You lady are a moderate, as am I, as I believe the majority of the U.S. voting age population. I think this is why over half the population doesn’t bother to vote. Being moderate though does not mean you cannot espouse some conservative philosophies (or if you prefer ideas), as I believe you do admirably. It is unfortunate that some on the far right demand lock step agreement with them as do the far left. While I do think that some enforcement of immigration law should be performed, I think it should be handled with gentleness and concern for the humanity of the law breakers as well. While this country may have the financial resources to handle rounding them all up and shipping them out, it would be a terrible burden. I also don’t like the near hysteria that I’m hearing about relaxing the standards for qualifying for a visa. The laws have been overbearingly restrictive for many years, almost enough to be considered inhumane (at least by myself), and updating the laws so that more working class people can immigrate is not going to do as much harm as the elitists fear.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
[...] And she has just spanked the living heck out of the right. [...]
May 15th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
[...] There are, fortunately, cooler heads out there - The Anchoress, as usual, has nailed it. [...]
May 15th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
[...] As usual The Anchoress is able to write exactly how I feel about this issue, but with much more gusto…not too mention better writing also: I cannot help but notice that a number of conservative bloggers - some of whom I have long-respected - have already decided that President Bush’s speech tonight will be insufficient to the task of undoing 30 years of neglect. They’ve heard a whisper here, an idea there, and decided that if he’s not going to do precisely what they want him to do - and only that - then he needn’t even be listened to. They’ve already pre-empted him. [...]
May 16th, 2006 at 12:10 am
The Anchoress always comes through with an intelligent, sensitive, practical viewpoint. All three adjectives, not just one or two. Intelligent, sensitive, and practical. She doesn’t scream, rant, call names, or change the subject. She just tells it like it is, and she tells it right. Thank you, dear Anchoress. You rock.
May 16th, 2006 at 8:19 am
[...] The Anchoress [...]
May 16th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Immigrant Reform Splits Conservatives
Signs of an emerging sometimes angry split among conservatives over the immigration issue can be seen on some weblogs:
–Some readers of a popular conservative webl…
May 16th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
[...] There’s a lot written this morning about how “the base” is “upset”, but Polimom couldn’t find anyone who said it better than The Anchoress does here [her emphasis]: Here is a Newsflash, Mr. Base: The President of the United States is not merely President of the Base, but of the whole country. When a president is elected, his job is not then to “do the bidding of the base” or face their wrath. I daresay you would be horrified to see a Democrat president listening only to “the base.” I respectfully suggest that when a president is elected, it does not translate into “the base gets to decide policy for the nation.” I further suggest that a president who has managed to give you 70% or so of what you, “the base” wanted has earned both his say and a calm, rational, NOT-hysterical perusal of what he is proposing before the lynching party goes off half-cocked. [...]
May 22nd, 2006 at 7:12 pm
[...] The Anchoress has made plain her disappointment with the political status quo. In The Immigration Speech she plainly reminds her readers that the President leads a nation and not just who voted for him. The President's 'base' is upset that he isn't responding to their 'needs.' [...]
June 26th, 2006 at 1:02 am
[...] So according to the Bush right or wrong supporters, I need to stop declaring that I plan on staying home since it is ok for me to throw away the only bit of leverage that has somewhat slowed the Republicans rush to the left. Sure Jim Geraghty, AJ Strata, Anchoress that makes a lot of sense. Let’s see some movement from the Congressional Republicans to actually uphold the law for starters and their promises for seconds and have them give a stern talking to El Presidanti Hernando Bush about his responsibilities to uphold even the laws he disagrees with…you know immigration laws. [...]