’)The thing I like about FreeRepublic is that the Republicans on there don’t “cover” like the Republicans in Washington. They don’t pretend to believe one way while thinking another. It’s the conservative base in its purest form, and here’s just a sample of the opinion on the immigration marches that took place today:
It’s NOT a rally it is an ILLEGAL INVasion of a liberal army of socialists taking over our streets and our cities and soon our elected officials and our country!
They are causing inconvenience for all CITIZENS by demonstrating again and again and again in a platoon of people which should be considered an invasion with that many of them and all the cities their taking over and
the amount of times they are and have been doing this.They aren’t just demonstrating once there are way to many and way to many cities and way to many times to not consider it an invasion and a overtaking of our country!!
This should be considered a call for civil WAR!
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The feds should be taking photos of the protesters, and do it very visibly. That would break up the protests quickly. Private citizens could do it by dressing up in suit and tie and use an empty camera to make it look like pictures are being taken…
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No, we will vote third party and make sure the CS republicans who lose their office realize why. This will make all the difference after Nov. in how the republicans address this issue. Once the senate is not controlled by repubican RINOS the rest of them will start doing their jobs trying to win back the base. Voting republican this next election will be a dumb move. Just don’t vote dem, vote third party, any third party, although it would be better if we could all agree on one party and actually place a few of them into office. This would wake up the idiots who now run the government.
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Here’s a question, say by some stroke of Evil, these Illegals DO get legalized, and they vote in Ca, Az and NM to ceede from the Union? Then what? If they can bring this many to a rally, will these people also take the trouble to go to the Voting booth???
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I’ve been saying this for years and been called some fairly heinous names even here on FR. If this continues we are looking at very serious bloodshed if not Civil War.
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The Mexicans are a vast human invasion – no different than an invading army, really, simply an unarmed army.The way to deport is simple. Call up the National Guard and the Reserves – the whole of them – and issue a proclamation declaring the the massive presence of illegals in this nation constitutes as invasion under the meaning of the Constitution (thus evading Posse Comitatius). Sweep door to door in areas where illegals are believed to reside.
Second, demand that the Mexican Army seal their border to prevent illlegal crossing within thirty days. If they fail to take effective action, then invade northern Mexico, force the population south, and then build a massive fence, with minefields and machine-gun towers about twenty miles into former Mexican territory.
Dave Johnson has more on the GOP getting their hate on.
I also think what you’re seeing on the right is a few interesting dynamics: they seem to think that stoking the fires of racial hate will motivate the knuckle dragging white demographic to vote GOP, but this screw-up by the Republican congress and the Republican president may cut off a growing part of the GOP constituency for a long time. As I saw Rush Limbaugh of all people point out – the white vote is essentially 50-50, the black vote is Democratic, if the Republicans lose more of the hispanic vote – the fastest growing segment of voters in our country – to the Dems, they’re toast. That’s why President Bush has essentially been AWOL on this and why you had Ed Gillespie writing in the Wall Street Journal advising conservatives not to give in to their hate.
Of course, like the Emperor from Star Wars I say “Give in to your anger”.
>> Alleged conservative thinker ™ “Jay Tea” is talking “wetbacks”
Oliver,
The French government just blinked and the Hispanics have all the pols in this county worried.
You said months ago you would explain why demonstrations don’t work as a political tool anymore.
Care to elaborate.
One thing to note is that Bush won in 2004 largely because he made huge inroads in the Hispanic vote, especially because he tossed away the Muslim vote, which he won in 2000. Rove and Company are treading lightly around this demographic, and figures it can take the wingnut core for granted here.
Right-wingers: Hey, we lefties have been suffering the same thing for years — the DINOs who run our party take us for granted too. Have a Kleenex.
What a sick display from that website.
Chessie: I’m glad you asked, and I’ll probably write more on this in the future – but the French protests and our immigration protests both shared one major trait: they had a single cause in mind. Like the Orange Revolution and back to the Vietnam protests, they got together for a single purpose and singular demand. Today’s protest was a sea of flags and white shirts that will make the front page of most major papers in the morning and their message will be clear. The anti-war movement has almost protested everything but the kitchen sink – racism, the war, Mumia, jobs, the poor, etc. I’m still not the biggest fan of mass protest, but if youre going to do it dont just jump out there.
Rush Limbaugh today:
Michelle Malkin also noted that Charlie Rangel and Al Sharpton spoke at today’s protest in New York City. So some black leaders did show up, although it appears that they were there representing the Democratic party rather than the NAACP or other mainstream black leadership. And in Detroit, members of the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers showed up to express solidarity with the illegals.
So I’ll take back my previous comments about blacks being AWOL from these protests.
However I’ll stick to this point — the Democrats may be in for rocky times ahead if they publicly align themselves with the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, the Reconquista movement, and International ANSWER (which is a front group for the World Worker’s Party). And this will be doubly true if the Democrat efforts are seen simply as empty pandering, without real solutions for the pitifully low wages earned by illegals or for the huge bite that illegal workers take out of jobs for other minorities and for union members.
Once again, you’re calling them “the illegals” – wonder why the GOP isn’t welcome there. Has it ever taken much for the GOP and the right-wing media to paint the Democrats as “aligned” with all sorts of radical groups? No (just look at the Limbaugh diatribe you’ve excerpted). They’ll do it anyways. I’d much rather the Democrats align themselves with law-abiding Hispanic-Americans than once again be afraid that Republicans might say mean things about them.
Both parties have crazy, fringe elements. The difference is the GOP fringe is in the White House and the congressional leadership.
“Can you imagine if a bumbling of Republicans went into this crowd and said, Vote Republican, and started handing these out? There would be violence. They would get stomped on, beat up, there would be busted heads all over the place …”
White male persecution anxiety in all its glory. Damn, those conservatives sure do like to play the victim.
Oliver,
Now you are qualifying your earlier statements.
Just admit that maybe you were wrong about street protest.
It’s what you ask the right to do all the time.
Peace
Chessie, Oliver is constitutionally incapable of admitting a mistake. The latest Libby “scoop” didn’t mention Valerie Plame in the least, but that didn’t keep him from proclaiming it loudly, just for another example. I suspect that he fears that if he admits one mistake, his entire carefully-constructed fantasy world would crumble. (Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing.)
For example, he calls me “conservative” and “Republican” on a regular basis. I call myself a militant moderate, and am registered as an Independent. (Last December I changed my registration from Democrat, which I had been for a few years.) I’ve spent a good chunk of time ripping the GOP over an election scandal here in New Hampshire that looks like it’s gonna put a couple of GOP sleazebags in jail, and good riddance.
J.
Oliver,
Michael Savage was in fine form yesterday after the rallies – I was surprised to not see anything on Media Matters. In a good rant he worked up, he advocated deporting all immigrants (who he claimed must not work if they have time to rally) and also seizing Mexican oil fields. Yes, he argued that the Mexican government owed the US $100 billion for social services, and that we should seize their oil fields in payment…He talked about toppling the Chavez government by military force and “that other one next to Chavez” (he was talking about Bolivia, which isn’t next to Venazuela, but anyway…)
I was surprised he didn’t have a brain anurism right there.
I have to say that I have very mixed feelings about the immigration issue, and while I don’t think illegal immigrants should be rounded up and sent back, I’m not really for illegal immigration. Hell, I can’t just go work in another country if I want to, as much as I’d like to spend a couple years working in Europe.
Why can’t we deal with border security and then figure out what to do with undocumented workers?
It seems to me that a guest worker program is a joke. I mean, if you’re here illegally, what’s going to keep you from overstaying illegally when your guest worker status is no longer valid? I’m for reasonable solutions to this problem, not grand schemes that don’t actually do anything. I’d rather have secure borders and then introduce an amnesty program once the situation is stabilized.
Call me a racist, or whatever, but I’m just sick of the fact that we live in a country where democrats and republicans are both put into corners and complicated discussions never take place.
trustme:
It’s cool to hear someone actually trying to talk about it and not just screaming. There’s a couple problems with just securing the border, the way I see it…one is, they’ll still come. They’ll come through wherever there’s a gap…because they’re in high demand. Global economics are at work here, not just a fence through a stretch of desert. At least, thats what I’m seeing. If Tyson and Wal*Mart and all the farms and processing plants and big business still hire people at slave wages, there’s a huge demand for the labor, and the laborers come. They’re for the most part determined people, as I think even a casual examination will show.
so what’s a good solution that honors our society? i dunno…let’s talk about it
Rush Limbaugh: “a bumbling of Republicans”
He has a way with words.
A gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, a bumbling of Republicans.
I’m not talking about stopping illegal immigration entirely, just reducing it to a more manageable number. Then if we need more agricultural workers, we can let them in through the front gate And give’em a green card when they come in, because most of them won’t leave.
I just think it’s unfair that we make people go through so many hoops to get a legitimate working visa, then allow others to simply pass through with no penalty. I’m also strongly opposed to paying people squat for hard work. It’s just wrong, and I think the “nobody else will do the work” argument is as racist as anything else I’ve read on here, and erodes standards for workers everywhere. I wanted to barf when I read Bloomberg’s comment about not having people to take care of his golf course. Let them eat cake, anyone?
I am enjoying the republican party waffle on this issue because their corporate paymasters definitely don’t want to see any crack-down on illegal immigration. At the same time, I think democrats are pandering to future voters while ignoring the people who actually elected them, which might come back to bite them in the ass as well…
garth and trustme:
There are plenty of conservatives who are as fed up with both parties on this issue as you are. Both sides are pandering to what they see as potential Latino voters. The Republicans supporting amnesty are also pandering to big business interests who like all that cheap labor and want to keep the status quo. The Democrats, on the other hand, are so fixated on the idea of a huge influx of Democratic voters bringing them back into power that they’re willing to shaft a big part of their base in the process: blue collar and union workers. I’m just surprised that these people don’t see it and start calling the Democrats on it.
Amnesty is not the answer. We tried it in the 80’s and all it did was encourage even more illegal immigration. We have to start by securing the borders. We can’t stop the flow entirely, but we can start to reduce it. The best way to slow it to a trickle is to start enforcing existing laws and criminalize ALL employers who hire illegal workers. This applies to Tyson and Wal-Mart as well as all the contractors picking up day laborers outside of Home Depot and even middle-class Americans too lazy to mow their own lawn or clean their own house. Once employers are afraid to hire illegal workers the jobs will dry up, removing the incentive for new workers to come as well as driving many of the existing ones to leave voluntarily.
Once again, you re calling them the illegals – wonder why the GOP isn t welcome there.
OW, ILLEGAL immigration is what this issue is all about. ILLEGAL, as in not in this country legally. Is that concept so difficult to understand? The vast majority of Americans (even conservative ones) are perfectly happy with legal immigration, even increasing it if there is a shortage of trained and skilled workers. It’s the people who come here ILLEGALLY, with all the financial impacts they bring (driving down wages, higher costs for education, medical and social services, law enforcement, etc. without a corresponding increase in tax revenue) that they have a problem with. And that doesn’t make them racist.