Letters to the Editor
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This is what I cherish about the left...
...that when someone on the right actually takes a principled, humanistic stand for something other than Big Corporate profits or Big Jesus oppression, we're honest enough to step up and say "Bravo."
That makes us so, so much better, truer Americans that the right-wing screamers of the Ann Coulter ilk, who, if Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton bodily took out Muslim terrorists about to blow up a preschool while simultaneously passing the perfect income tax reform bill, would still shriek "Chappaquiddick!" and "Whitewater!"
Hooray for being intelligent, fair-minded and honest. Bravo to us.
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A Stronger Mexico
It is necessary to discuss immigration reform not only for our southern neighbors, but for the benefit of the disenfranchised around the world seeking to come to our country. That Bush is not hearkening to the rallying cry of his base to criminalize illegal immigration is certainly a relief, and yes, we must give credit where credit is due.
We must ask, though, how much better would this country be if Mexico were a place were Mexicans could make a decent living? We have all bought into the idea that illegal immigrants are here "doing work Americans won't do." No. They are here working for worse wages than the American "way of life" requires, but better wages than they can get at home.
The savings provided to those businesses who employ illegal low-wage workers are NOT passed on to us, the consumers. The price of the services performed (let's say landscaping, to be cliche) remains the same. The money NOT paid to the employee is not reduced from your bill. It is kept by the owner of the company.
If we truly want to improve life for immigrants, we should start at home -- the home they would most probably prefer to stay in if it were possible to do so. What is most in need of examination is U.S. policy toward Mexico, and what we can do to improve it. The immigration debate, as it regards Mexico specifically, is in some ways a smokescreen for the corporatists who benefit from keeping Mexico a third-world country.
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He's not a dick on immigration. Who cares?
I don't think Bush ought to be given credit for anything. So he's not a conservative jerk on one issue, which just happens to be an issue that his corporate backers are all for. He doesn't deserve credit for it. You might as well say that the makers of Scary Movie 4 deserve some credit because one of the scenes was sorta funny.
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Illegal Immigration
Framing is everthing. If you oppose amnesty for illegal aliens your a bigot. If that makes me a bigot then so be it.
Every illegal working here drives down wages for less skilled Americans who might take those jobs. Since we are only creating low paying jobs in the service sector anyway this mean competition. Having a larger supply of workers benefits Corporations and Businesses. (Remeber the old supply and demand thing)
I cannot begin to imagine why any self respecting populist or progressive thinks that letting 12 million more conservative Catholics who will work for peanuts into our country is a good idea.
What do you think these folks are going to vote for?
Why is
the Church salivating over the prospect of more constituents? In the last election the Catholic Church worked very hard against Kerry and for Bush.
Just in case you missed it Joe, in Mexico Womens Rights are the right to be Bitch Slapped and have 10 kids. Gays are despised and Machismo is a way of life.
Bush is hoping that these folks will all vote Repuglican and Kennedy is hoping that they will all vote for him. You can only fit so many maids, nanny's and greenskeepers into Hyanisport.
In the meantime the Average Joe and Jane American is going to get screwed again.
Mike Davies
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Don't Swing Open the Gates for that Horse!!
I hate to be a Cassandra, but Bush is hardly showing his hand, here. He brings everyone into the oval office and pretends to listen; then, he pretends to be a broker of compromise; yet, somehow, he never says what he is favoring or whether he will insist on the passage of anything in particular. That's a gift horse that we need to look firmly in the mouth!
As for his overall approach to immigration reform, it seems to be perfectly consistent with the objective of giving his robber-baron brethren access to cheap, temporary labor. The promise of citizenship is reserved only for the currently resident, not the future overstayers (which is the only rational outcome of a "guestworker" program). Why will future guest workers just pack their bags and leave after we've finished working them for the period of their informal (?) indenture?
So, whatare we supposed to applaud? We simply postpone for another generation the legalization of the next batch of underclass, illegal residents, while exploiting their vulnerability. It's just the sequel, not the solution.
The Senate bill, though couched in all sorts of fuzzy warm words, fails to confront any of the problems brought about by our current, unsuccessful policies. This is not statemanship but political gamesmanship. It is ridiculous to hold it up as the torch of a new New Colossus.
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Bush does something right?
At this point, who cares? Can we fast-forward through the next 999 days, please?
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Can't believe I'm saying this, but
I'm giving the guy a break on this one, for the moment. I have disagreed with everything he's ever done, except the invasion of Afghanistan, but I've always thought he'd eventually do something right. I'd hoped he'd rebuild New Orleans well.
If he can reform immigration in a way that doesn't involve the (ridiculous idea of) mass deportation of 7 to 15 million illegals, involving as it does the idea that the Freepers and survivalists so love, of concentration camps for the poor; that addresses the downward pressure on wages (which, by the way, gets mitigated if illegals are made legal, because minimum wages are much, much harder to enforce when people are paid under the table); and that takes into account the fact that, for crying out loud, we've made a free-trade zone with Mexico (and we want to build an electrical fence to keep their workers out?); then more power to him. I'm fully prepared to give Bush the benefit of the doubt, though I've broken with him on almost every other issue.