Straight Talk On Immigration And Attitudes
Reformers must heat up border talk (David Hill, The Hill)
If only a few more Americans were as honest about their immigration opinions as the principled online columnist Rich Galen (www.mullings.com), we’d probably have avoided the Senate’s recent awkward fumble of immigration reform. If key Senators had understood that Galen is “Everyman” on this issue, they might have taken their eyes off of the polls and led us to a solution.
Galen had the guts to confess: “Here’s what I think about the immigration issue: I don’t know what I think. I agree with the last person I hear speaking about it.”
Like most of us, Galen struggles to reconcile competing beliefs about matters like the rule of law, secure borders, economic opportunity and compassion for one’s neighbor. His ambiguity reflects how most Americans really feel, but a plethora of polls have left the impression with too many lawmakers that voters possess a knowledgeable and logical set of firm beliefs about immigration. Nothing could be more incorrect.
[snip]
Someone who favors a guest-worker program today is evidently likely to want to build a 2,000-mile wall tomorrow. Then the next day they tell a pollster to forget both options and instead bring the Army home from Iraq to patrol the border. Then a few minutes later they add, “Nah, just station a couple thousand fat vigilantes along the border.”
The paucity of informed and stable opinions about this issue has played into the hands of rabble-rousers who oppose meaningful solutions. Whenever voters don’t really grasp the factual underpinnings of an issue, they respond mostly to the rhetoric and symbols of the debate.
Opponents of comprehensive reform brandish the most powerful symbols. They can talk angrily of those who “break our laws,” “reduce our wages” and “burden our taxpayers.” Meanwhile, more thoughtful reformers are speaking about less emotive and more cerebral concepts like circular migration, paths to citizenship and “coming in from the shadows.”
I've excerpted too much of Dr. Hill's article already. Please go give it a read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/25/06 22:38 | American Politics | Technorati
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But the question then becomes: Will Tom Tancredo be that last person? And if Tom wants to be that last person, might it make sense for him to start moderating or narrowing his position about, oh, right now?!
Posted by Brad S @ 10:53 on 04/27/06
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