Rebecca of Revka’s Take had a great question in the comment section of my post, “Not What I Wanted, Not What We Need.” She asked:
Blo, I have a question no one has asked. Why now? Why hasn’t this been discussed and dealt with 20 years ago? Why is it now BUSH’S deal? Because of the upcoming election, and the ‘no-plan’ libs are using it to try and regain power. Be careful, because the libs have set the trap and we are getting caught up in it.
I responded in the comment section of that post, and would now care to expand on that response in the further light of day:
Rebecca:
Excellent question! The issue, at least in Fornicalia, has been brewing for many years. And yes, other presidents have had the chance to address the issue. But like most other humans, if people (particularly politicians) don’t HAVE to deal with an issue, they WON’T deal with an issue.
In Fornicalia it began under a man named S.I. Hayakawa, who was a large advocate for “English only” in the schools. He felt that English was the language of success not only nationally but internationally as well — as do I.
He became a Republican US Senator from Fornicalia, 1977 until 1983. He was an English professor at San Francisco State and then president of that college from 1968 to 1973. He also founded “US English,” which is a lobbying organization (to which I contribute) advocating, simply, English as the only language of the US.
Taking that stand, at that tumultuous time in a, shall we say, “left wing” college in a “left wing” area was, ahem, turbulent — and a stand taken by a Japanese man. But the issue was now on the table in Fornicalia, publically.
Fornicalia also passed Proposition 187 in 1995, by a 59% margin. 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative designed to deny illegal immigrants social services, health care, and public education. It was introduced by assemblyman Dick Mountjoy (Monrovia Republican) as the “Save Our State” initiative.
A number of other organizations were involved in bringing it to the voters. It passed with 59% of the vote, but was overturned by a federal court.
Proposition 187 included several additions to the law, falling into two categories:
— All law enforcement agents who suspect that a person who has been arrested is in violation of immigration laws must investigate the detainee’s immigration status, and if they find evidence of illegality they must report it to the attorney general of California, and to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Local governments are prohibited from doing anything to impair the fulfillment of this requirement. The attorney general must keep records on all such cases and make them available to any other government entity that wishes to inspect them.
— No one may receive public benefits until they have proven their legal right to reside in the country. If anyone applies for benefits and is suspected by government agents of being illegal, those agents must report in writing to the enforcement authorities. Emergency medical care is exempted as required by federal law but all other medical benefits have the same test as above. Primary and secondary education is explicitly included.
This started a secondary push and there was, of course, massive resistance from the Left — despite the clear stance of the People.
Then-Governor Pete Wilson supported 187; State Senator Art Torres referred to Prop. 187 as “the last gasp of white America in California.” Battle lines were being drawn already.
In southern border states the issue has been on the table for a number of years. It simply took the national fire time to make the pot begin to boil over.
Fast forward to now: let us not forget those who are constantly pushing for more and free entitlements. The “demonstrations” and a “Day Without Immigrants” won over only those already so driven in the Mexican community; the rest of the nation motored on its way. In my opinion the demonstrations and The Day resulted in the issue being further pushed to the forefront where President Bush was finally thrust into a political corner and knew he must appear to act in some fashion.
It’s only Bush’s Baby because of timing. He had a massive opportunity to make one of his famous stands early on and, instead, has chosen to not recognize the true nature of national feelings and wishes on the issue. We need a fence and we need it now.
I will give President Bush this — and I can think of this stance as being the only reason to be such a obfuscator on the immigration issue: he may be fearful that a hard-line stance on immigrants from Mexico will cause that nation to turn Hard Left — not unlike Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Or: the devil he knows vs. the devil he doesn’t. That or an “under the table” oil deal.
BZ
P.S. to Rebecca:
I see, now that Mexico has threatened to sue the US for its intent to place NG troops on the border, your gloves appear to be coming off. Good!
What you are describing is what occurs when “some individuals move from one country to another.” A phenomenon that may be “controlled politically, restricted, encouraged, planned, or accepted. What the US is experiencing, on the other hand, is not immigration but Migration. Migration is a “natural phenomenon: it happens, and no one can control it.” Migration is an extreme catastrophe, where instead of assimilating into the culture into which a people moves, (as what happens with immigration) an entire population moves into an area and changes the political, cultural, and economic make up of a country or area. This phenomenon has happened many times throughout history and, and it is at work all over he Western hemisphere today.
Independently of what we may call it; a country in which 25 to 30% of the population identifies with another country, votes and participate in another countries election and remits most of their savings to another economy cannot be called the United States of America.
The immediate economic result of such massive migration is an erosion of the quality of life, an escalation in crime, a diminished life expectancy, literacy rate and infant mortality of our population just to mention quantifiable changes.
Notwithstanding that some poor as a whole may benefit from being poor in an environment where poverty is richness as compared as the areas where they originate. In the long run openness to migration results in a disincentive to the needed ethical and political changes in the countries were the migrants originate.
The reason why our politicians are showing no leadership and constantly babble incoherent slogans is due to the fact that very soon; sometime within the next nine years the cost of Medicare-Medicaid and Social Security combined will exceed the revenue from employment taxes that have been used until now to cover for excessive government spending of the last quarter of century. When that event arrives the cost of these services would have to be paid in part with funds from other sources, meaning that Social Security and Medicaid-Medicare will be in competition for money with all other government programs including the military
The meaning of this is that future governments would have no choice but to raise taxes or cut services to an elderly population. Unless they can convince a population of minority third world workers to pay increased taxes while receiving less services. The problem with that equation is that low skilled workers pay a smaller percentage of the tax burden while consuming more services. One $80,000 engineer produces more government revenue and uses less government services than four $20,000 agricultural workers.
It was the marches.
It shouldn’t be Bush’s deal. It should have been Johnson or Nixon’s deal.
The marches turned up the heat. That is why it is now.
The Nation began sowing the seeds of Big Government with FDR, the US response to Statism that came in the form of Communism and Fascism. World War II and the Cold War required large scale responses that a mobilized Nation State could give. Unfortunately it has left us with Big Government Statism as its reward, and that outside of times of emergencies, is anathema to the founding of this Republic.
The fast *good* of Social Security in the 1930’s, to move older workers from the workforce and open up jobs has become a timebomb with the baby boomers. High drug costs and medical costs eat up larger portions of the personal budget than ever before. Together they spell a problem as the US cannot maintain both systems at this rate and the only solution is to dismantle them.
Because of demographics there is no short-term, quick fix. No White Knight with an Easy Answer to Save Us All. Thank heavens for that! We need those like we need additional holes added to our heads in mid-life.
This Republic was founded on the concept of limited Government that *governs* and does not rule. Today the political parties believe that they should RULE when they win elections, NOT govern. This is clear from how both parties approach things.
And thinking like this leads to the formation of concepts to *divide* the People into Groups so that one may win elections with those Groups and give them the goodies of the Nation. This tears at the very fabric of society and yet has been the accepted methodology for winning elections and running the Nation for decades.
This is entirely a Transnational notion: that Groups matter more than individuals. By asserting that, both political parties are destroying the meaning of this Republic and denying that We the People shall be protected and governed as a *whole*. If a party can *triangulate* enough voters, they get to *rule*. And notice that the big fear by the party not in power is that they will not ever get another election so that they get a chance to *rule*.
And governing?
That falls by the wayside. Ruling and divvying up the pot prevails. And so no one looks out to protect the People, but instead, protect *special interests* and Groups. On the Left no one wants borders so that they Republic may be diluted further and the Nation State itself brough closer to an end so they may *rule*. And on the Right, businesses and other interests seek government subsidies and low cost, slave labor so that they may better *compete*, and if the Nation may not impose on them responsibilities because their side *rules*, well so much the better.
Small Government Convservatism has been co-opted and diluted to the point of not existing. Feeling used and abused so that their party may gain power, they leave in disbelief. And believe it or not, there used to be Small Government Liberals who saw the encroachment of the Nation State into everything as a *problem* for personal liberty. They have been so disgusted that they may no longer even *vote*.
And the Jacksonians being neither of those, but having the sense that the Nation matters to either party have sat watching, with no one willing to stand up in either party to say: Yes, the Republic as it was intended is an honorable endeavor and needs to be kept in its place so that personal honor may help the People succeed in life against everything. Read out by the Democrats in ’72 and a century and more of dedication to them dishonored… Jacksonians are unwilling to place faith in any political party seeing what they have mutated into. And as fewer *individuals* are found honorable running for high office, those votes do not get cast for them… why does only 40% or so of the electorate actually vote?
That 60% has been disenfranchised by the glorious 2 party system… one which does not defend the Nation and keep it whole. And so I look to another Century and think… and hope that a few good ideas can take root and start to uproot this critter called Big Government.
Randy S: first, welcome aboard, thank you for your visit. It could be called a migration, but I certainly concur with your calling it a catastrophe — certainly for those nationals involved — and am also tending to concur with your conclusion that the country cannot be called the United States; this begs another question and discussion altogether.
Your third paragraph — ah, and therein lies the rub. Quality of life is most DEFINITELY an issue with me — though a believer of this would possibly be in conflict with some strands of religion QUANTITY of life is the central issue. I am not of this bent.
However, in the process, you note that such erosion not only degrades the overall quality of life but can impact life expectancy, infant mortality and, of course, the literacy rate.
You are preaching to the choir here. What we have the temerity to quantify as “poverty” in the US qualifies as “riches” in other countries. Various PSAs on TV pound the American public, again and again, that poverty strikes all and that so many children and some adults “go to bed hungry” every night.
I’m sorry; I’ve not yet seen ANY of these skeletal children or adults — and my job has taken me to some of the poorest of households — unless, naturally, one is consuming vast quantities of crack or crank; then one is perhaps a bit weight-challenged but only because one has made a DECISION to do so. Mostly I see grossly OVERWEIGHT persons who have YET to see ONE hungry day — unless they didn’t quite acquire their minimum of 3 Ultimate Cheeseburgers for lunch.
Your point with the “graying of the generations” raises once again the issue of social security — an issue that Bush was willing to address but, because it has not yet reached Crisis Mode, no one is willing to address. We must crash and catch fire before attention will be paid to this matter.
And you have hit the nail on the head. Let’s be brutally honest. Mexico does not bleed Techno-Workers. These are generally ill-educated workers whose future will consist of minimum wage or physical labor jobs. And technology will soon catch up to many of these jobs. It is the nature of progress.
Yes; the percentile of taxes paid DOES NOT cover the drain on services DEMANDED by this ILLEGAL strata; and we (at least in Fornicalia) are LOATHE to do ANYTHING to buttress our precarious and insufficient public works INFRASTRUCTURE.
Randy S: you are cogent and logical. You are welcome here ANY TIME.
BWH: The past is immaterial, in truth. It is his baby now and he must handle it. It has been building for years and for generations. It is coming to a head for all the reasons I delineated in the post.
AJ: Oh gosh YES, there is NO easy fix! The more I watch and learn, the more I am beginning to tend to distance myself from the GOP altogether — and this is such a sad state of affairs. And your reference to special interests and issue-groups — it is such a truism that only “divvying up the pot” becomes the centralized issue.
Sigh.
BZ
Blo,
Just got to this today!
Great post and awesome answer. It totally makes sense that it is just a timing issue. Even though the libs are ‘using’ it for votes and power, it is purely a timing thing. It is about time though that something be done. I am telling you that whenever I struggle with these things, i go to my old staple..Ann Coulter. She says it straight and she is totally on target most of the time. With Harriet Miers and now this.
Anyway, great post and yes my gloves are off!