When The Stupid Party Fails To Cooperate
Democrats are evidently becoming unable to contain their frustration at the Republican majority's belated unwillingness to commit "open borders" political suicide. As you might expect, their ire is overflowing into the usual race-baiting gutter.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean accused the GOP of "immigrant-bashing":
Of course, nobody is bashing "immigrants." Nobody is saying anything about immigrants - as long as they come here legally. It's the illegal variety that most Americans have a problem with, and the Republicans, being the majority, have to pay attention to that. As should the Dems, if they're actually interested in getting their power back.
And, of course, "immigration" is about the only thing Democrats haven't used to "divide the country." Remember "50/50 nation"? Remember Florida 2000? The past five and a half years of Bush Derangement Syndrome? Donks don't know how to do anything but divide. But let one of their own slide in with 43% of the popular vote [*ahem*] and suddenly America has "united" and "the era of gridlock is over".
But then, in a larger sense, America has always been "divided." If that were not so, why would there even be two national parties? The difference between past and present is that "back in the day" there were areas of common agreement, which is to say issues that lay outside the realm of partisan politics. What are now called "cultural issues" mainly, but also foreign policy to a large extent ("Politics stops at the water's edge."). Now politics is ubiquitous; everything is dragged into the political arena and flensed with a vitriolic ferocity that has rarely, if ever, been seen before in American history.
And ladies and gents, that trend was not initiated from the Right. Republicans as a breed wouldn't know how to "bash" or "divide" even if they had the inclination to do so. And even if they did they'd be way too cowed by the Extreme Media to dare try it. That's what makes the outspokeness of a Tom DeLay or a Tom Tancredo stand out so much.
The alternative possibility that Dean is practically begging the GOP to do just that on the premise that loudly affirming the loudly expressed desires of two-thirds of the electorate to control the borders first before any amnesty is even considered will harm their electoral chances in November. Never underestimate the power of liberal self-delusion.
Chucky Schumer is another case study in this area:
What's that old saying? "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we endeavor to deceive." Small wonder, then, that the ensnarees have ultimately proven to be the Democrats themselves. Far be it from their opponents to chop them out.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean accused the GOP of "immigrant-bashing":
The head of the Democratic Party told the nation's oldest Hispanic rights group on Wednesday that Democrats will not use immigration to divide the country and win in the upcoming midterm elections.
"Immigrant bashing and scapegoating is wrong in order to win elections and we're not going to do it," Howard Dean said at the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Milwaukee.
Of course, nobody is bashing "immigrants." Nobody is saying anything about immigrants - as long as they come here legally. It's the illegal variety that most Americans have a problem with, and the Republicans, being the majority, have to pay attention to that. As should the Dems, if they're actually interested in getting their power back.
And, of course, "immigration" is about the only thing Democrats haven't used to "divide the country." Remember "50/50 nation"? Remember Florida 2000? The past five and a half years of Bush Derangement Syndrome? Donks don't know how to do anything but divide. But let one of their own slide in with 43% of the popular vote [*ahem*] and suddenly America has "united" and "the era of gridlock is over".
But then, in a larger sense, America has always been "divided." If that were not so, why would there even be two national parties? The difference between past and present is that "back in the day" there were areas of common agreement, which is to say issues that lay outside the realm of partisan politics. What are now called "cultural issues" mainly, but also foreign policy to a large extent ("Politics stops at the water's edge."). Now politics is ubiquitous; everything is dragged into the political arena and flensed with a vitriolic ferocity that has rarely, if ever, been seen before in American history.
And ladies and gents, that trend was not initiated from the Right. Republicans as a breed wouldn't know how to "bash" or "divide" even if they had the inclination to do so. And even if they did they'd be way too cowed by the Extreme Media to dare try it. That's what makes the outspokeness of a Tom DeLay or a Tom Tancredo stand out so much.
The alternative possibility that Dean is practically begging the GOP to do just that on the premise that loudly affirming the loudly expressed desires of two-thirds of the electorate to control the borders first before any amnesty is even considered will harm their electoral chances in November. Never underestimate the power of liberal self-delusion.
Chucky Schumer is another case study in this area:
Democrats leading their party's midterm election effort argued on Thursday that any Republican attempt to use immigration as a central campaign issue would backfire.Leaving aside the accuracy, much less the veracity, of Schumer's read of Republican strategic motivations, weren't Willie Horton in 1988 and sodomarriage in 2004 hugely winning issues for them? How is giving the people what they want on illegal immigration possibly going to "backfire"? Or is this reverse psychology again?
They cited Republican plans to hold hearings on illegal immigration around the country this summer, rather than passing immigration legislation in Congress, as a sign of the GOP strategy to motivate conservative voters.
"Republicans want to use this like Willie Horton in 1988 and gay marriage in 2004," said Senator Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "It's no secret they want to use immigration as a political cudgel."
What's that old saying? "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we endeavor to deceive." Small wonder, then, that the ensnarees have ultimately proven to be the Democrats themselves. Far be it from their opponents to chop them out.
posted by JASmius at 9:47 AM
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