Jewish World Review Jan. 14, 2004 / 20 Teves, 5764

Tony Blankley

Blankley
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


The strange case of immigration politics


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | President Bush's recent, lamentable proposals on illegal immigrants highlight, yet again, that both the Republican and Democratic Parties heed neither public opinion nor their primary governing responsibility to defend and protect the United States, as it relates to illegal immigration.


Decades of public polling by the most respectable news and polling organizations have invariably disclosed that, although the numbers have moved up and down within a small range, solid majorities of the American public want our borders secured, illegal immigrants tracked down and even legal immigration reduced in volume. Over the last decade, according to a Wall St. Journal/ NBC poll, 52 percent of Americans favor a five-year ban on all legal and illegal immigration; a Time/CNN poll disclosed 80 percent want the federal government to track down illegal aliens; a CBS/New York Times poll in 1995 revealed less immigration wanted by 66 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Independents.


Last year's New York Times/CBS poll shows those number down slightly, to 55 percent wanting a decrease, 35 percent wanting no change and only 7 percent wanting more immigrants. In 1994, California's Proposition 187 (which cut off social services to illegals) passed by 59 percent. Last fall, during the recall election in California, polling showed it was still supported by more than 55 percent of the public — with neither of the major candidates even advocating it.


Over those past two decades neither Congress nor the White House — whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats — has even proposed, let alone implemented, a program seriously designed to gain those ends. As a result, Mr. Bush is left with the feeble and futile proposals that he announced last week.

Donate to JWR

It would seem to be ridiculously obvious that any effort to contain and manage the existing illegal population will be futile, so long as we cannot substantially control the flow of new illegals into the country. There must be at least 2 billion or 3 billion people around the globe who would rather live and work in America than where cruel fate has deposited them.


I might agree with the president's proposals if they followed, rather than preceded, a failed Herculean, decades-long national effort to secure our borders. If, after such an effort, it was apparent that we simply could not control our borders, then, as a practical man I would try to make the best of a bad situation. But such an effort has not yet been made. And why it has not been made reveals a singular failing of the American political system.


Given how closely presidential elections are contested in the United States, it is rare for neither of the political parties to champion such a major issue, supported by such a solid majority over such a sustained period. It is also something of an oddity for the major national media not to pressure the politicians when they ignore public opinion so contemptuously for so long.


This condition is not explained by a conspiracy amongst a plutocratic, elite governing class, but by the usual hodgepodge of individual and party political calculations, cultural biases, lack of courage and the deadening power of stasis over the need for change. All these routine elements of human endeavor have just lined up rather oddly on the immigration issue.


The Democratic Party has opposed a serious effort at border control both because it is the historic party of immigrants, and because it is currently powerfully in the sway of radical ethnic interest groups and a set of goofy, anti-traditional (almost anti-American) intellectual conceits popular in academe and the media these days. This is all fairly predictable. The Democratic Party is playing to type on illegal immigration.


What might not have been predicted is the Republican Party's passivity — now complicity — in abandoning a defense of our borders against illegal entry. As the law and order, strong on defense, traditional values party, one would have expected the Republican Party to have been the champion of secure borders. But political, cultural and interest group factors have deflected the GOP from its natural position.


Because, due to changing demographics, the GOP must increase its share of the Hispanic vote from a quarter to at least 40 percent over the next generation, the GOP's leadership is afraid to risk antagonizing such votes by a secure borders policy. Whether this judgment turns out to be good politics very much remains to be seen.


And, cross pressuring the GOP's law and order values is the strong need of business and agribusiness to keep the cheap labor flowing. More subtly, upper-middle America's growing habituation to cheap domestic help surely has unstiffened the spines of many Republican contributors who previously would have pressured the party to get tough on the border.


Thus, for different but complementary reasons, neither party is currently disposed to fight hard for a maximum effort to secure our borders from illegal entry. And, with neither party pushing the media, the media's natural cultural indifference to the issue has largely silenced the obvious public majority on this great and threatening issue. Such a condition is unhealthy for both the country in general and specifically our democratic political process.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.




Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

01/07/04: Funding for American presidential elections is beginning to go global
12/31/03: Make us laugh
12/24/03: War prophesies
12/17/03: Analyze this!
12/10/03: Until peace is ready to be negotiated …
12/03/03: AFL-CIO meets Monty Python
11/26/03: Republicans need to learn from the Romans
11/19/03: All of a sudden we have a responsible media?
11/12/03: To arms
11/05/03: Mayor Mike's appetite for self-destructive accusations
10/29/03: A bloody march to peace
10/22/03: Calls for a general 's head because his comments may have ruffled the feathers of our esteemed enemies!?
10/08/03: The leakers' agony
10/01/03: Managing a scandal
09/24/03: Will we have to balance our strong ethical and religious revulsion of cloning against the danger of being surpassed by a gene-manipulated super-race?
09/17/03: The skinny on the First Ladies
09/10/03: More than cynicism will be needed to defeat prez
09/03/03: Dead Man Politickin'
08/27/03: Patience is not America's long suit
08/13/03: George Will's trifecta of punitive aspirations
07/30/03: A question for the candidates: Whose side are you on?
07/23/03: When GOPers attack their leader
07/17/03: Spanish fest mirrors U.S. elections
07/09/03: On the horns of a dilemma
06/25/03: The continuing deaths of American and British soldiers in Iraq should not be rhetorically minimized -- but sanctified
06/18/03: No reason to feel defensive about criticism of the war on terrorism
06/11/03: The Clintons — self-proclaimed geniuses — have no defense against the charge of cunning mendacity
06/04/03: George 'Machiavelli' Bush? Nah
05/28/03: When 'progressives' become reactionaries
05/21/03: Yes, this conservative is defending the NYTimes
05/14/03: Playing the politics of deflation
05/07/03: Only the stupid could think it'll be the economy: Comparing the Bushes 04/30/03: How to squelch increasing Iraqi distrust of America
04/25/03: Winning the war, losing the peace
04/16/03: Our own domestic Senate Republican Guard better be prepared for a grinding
04/03/03: At this human moment we need to act like humans, not just calculating analysts
04/02/03: If we could only draft Jennings' eyebrow to the cause, we wouldn't need the 4th Armored Division?
03/26/03: This war is showing the world who we really are
03/19/03: Time for America to laugh at itself
03/13/03: They're coming out of the woodwork: Russert, Buchanan and Moran
03/05/03: Franc-tireur
02/26/03: World history is shifting under our feet --- even our most experienced statesmen are, effectively, inexperienced
02/19/03: The shame! We've mischaracterized the French 02/12/03: Schroeder and Chirac will be disproportionately undercutting their interests
02/05/03: We need to rise above our temporary anger and seek to preserve our bonds with our European cousins
01/29/03: Who is President Bush's stupidest opponent: Saddam Hussein or Tom Daschle?
01/22/03: We call them our European cousins --- but I demand a DNA test
01/16/03: Dems bare partisan teeth
01/02/03: Before the cheering must come the struggle
12/27/02: Long ago and far away
12/18/02: Be glad that Gore's gone?
12/11/02: What fun! A titanic, once-in-a-century partisan battle royal is in the offing
12/04/02: Kerry atwitter
11/27/02: The unThankful list
11/20/02: First the scare, then the yawn
11/13/02: It's going to be a long two years for Lefty Pelosi and the Frisco Dems
11/06/02: Technology: A pollster's worst enemy --- thank goodness!
10/31/02: Watch this election's Wheel of Fate
10/23/02: The Ari and Colin Show: Politics has never been, well, more vaudeville-like
10/09/02: Bush beats drums of realism
10/02/02: Needed: A political chromatograph to detect any true statements in the public domain
09/25/02: Buchanan's new mag
09/18/02: There are many forms of peace
09/11/02: The imperial period of our history starts
09/04/02: Memo to Powell: In periods of upheaval, the refusal to act gives aid to those bent on destruction
08/30/02: Logging old growth is a sham issue

© 2002, Creators Syndicate