“This immigration bill has become a war between the American people and their government. This vote. . .is really not about immigration, it’s about whether we’re going to listen to the American people.”
by Winston Smith
An animated James Edwards opened last Thursday’s radio broadcast of The Political Cesspool with the triumphant observation, “What a difference a day makes!” to describe the emotional roller coaster ride from despair to joy over the deceased Immigration Reform Bill. On Wednesday, millions of Americans were preparing themselves for the mass media town criers to announce that the United States Senate had thumbed their arrogant and insulated noses at the stated will of the people they are supposed to represent, and passed legislation that would have certainly hastened the obliteration of American culture.
For many of us, the spectacle was a jaw-dropping display of senate culture. We read the polls and surveys that showed between 80% and 90% of Americans disapproved of the Immigration Reform Bill, and we wondered why that bill was even being discussed. It seemed the more we demanded answers, the more our elected senators stuffed their fingers into their ears and chanted, “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” to drown out our voices. California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein implored her fellow senators to ignore the angry phone calls and emails from their constituents. Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter read from 18th century Ireland’s Edmund Burke, who said elected representatives must enact their own will over the will of the people they represent. Many Americans were scratching their heads and asking a question that one senator asked; “What part of ‘no’ do they not understand?” Just before the vote was taken on Thursday, South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint summarized the American peoples’ sentiment that had crystallized the day before: “This immigration bill has become a war between the American people and their government. This vote. . .is really not about immigration, it’s about whether we’re going to listen to the American people.”And so the sun set on Wednesday, and many of us shook our heads, shrugged our shoulders, muttered something like, “What’s the use?” and went to bed, anticipating the very different America that we were sure was going to be spawned the next day.
Then, Thursday came, and a mysterious, wise, and benevolent Providence had other plans, unleashing a tsunami of angry American voices that overwhelmed senate email inboxes, phone switchboards, and the senators themselves, and forced them to do what the Constitution requires them to do – represent US. Yes, what a difference a day makes!
Or does it?
What happened in the Senate is now history. But you know what they say – we learn from history that we don’t learn from history. At least the Senate and the White House don’t. Their continued complete disrespect for the American people is evident in their comments about yesterday’s events.
President Bush said, “A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn’t find a common ground. It didn’t work.”
My friends, there is something wrong with a man who sees 80% to 90% of all Americans agreeing on something, and then laments that common ground couldn’t be found. There’s not just something wrong with such a man – there’s something hopeless about him, an obvious “let them eat cake” attitude. In electoral terms, 80% to 90% is an unassailable mandate; it is clear and unambiguous direction. And yet, Mr. Bush is siding against that mandate. Mr. Bush is despairing the failure of the Senate to pass legislation that the American people did not want. In other words, he’s disappointed that the will of the American people prevailed. We got our way, and he doesn’t like it! I have to ask, whose side is he on?
Arlen Specter said, “We talk about profiles in courage — this is a profile in cynicism. Votes were changed in order to defeat the bill, not because they expressed the preference of the senators.”
It is not cynical to represent the people who elected you to represent them – it’s the Constitution, Mr. Specter, Edmund Burke be damned; the job of an elected representative is to represent the people who elected him – period. That’s what elected representatives do, Mr. Specter – they express the preferences of the people who vote them into office. To our friends in Pennsylvania, you good folks need to recall Arlen Specter. He doesn’t understand his role. He has no regard for you, he’s un-American, and he’s an embarrassment to you.
And this from Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: “The country’s not ready. I thought we were, but just concluded the country’s not ready.”
Mr. Brownback is correct, but not in the way he would like to think. Americans are indeed not ready. We are not ready to surrender our communities, our jobs, our culture, and our lives so that businesses can have cheap labor. We are not ready to sacrifice the future well-being and security of our children and grandchildren so that RNC and the DNC can woo the Mestizo voting block.
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff hinted that Americans are cruel and mean-spirited, as he said, “You will continue to see heart-wrenching examples of families being pulled apart because I have an obligation to enforce the law, whether it’s painful to do or whether it’s pleasurable to do.”
Perhaps Mr. Chertoff is more comfortable with the sight of foreclosure notices because American workers have been replaced by cheap illegal alien labor. Perhaps Mr. Chertoff is more comfortable with Americans dying because their local hospital goes bankrupt treating non-paying illegal aliens. Perhaps Mr. Chertoff is more comfortable with American school children being held back because of so many non-English speaking children in classrooms with American children. Furthermore, I’m supremely offended by Mr. Chertoff using the imagery of “families being pulled apart,” as if this were a debate about slavery. No illegal alien comes here by way of slave auction. They could have stayed in their homelands; and if they are here, they can always go home. In fact, a group of wives in Mexico has established a website urging the United States to enforce our immigration laws and send their husbands back to them in Mexico. Those poor women have a better understanding of this issue than Michael Chertoff does! If Mr. Chertoff is so pained by families being split up, then the answer is to reunite them in their homelands. Besides all this, if Mr. Chertoff finds law enforcement so distasteful and painful, why on earth did he agree to become the top law enforcement official in the nation? If enforcing the law is so odious a task to him, he should immediately find another line of work.
Remember the question I asked about Mr. Bush – whose side is he on? Well, here’s a possible answer. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said killing the Immigration Reform Bill was a “grave error.” And he, too, alluded to the alleged inhumanity of Americans, saying that if the bill didn’t pass, human rights violations would continue, as if they are occurring now. If any human rights are being violated, it’s ours. We have the right to safe neighborhoods; we have the right to a decent standard of living; we have the right to be free from the introduction of disease; our children have the right to the best possible education. All of these are threatened by the invasion of illegal aliens from Mr. Calderon’s Mexico. But above all, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO REPRESENTATION IN OUR GOVERNMENT. Apparently, Mr. Calderon disagrees with that. And so do Michael Chertoff, George W. Bush, Ted Kennedy, Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham, Diane Feinstein, a few dozen other United States Senators, and La Raza.
Winston Smith is a staff member of The Political Cesspool Radio Program. He can be e-mailed here: winstonsmith_99@yahoo.com
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=968