Ouch! How does that feel?

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Jun 26, 2007 at 11:37:29 AM MST

Something about this immigration battle doesn't sit well. For all the bitterness of our political battles, there's at least the sense that the government responds to the drift of public opinion. The Republicans in Congress turned into big spenders and the war in Iraq went poorly. As a result the Democrats prospered in 2006, if narrowly. That's how democracy works. Our politics are often angry and ugly (and that's a problem), but this is because the public is deeply divided on issues of great importance. Deep down, we understand that our political problems reflect our own divisions.

Somehow this immigration battle feels different. The bill is wildly unpopular, yet it's close to passing. The contrast with the high-school textbook version of democracy is not only glaring and maddening, it's downright embarrassing. Usually, even when we're at each others' throats, there's still an underlying pride in the democratic process. This immigration battle strips us of even that pride.

[snip]

You can't solve an argument by imposing a "compromise" on parties who don't actually view it as a compromise. You can't heal social divisions by forcing your version of a "solution" down the public's throats. Real healing comes only when two sides reach what they themselves consider a valid compromise, or when one side wins the argument by persuading a clear majority of the validity of its case. Democracy does work, but first the Senate has got to give it a try.

Ezra Klein:

How many times have polls shown that Americans want a timetable for withdrawal? How many times have Republicans and the White House beat legislation in service of those sentiments back? And how many times has Stanley Kurtz written angry posts demanding that the government accept the will of the people?

Kurtz is all for small-d democracy. At least when its outcomes agree with his prejudices.

I admit it's been fun watching how previously gung-ho, pro-Bush conservatives react when the President questions their patriotism while shoving unpalatable and unpopular legislation down their throats.

Feds bully New Haven over immigrant IDs

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Jun 06, 2007 at 21:14:18 PM MST

So, what's a conservative to do with this?

The Department of Homeland Security conducted an early morning raid of undocumented immigrants in New Haven on Wednesday, arresting dozens and prompting city officials to decry what they believe to be federal retaliation for city?s approval Monday of the first-in-the-nation municipal ID program.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 29 arrests Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman for the agency, and city officials said they expect more arrests over the course of the next two weeks. The officials described it as the first-ever mass arrest of illegal immigrants in recent New Haven history, but the ICE spokeswoman says the arrests are not politically driven and are ?routine.?

You think this isn't politically motivated? It would appear as if the federal government is flexing its might to intimidate a city council. It's not exactly what I expected when the Homeland Security Department was created. How about you?

Malkin v. Bush

by: Jay Stevens

Tue May 29, 2007 at 22:42:17 PM MST

Malkin is angry at Bush for hammering out the immigration bill, an attitude not uncommon to...well...everybody. She rails against Bush for using "empty rhetoric" (ironic, eh?), then quotes Article IV, Section IV of the Constitution, and accuses Bush of his own empty rhetoric for, apparently, not upholding his office by enforcing Malkin's bolded, italicized sections of said Constitutional section:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Er...I think it's safe to say the constitutional architects had a military invasion by a sovereign nation on their mind, not immigration. And...how does illegal immigration fit in, one assumes, with a threat of domestic violence?

Is Malkin saying that there's a concerted and willful plot to destroy the United States by Latino immigrants? Seriously?

Someone more attuned to Malkin-speak please clarify. She can't be this ridiculously uninformed.

Right?

Another Day, Another Rightwing Frame

by: Matt Singer

Thu May 24, 2007 at 16:41:36 PM MST

Fine -- but what's your solution, Max and Jon? Mass deportation? Round 'em up at gunpoint?

I'm no huge fan of the immigration bill -- check out the Drum Major Institute for more on why a progressive might have problems -- but raising the specter of "amnesty" for "illegal aliens" is straight out of a rightwing, xenophobic playbook.

The more we push undocumented immigrants underground, the more we encourage a festering underground economy in our own country -- an economy that directly undermines American workers.