Part of the reason why Bush has had such a good week -- and much of the reason why Francine Busby did not prevail in CA-50 -- stems from the fact that the main topic of national debate was cleverly switched from war to immigration. (See this excellent post-mortum by a Kos diarist.) Like it or not, the public now considers illegal immigration the second most important issue facing this country.
We can combine both topics -- war and immigration -- to our advantage.
Democratic candidates should drive home -- incessantly -- one simple idea: An investment of $30 billion, roughly equal to one-tenth the cost of the Iraq war, would fortify our borders and ports enormously. Even those who favor (as I do) more lenient policies toward immigrants will not mount an argument against more funding for our border guards. Why should the Republicans be allowed to spin the immigration issue to their advantage when for six years they have told the guardians at the gate to do the impossible on a budget of pennies and nickles?
Democratic candidates such as Busby (she will get another shot in November) should drum home the argument that a fraction of the war budget could erect a genuine barrier. Every time the conservatives say the word "immigration," we should switch the topic to border security and how to pay for it. Doing so would allow the Republicans little room for maneuver.
We should emphasize that their misallocation of our national treasury is the key factor that has made our borders so permeable. We should emphasize that money spent on a foolish and unpopular war could have paid for greater security.
Link the two issues. If Francine Busby had done so, she would be in Congress.
3 comments:
Agreed. As to why immigration is such a big issue right now, it is symptomatic of the economic state of this country. When times get hard, it is virtually instinctual to "pull up the drawbridge." In the Great Depression, immigration dropped to almost zero, if I'm not mistaken.
The Dems simply can't win if they fight the zeitgeist. If they don't want to jump on the bandwagon for the Big Fence and criminalization, they need to at least get out of the line of fire.
Linking the hot immigration issue to the hot war issue is a good way to stick it to the Republicans. While at it, why not link in the issue of falling wages? Even the most politically illiterate workers out there in the heartland believe that Big Business wants more illegals in the country to hold down American wages.
BTW, I am not mean-spirited and I don't think most Americans are, either. The Rep's have made a mistake with their crude plans to turn illegals into felons, and charge them for citizenship, I think. It seems to me that most citizens would accept those who are here now, as long as amnesty is not offered, as long as the floodtide of new illegals is halted.
Just ask anyone who is anti open immigration this question:
Just exactly what did you do to earn your citizenship?
I think as a country we are too high and mighty with the luck of our birth site.
wow, agreed on all counts, and what a perfect solution, joe! bravo.
unirealist raises an interesting question; what DID happen to immigration in the depression? my suspicion is that framing it as pulling up the drawbridge is only one side of the cause; there is also the fact that fewer folks would have wanted to come to the land of plenty when it turned into plenty of dust.
also agree the nastiness will backfire the same way similar sentiments backfired in the south.
and definitely, with all these godforsaken tests being required to graduate from high school, you'd think there would be some emphasis on knowing about our government's workings. i'd also vote for public service requirements, but do you think all these pseudo-patriots would buy that?
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