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Newsflash: Bush immigration plan is really conservative
Bush’s legalize-the-illegals plan is so radical and extreme that I thought anyone who supported it might find it at least a little embarrassing to go on claiming to be a “conservative.” Tamar Jacoby—the ineffable, the only and only—has proven me wrong. She writes in Opinion Journal:
What could be more conservative than encouraging the American dream, rewarding work, restoring the rule of law and enhancing our security?I thank Miss Jacoby for enlightening me as to what a true conservative believes in. Jacoby reminds me of leftists I’ve known who, especially after the rise of conservatism under Ronald Reagan, learned to argue that some favorite leftist idea of theirs was really “conservative,” and therefore that I, as a putative conservative, ought to embrace it eagerly. Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 13, 2004 05:18 PM | Send Comments
Even if Mz. Jacoby’s list is truly a list of conservative particulars (she never says what the “American dream,” a liberal shibboleth if ever there was one, is), the Bush national suicide plan would encourage none of those things. She is simply taking President Bush’s list of clichés about the amnesty proposal and repeating them as though repetition will make them true. HRS Posted by: Howard Sutherland on January 13, 2004 5:26 PMThe Jacoby article is ridiculous, particularlyin its attempt to portray Bush as a successor to Reagan on this issue. Let’s try to remember that Reagan tried, however inadequately, to STOP illegal immigration by imposing employer sanctions, along with the misguided amnesty. Posted by: Alan Levine on January 13, 2004 5:28 PMNeocons are rather split on the Bush plan. Our trouble with the neo-conservatives is that, while some may oppose aspects of Bush’s proposal on pragmatic grounds, they do not oppose it in principle. There is a gap there that we can not bridge. We oppose what Bush proposes because we believe it would destroy the American nation. They support it because they believe immigration strengthens the American nation - which to them is whatever collection of factors of production occupies U.S. territory at any given time. Our views are irreconcilable. Barnes’ quibbles are merely tactical. He is still our enemy. HRS Posted by: Howard Sutherland on January 14, 2004 8:54 AM |