Wall Street Journal feeling the heat

For the first time I can remember, a Wall Street Journal writer is showing concern, even a whiff of anxiety, about the immigration issue, not, of course, because out-of-control immigration may damage the country (the Journal doesn’t care about America, it cares about global capitalism), but because opposition to uncontrolled immigration may harm the Republican party. John Fund recognizes that voters are seriously mad about our sieve-like borders and the attendant chaos, and that the Democrats are in a position to out-flank the GOP on the issue. Fund, whom I’ve known as a staunch open-borders ideologue ever since I first talked with him at a Vile Body meeting in New York 15 years ago, and who is not above demagoguing the issue, is telling Bush and Company they’d better get on the stick if they don’t want to lose it all. As I read the below final paragraph of the article, I can almost see the sweat popping out on Fund’s normally complacent forehead.

As the maneuvering of Democrats such as Sen. Clinton and Gov. Richardson shows, Republicans risk letting Democrats turn immigration into a wedge issue that drives many voters to the other party. If Mr. Bush wants to leave office having brought about real immigration reform along with an increase in Hispanic support for Republicans, he must also pull off the delicate balancing act of convincing Americans that the federal government hasn’t lost complete control of the border. Otherwise, the issue will remain stalemated and ripe for political demagoguery.

Did you catch that? As nervous as he is about voter backlash against the GOP over Bush’s open-borders mania, he’s not actually advising the president to do anything about immigration. He’s only telling him to make people believe that he’s doing something. For a true believer like Fund, calling for real immigration enforcement, let alone reduction of legal numbers, would be like a vampire kissing the Cross.

[Note, 8-17-05: On further thought, I consider some of my personal comments about John Fund in this blog entry to be inappropriately harsh, as I discuss here.]

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 15, 2005 05:49 AM | Send