a sign language interpreter, please, for those of us who are deaf.
My, how times have changed at USMB. The same people who were heroes and obviously right on every issue (back when Republicans had a disciplined majority) are now being called "idiots" and "politicians" by their former supporters here. And it's so much harder to blame "libs" and "Dems" for everything, now that Republicans are fleeing their former party lines in fear for their own hides, and critiquing one another like never before. It's a breath of fresh air finally to have some real debates going on, about oil, the war, health care, immigration, etc.
Too true, though, what several people here have noted, that for both parties re-election can trump thoughtful policy.
Re: immigration, I read an interesting piece by a population expert a few weeks ago, who said that our current need for so many illegal workers is simply demographic--we don't have as many poor young people as we used to, but we will have them again, as another bulge is moving through the ranks. He also pointed out that the apparent "crisis" is in large part due to the fence, which concentrates immigration along a smaller part of the US/Mexican border, and therefore increases the apparent number of immigrants. Furthermore, he said that stricter controls on people's movements has the perverse effect of making it harder for illegals here to get back to Mexico, and increases their numbers here.
Even though I'm generally liberal, I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that people who are here illegally are breaking the law, and don't deserve amnesty.
At the same time, it would cost tens of billions of dollars to deport 11,000,000 people and keep them out. So there has to be some type of muddier solution, involving creating a better legal pathway to get here (after all, we need the workers, or our restaurant, construction, and farm industries shut down), and managing those who are already here.
Of course the Republican party is split on this. Those from border states have a lot of sympathy for immigrants. Several Republican Senators and Representatives had illegal immigrant parents and relatives! (Pete Dominici's mother was arrested right out of his home when he was about 12--she was here illegally from Italy, I believe.) One guy from Florida was an illegal himself! On the other side are law-and-order Republicans.
Maybe this changed time, when the answers aren't so obvious anymore, becuase the Hammer is gone and Bush has no coattails, is a good time for people here to quit the whole ridiculous "Republicans are always right and Democrats are always wrong" polarized thing. It's a world of ideas out there, and both Democrats and Republicans can have good ideas at different times. Dividing everyone into teams is poisonous. If Bush could have brought himself to accept bipartisan counsel on serious issues such as Iraq, oil policy, etc., we could have had much wiser and better gov't in the past few years.
Mariner.
You want a do-over?
