Mountains out of molehills
Dafydd and The Captain have good thoughtful posts on the contention of GOP strategist Matthew Dowd that the immigration bill is viewed favorably by a large majority of GOP voters. It also is viewed favorably by Hispanic voters.
This seems impossible to imagine, if one only gets a sense of GOP opinion by reading most conservative bloggers. Earlier, I had a short post where I expressed my view that I just didn't think that immigration was the huge hot-button issue to most people the way it seemed to dominate the blogosphere. I'm sure that in California, Arizona and Texas it may be. But living here in Tennessee, I've never heard anyone ever get exercised over the issue. Sure, you'll see workers in a convenience store or working in landscaping that may make you wonder if they are here illegally. The response is a shrug.
I just can't see a major political revolt in the GOP base over the issue -- regardless of what is in the bill!
This seems impossible to imagine, if one only gets a sense of GOP opinion by reading most conservative bloggers. Earlier, I had a short post where I expressed my view that I just didn't think that immigration was the huge hot-button issue to most people the way it seemed to dominate the blogosphere. I'm sure that in California, Arizona and Texas it may be. But living here in Tennessee, I've never heard anyone ever get exercised over the issue. Sure, you'll see workers in a convenience store or working in landscaping that may make you wonder if they are here illegally. The response is a shrug.
I just can't see a major political revolt in the GOP base over the issue -- regardless of what is in the bill!
posted by Stan at 2:03 PM
3 Comments:
I think of myself as a fairly reasonable, moderately conservative ( but not fanatical) person and I've called my TN Senator and Congressman a couple of times about the immigration issue. I feel we have to put emphasis on border security...how can we even call ourselves a country if we can't secure our borders. The current status quo is unacceptable and ridiculous. I also feel strongly that we shouldn't be devaluing citizenship by giving it away to people who break our laws and abuse our good nature. Much to my surprise, my 87 year old mom feels much the same way and we haven't agreed on political things since George W. Bush took office in 2000. She definitely doesn't listen to talk radio but watches C-span, msnbc and cnn. The senate spechifying on the immigration issue disgusted and infuriated her.
I can't qiute explain why but it is hugely important to some of us...must be the principle of the thing.
Maybe if you were in the South West. Colorado like me, AZ, NM, Cali, etc., you would see how many of them there are. It's an invasion.
Actually, in Indiana it's a pretty big issue. I know several GOP voters who are staying home this trip to make their point before the '08 election. I think the citizenship thing is the big point. I work with legal immigrants and they're pissed. They value their citizenship and feel like this proposal cheapens it.
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