HOW THE GOP LOST MIDDLE AMERICA

HumanEvents ^ | January 31, 2014

[Steelfish]

HOW THE GOP LOST MIDDLE AMERICA How the GOP lost Middle America By: Patrick J. Buchanan 1/31/2014

Out of the Republican retreat on Maryland’s Eastern shore comes word that the House leadership is raising the white flag of surrender on immigration.

The GOP will agree to halt the deportation of 12 million illegal aliens, and sign on to a blanket amnesty. It only asks that the 12 million not be put on a path to citizenship.

Sorry, but losers do not dictate terms. Rich Trumka of the AFL-CIO says amnesty is no longer enough. Illegal aliens must be put on a path to citizenship and given green cards to work — and join unions.

Rep. Paul Ryan and the Wall Street Journal are for throwing in the towel. Legalize them all and start them on the path to citizenship.

A full and final capitulation. Let’s get it over with.

To understand why and how the Republican Party lost Middle America, and faces demographic death, we need to go back to Bush I.

At the Cold War’s end, the GOP reached a fork in the road. The determination of Middle Americans to preserve the country they grew up in, suddenly collided with the profit motive of Corporate America.

The Fortune 500 wanted to close factories in the USA and ship production abroad — where unions did not exist, regulations were light, taxes were low, and wages were a fraction of what they were here in America.

Corporate America was going global and wanted to be rid of its American work force, the best paid on earth, and replace it with cheap foreign labor.

[SMARTY]

“Corporate America was going global and wanted to be rid of its American work force, the best paid on earth, and replace it with cheap foreign labor.”

What I don't get is, that this took place when technology was on the rise, unskilled jobs and labor intensive jobs were (continue to be) on the decline.

What sort of thinking was involved here? Were cheap and unskilled foreign workers capable of filling the 'new' jobs?

[TexasFreeper2009]

lol

nice revisionist history there!

1. It’s been Democrats from the get go that have pushed for illegal aliens to be made citizens

2. A Democrat, Bill Clinton signed NAFA.

The Republicans haven’t fought as hard as they should have, but make no mistake this mess (like all messes) lies slap dap in the middle of the Democrats laps.

[Paine in the Neck]

An open letter to the GOP Members of Congress

As a Member of Congress, you took this Oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

"Support and defend the Constitution" it says. Did you see that? That document requires, per Art.4, S.4, that

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

An invasion is what we are suffering. That invasion has accelerated with each "comprehensive immigration reform" previously enacted. Instead of another disastrous reform that yet again increases the incentives for millions more to try their luck crossing the southern border, a Representative who took his Oath and the Constitution seriously would be pressing for what the American people have repeatedly said they want - not what Senators Schumer and McCain, Mark Zuckerberg, Mexico, some border state farmers and homebuilders or the Chamber of Commerce rent-seekers want. That is:

1. secure the border in a transparently verifiable way;
2. end the anchor-baby interpretation of the 14th Amendment;
3. enforce eVerify without exception and with severe penalties;
4. no government benefits beyond critical emergency care (and that ought to be billed back to the home government); and
5. NO "Path to Citizenship" - ever - for anyone who has entered the US illegally.

Any bill that does not accomplish these five things is unacceptable. It is de facto amnesty. And it will inevitably encourage millions more illegal entries.

If the GOP is complicit in this amnesty fiasco, either by taking up the Senate bill or through some piecemeal slight of hand with a series of House bills such as we hear are being cooked up of late, the GOP will cease to exist. It will not survive through the 2016 elections. The people will shun the over-tanned, glad-handing, backslapping quislings and look elsewhere for leaders who actually have the spine for the fight. Make no mistake - to me and to many, many others, amnesty is the GOP's Rubicon. Cross it at your electoral peril.

[tanknetter]

We’re talking manufacturing and some services related (IT, financial accounting, etc) jobs going to skilled but much cheaper overseas workers.

Here in the US there’s still a demand for low skilled labor. You can outsource the bookeeping for janatorial services to India, but you can’t outsource the janatorial services labor itself ...

[Darksheare]

How?
By trying to out democrat the democrats.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

One word: demographics.

[Abby4116]

Well, Clinton did sign it but the negotiations started under Bush 1. Here is the vote totals from Wiki:

With much consideration and emotional discussion, the House of Representatives approved NAFTA on November 17, 1993, 234-200. The agreement's supporters included 132 Republicans and 102 Democrats. NAFTA passed the Senate 61-38. Senate supporters were 34 Republicans and 27 Democrats.

[brownsfan]

I posted and was flamed many times that if we continued to offshore, we’d lower the standard of living to the point where Americans would gladly vote for a Marxist.

We’re beaten, but we did it to ourselves.

[skeeter]

There's no denying the facts of what has happened over the past 30 years (and its obvious results).

Although I'm sure the corporatist scoffers will try.

[PGalt]

The G.O.P. (Grand Old Progressives) teamed with U.S.A. (United Socialists of America) to destroy the republic.

Deceit, hidden-agendas, fraud, bullying, mandating, looting & plundering by an elitist cabal of criminals.

There are a lot of CON$ervatives. Are there ANY conservatives who identify the problem? ANY?

[central_va]

Free Trade was a screw job from the get go.

[central_va]

NAFTA; what a shafta...

[Graewoulf]

Nice try Pat Buchanan, but the root cause of the 1986 Amnesty Debacle was a lack of punishment for the Illegal Alien Invaders from Mexico by Federal authorities.

Now the States will take matters into their own hands, and all Hell will break loose.

Once again the US Federal Government has chosen to ignore their own laws.

[PGalt]

OUTSTANDING post. Thanks. BTTT!

[OneWingedShark]

1. secure the border in a transparently verifiable way;

Here's a way to do it [from another thread]:

If no additional illegals come into the country, that would stop the flow, which is the real problem.

Wikipedia on the US/Mexico border:

The border's total length is 1,954 mi, according to figures given by the International Boundary and Water Commission. It is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with approximately 350 million legal crossings being made annually.
[…]
There are an estimated half a million illegal entries into the United States each year.

Wikipedia on the Paladin:

Crew:                     6
Effective firing range:  11 mi
Operational range:      216 mi

So to cover the border we'd need 1,954 / 22 ≈ 89 Paladins… but that's an under-count because that would entail butting them directly on the border. We would actually want them back a bit.

c² = b² + a²
11²  = 5.5² + a²
121 = 30.25 + a²
90.75 = a²
9.5 ≈ a

So, we could put them 5.5 mi away from the border, allowing them to cover 19 mi of border; this would mean that we'd need 1,954 / 19 ≈ 103 paladins [103 * 6 = 618 men].
Or, we could put them 9.5 mi away from the border, allowing them to cover 11 mi of border; this would mean that we'd need 1,954 / 11 ≈ 178 paladins [178 * 6 = 1,068 men].
(Of course we'd need logistics to support them: meals, munitions, mail, etc.)

See, securing the border is not as hard as they make it out to be.

[Steelfish]

This is true. Republicans lose when they play servants to Schumers, Clintons, Boxers, Feinsteins, Lautenbergs.

Bushes gave us 8 years of Clinton and 8 years of Obama, who together radically changed the federal Courts and the US Supreme Court with their political hacks. This country is lost. I say Bushes committed treason.

[Bratch]

[brownsfan]

“Free Trade was a screw job from the get go.”

I get to say “I told you so” as our country declines and devolves to a communist state.

To call it a hollow victory is an understatement.

[Smokin' Joe]

The GOP will agree to halt the deportation of 12 million illegal aliens, and sign on to a blanket amnesty.

There is that tired old number again. It was maybe 12 million when daddy Bush was prez, probably looking at a minimum of 40 million now.

So are they going to deport the other 28 million?

How about closing the frigging border? We have known there was a major porosity problem down there since Eisenhower, and it still isn't anything close to secure.

Will this legislation include all the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas/Hizb'allah types or just the Mexicans?

Something wicked this way comes...