How To Turn The Illegal Immigration Issue Into A Huge Winner For The GOP In 2006 Just imagine if the Republicans in the Senate took the same line as the Republicans in the House and pushed a bill that does nothing but secure the border and strengthen our immigration laws. Not only would it be wildly popular, but think of what a fantastic issue it would be for the elections in 2006. It would literally put the Democrats in a position where they would feel compelled to vote against securing the border.
Plus, think about the other issues that this would put in play:
-- The GOP would be the party that believes in respecting the law and the Democrats would be the party that believes in rewarding people for breaking the law.
-- The GOP would be the party sticking up for the jobs of poor Americans while the Democrats would be the party that wants to bring in foreigners to take jobs from Americans.
-- The GOP would be the party looking out for the American taxpayers, while the Democrats would be the party that wants to make illegals citizens so they can give them welfare and food stamps.
-- The GOP would be the party that puts Americans first, while Democrats would be the party for people who believe that foreigners should be given a leg up over Americans in America.
All it would take to make this happen would be to split border security and immigration enforcement, which is extremely popular with people from both parties, from a guest worker/citizenship program, which is incredibly controversial with people in both parties. If the Democrats want to argue that we should leave our borders wide-open for months or maybe even years while we debate a controversial guest worker program, let them make that argument, but that's certainly not the position that Republicans should be taking.
The GOP should unite behind a simple principle on illegal immigration: "Secure the border and enforce our laws."
http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2006_04_09.PHP#005539
The Democrats want an amnesty bill or no bill at all.
I think you are correct that, politically, the BEST place for the GOP to be would be to have a popular bill that they passed, ... OR a popular bill the Democrats loudly filibuster.
Instead, the GOP in the Senate is trying to bend over backwards to get a 'bipartisan' compromise. Big mistake. The Democrats are wnating a bad bill for all the wrong reasons.
You make too much sense.