Posted on 06/04/2007 9:24:52 PM PDT by bd476
As Congress takes another pass at immigration, its supporters hail it as an all-American phenomenon. President George W. Bush calls it therapeutic: "Immigration helps renew our soul...
Snip
The bigotry of immigration opponents is a familiar shadow in our civic myth, like the devils and tempters in a medieval morality play. In 1798 John Adams signed the Alien Act, which gave the President the power to expel "dangerous" foreigners.
Harrison Gray Otis, an Adams supporter in Congress, singled out "hordes of wild Irishmen" as particularly unwelcome. Other Congressmen mocked the French accent of Representative Albert Gallatin, who was born in Geneva, Switzerland. Adams was rewarded for his harshness on this issue and others by losing the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson, who understood Gallatin well enough to make him Treasury Secretary.
The next wave of anti-immigrant feeling targeted Irish and German Catholics. In 1844 anti-immigrant rioters in Philadelphia burned two Catholic churches. By the mid-1850s, an anti-immigrant political movement, the Know-Nothings (so-called because their organization was secret), seemed poised for national success. Abraham Lincoln disdained them: "How can any one who abhors the oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people?"
The onset of the Civil War threw the Know-Nothings into the shade; the U.S. had enough homegrown trouble without worryings about immigrants.
In the early 1920s, Congress created a system of immigration quotas based on countries of origin, weighted toward northwestern Europe. "The races from Southern and Eastern Europe," a lobbyist argued, had no experience of government other than "paternal autocracy."
The great immigration contraction coincided with a nationwide revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which, in this incarnation, was as much anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish as antiblack.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bigots, blah, blah, blah, racists, woof, woof.
Lets be honest here. America doesn’t feel like these 12-20 million illegals are a net benefit to America. It’s not because we’re racists or bigots. It’s because they are 3rd world immigrants and they’re here in too large of numbers. This bill will not only make these folks legal, it will allow most of them to bring in their relatives and this could be tens of millions more 3rd world immigrants. Also don’t forget, many of these folks will have more anchor babies and to top it all off, we don’t believe the gov’t will stop more illegals either.
To be blunt, if we’re not happy with these 12-20 million, what makes gov’t think we’d be happy with tens of millions more?
They can try to cloud the issue by confusing legal with illegal immigration.
Since they have the metal acumen of a very slow 2-year-old, I shall illustrate the difference in terms that Time and Congress members can understand.
LEGAL immigration - good.
ILLEGAL immigration - bad.
If I said what I think about Brookhiser, my post would be deleted at a minimum.
We don’t have “immigrants” much any more. Just illegal lowlifes who give us the finger, and take our money and benefits!
What happened to this drooling fool??
Has there been any other time in U.S. history:
Seems to me that many in our government have decided that by calling us racist, they absolve themselves of any responsibility to we the people. I don’t believe that’s how it works. Their responsibility to us is the same whether we’re racists or not.
If they don’t want to serve us “racists” they’re free to resign at any time.
I don’t know. Maybe he took too much LSD or something.
*yawn*
The race card is getting played far too much, to the point where people aren’t even phased by it anymore.
Legal Good.
Illegal Bad.
Jeez folks. If you can’t distinguish that part of our argument and insist on equating us to the KKK, then:
TIME Magazine is written by idiots!
(That at least is proved.)
LOL!!
I saw “Time Magazine”, and I saw “Brookhiser”, and cruised on.
Brookshire is late to the attack. The President and many Senators and Representatives, began demonizing us several weeks ago.
How many feel a real sense of respect and gratitude?
How many speak English or ever want to learn to speak English?
How many are truly loyal to the USA and what it stands for?
The old legal immigrants couldn’t just hop across the border to visit “home”? In the old days of the Ellis Island immigrants, you couldn’t just pop over to Europe for a week. It took more than a week just to get there and another long voyage back. You didn’t return to “the old country” casually.
Heck, even among so called “native” Americans on the left, how many of them feel any loyalty much less love for their own country?
The number of leftists who hate their own country today is shocking, scandalous and extremely depressing.
CALL! CALL! CALL! CALL! AND KEEP CALLING TILL THE LINES FRY!
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti illegal immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them. This is a bipartisan issue not a Conservative or Liberal issue BUT AN AMERICAN issue.
America is our home. We get to decide who we invite to live with us.
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