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Illegal Immigration: Amnesty for the Sake of the ‘Common Good’ Is No Good
North Star Writers Group ^ | June 18, 2007 | Matt Carrothers

Posted on 06/18/2007 5:58:53 AM PDT by John Galt 72

Illegal Immigration: Amnesty for the Sake of the ‘Common Good’ Is No Good

by Matt Carrothers

June 18, 2007

Many words have been typed, speeches made and talk radio monologues delivered questioning the reasons behind President Bush’s passionate pleas for awarding amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens. In a Washington Post editorial last week, Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson provided compelling clues about the president’s guiding ideology on the issue. Gerson’s lament that Americans would dare criticize Bush for abdicating his constitutional duty to enforce our laws should rightfully offend the millions of conservatives who have supported their president.

Gerson opens his diatribe against those strange Americans who want to enforce our laws, protect our borders and defend our sovereignty by castigating them as “nativist.” He writes, “The immigration debate is a reminder to the memory-impaired that President Bush ran and won in 2000 as ‘a different kind of Republican’ – meaning the kind that isn't libertarian or nativist.”

The nativist charge is a polite way of saying that Americans who do not swim in the polluted sludge of multiculturalism are racists. The opponents of illegal alien amnesty should consider it a victory of sorts that the Senate amnesty bill’s promoters are reduced to employing the rhetorical staples of the liberal left.

Looking back at the 2000 presidential campaign, Gerson notes that Bush was clear in his desire for “a federal role in improving education, humane immigration reform, (and) Medicare prescription drug coverage.” Gerson added, “Bush’s first major policy address of the campaign, which I helped prepare, talked of seeking the ‘common good’, asserted ‘solidarity’ with the poor and declared that ‘the American government is not the enemy of the American people’.”

In other words, amnesty for illegal aliens will benefit the alleged common good of America.

Atlas Shrugged author Ayn Rand also had something to say about the liberals’ exalted desire for a common good. She wrote in a 1944 Reader’s Digest article, “Throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of representing ‘the common good’ . . . Horrors which no man would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear conscience by ‘altruists’ who justify themselves by – the common good.”

Rand, raised under the tyranny of Lenin’s Russia, knew of the disastrous outcomes that accrue from public policies deemed to have a common positive benefit. Similar to collectivist economic schemes, amnesty for the illegal aliens in our midst would wreak horrific damage on both our economy and our unique American culture. The proponents of amnesty are not altruists, but abettors of cultural destruction.

The common good is also a favorite pursuit of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL). Clinton stated at a June 2004 fundraiser in San Francisco, “We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” At least Clinton was honest. To achieve a common good, citizens must first lose their liberties.

In the July/August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Obama writes, “We lead not only for ourselves but also for the common good.” Interestingly, Gerson himself currently works as a “Senior Fellow” at the . . . Council on Foreign Relations.

In reality, those who clamor for a common good do not seek a state of goodness for just the United States. Like their socialist ideological comrades, purveyors of the common good dream of a world free from sovereign borders and “nativist” tendencies. Gerson’s appeal for a common good reeks of the wretched fumes of the multiculturalist fire that has already engulfed our great American institutions, and now threatens to burn down our borders completely.

Gerson then turns his ire toward political activists, who to him are curiously resolute in their beliefs and demand a voice in public policy debates. He writes, “Today, in both parties, fundamentalism is again the fashion; authenticity is the prime directive. Talk-radio conservatism assaults the most obviously Catholic elements of Bushism – a role for government in compassion and a welcoming attitude toward immigrants.”

Gerson’s desire for a “welcoming attitude toward immigrants” begs two questions. First, should our welcoming arms also embrace illegal immigrants, a modifier he conveniently omitted?

Second, if Bush seeks compassion toward the downtrodden and a welcoming attitude toward illegal aliens, why doesn’t he simply remove the border patrol agents? While he is at it, why not rewrite all of our immigration laws? That is, from now on no one who comes to our shores or borders is here “illegally?” By this logic, wouldn’t an absence of laws produce an abundance of compassion?

President Bush introduced himself to American voters as a “compassionate conservative,” a characterization that Gerson sought to cement through his speechwriting. We now know, however, that compassionate conservatism is neither compassionate nor conservative. Compassion is not defined by the absence of laws, but by the equal application of laws in a representational republic with free economic markets.

Lost completely on Gerson is the ironic fact that multiculturalism produces absolutely zero outcomes common to all citizens. Instead, amnesty for illegal aliens would result in a fragmented America in which those who are cavalierly granted citizenship will soon come to resent the very nation and her citizens that awarded it. Free riders are not grateful for the blessings inherent in American citizenship and our abundance of opportunity. They will only demand, and likely receive, more of our nation’s bounty through a myriad of new and uncompassionate government programs.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; bush; commongood; gerson; immigrantlist; immigration; noamnestyforillegals

1 posted on 06/18/2007 5:58:57 AM PDT by John Galt 72
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To: John Galt 72

Please, please dont be so good to me...


2 posted on 06/18/2007 10:16:18 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: John Galt 72

Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep

Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


3 posted on 06/18/2007 10:53:41 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008)
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To: John Galt 72
They will only demand, and likely receive, more of our nation’s bounty through a myriad of new and uncompassionate government programs.

Our future "Americans" on their way to honoring the gift of American Citizenship...




and what they did when they got there...




Plus showing off their keen awareness of history...




my all time favorite, the goal of all good democrats American destroying communists.


but of course (snicker, snicker) you can't vote if your not a citizen! (snort)


4 posted on 06/18/2007 11:59:40 AM PDT by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: John Galt 72
A worthwhile post, as it makes clear the internationalist attack on the very concept of the Nation. A nation, of course, if it be anything at all, involves lines of descent, a shared history and shared values. We need to stand up to those who even suggest that there is anything wrong with a people wanting an immigration policy which insures their continuity as a people--as a distinct and unique people--rather than one that undermines it.

Mexican peasants and rooted Americans are not interchangeable. Imagining that they are serves no purpose but to undermine; accomplishes nothing of real value to any people.

The pursuit of an undifferentiated humanity is a compulsion driven form of lunacy, which will not bear critical examination. It has gathered so many supporters, simply because most people do not want to incur the hissing barrage of slogans and hateful epithets, which have proven the only argument for the internationalists.

For the considerations that should go into any immigration bill: Immigration & The American Future.

The time has come to take the fight to those who will not stand up for America, but pretend to have altruistic intentions. They are not true altruists, only a bunch of pathetic neurotics, who project their sick emotions to others.

William Flax

5 posted on 06/18/2007 2:27:41 PM PDT by Ohioan
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To: John Galt 72

This is not over yet. Bush refuses to give up this easily. It's his stubborn character. As I predicted he would try to resurrect it and call it something else. We have to keep our guard up. We need to keep the pressure up. We have no choice but to fight. The oligarchy wants cheap labor and a destruction of the middle class and the millionaire democrats want votes they can count on. A marriage made in HELL.

STAGE TWO is to go after the people who hire illegals. Start giving them fines and arresting them. Just catch ten or 100 of them on the nightly news. The magnet will dry up and most of the 12 million will go home by themselves.

As an addendum, we should anonymously call the IRS, people working "off the books" means taxes ain't being paid. Make anonymous fliers and hang them around the neighborhood, name names. It's time to embarrass these bustards, whether they give to the GOP or Rats, we don't need them.

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.

STOP AMNESTY NOW!! WE CAN DO IT!!

The best way to stop Shamnesty

6 posted on 06/18/2007 6:20:40 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: John Galt 72

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

-— George Washington


7 posted on 06/18/2007 7:01:33 PM PDT by Graymatter (New legislators. No new laws. ... Let's clean house. And senate.)
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