By Heidi at Euphoric Reality
Last Tuesday, the Democrats won the majority in both the House and the Senate. Within a day, President Bush was gloating on national TV about how he could now finally pass his Amnesty bill with a Democrat-controlled Congress. This galling statement by the President was reinforced by the White House spokesman:
White House spokesman Tony Snow reacted to the change in House control by allowing they’re disappointed, but that it presents some intriguing opportunities, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform which failed in the previous Republican House.
Meanwhile, conservatives are shocked – SHOCKED! – by this open defiance of the vast majority of Americans’ wishes. “What on earth is Bush thinking?!,” they wonder. Howard Sutherland says there’s no need for such surprise, and here’s why:
If George W. Bush has been consistent about anything it is his determination to keep the United States open to the mass migration of Mexicans and other Latin Americans.
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George W. Bush is a true believer in amnesty for illegal aliens, at least for Mexicans, and perhaps in some sort of EU-style shotgun marriage of Canada, the United States and Mexico as well.
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That he is sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the welfare of Mexicans, does not faze him. The amnesty/guest worker program is President Bush’s lodestar, the legacy he sincerely wants to leave America. In the teeth of all the evidence, he believes that we would be better for it and it’s just the right thing to do. It is more important to him than Iraq, so important that he jettisoned the GOP’s best chance to hold on to the Congress rather than back away from it.
So with the President dancing on the political graves of the massacred GOP, it looks like a plan for amnesty is a sure thing. Now pundits everywhere, on both sides of the aisle, are breathlessly calculating where millions of new voters will fit into the political landscape of the future. I’ve watched and taken part in several debates on which party will end up scooping the Newly Amnestied Immigrant vote.
Here are a few viewpoints I’ve seen expressed about the powerful new Latino voting bloc:
Suffice it to say, an unprecedented and massive influx of voters presents a vast unknown. Before either party gets too excited counting their chickens before they’re hatched, I’d like to offer some personal insight into how this demographic shift will impact the American political landscape.
Any stereotypes of how second, third, and fourth generation Hispanic-Americans have voted in the past need to be discarded. The Latino trends in America prior to amnesty will not apply. There are currently 20-30 million illegal aliens inside our borders that Bush and the Democrats would like to give citizenship to. Among that number, there are exceptions to what I’m about to say, but I won’t be discussing those exceptions today. I will be discussing the largest majority of illegals, most if which come from Mexico, Central, and South America – and my experience living in Mexico and observing the Mexican election system.
The vast majority of illegals are, to a very large extent, semi-literate, poorly educated, and unskilled laborers. They come to America to take what they can get, and most really have very little interest in American citizenship, and the duties and responsibilities thereof. Thus, they will not be dashing to the polls in the first election after their amnesty, either to vote Democrat out of gratefulness for their brand-new citizenship (which they don’t care much for), or to vote Republican because they have an urgent religious objection to same-sex marriages. They will, in fact, not be too interested in voting at all – unless they can get something out of it. Even then, they will have to be shepherded to the polls by their Latino leaders; at best, lured by promises of freebies, or at worst, covertly paid for their vote.
I lived in Mexico in 2000, the year that Vicente Fox was first elected. The week of the election, the little town that I lived in was aswarm with poll workers and party volunteers. I’ll let you in on the dirty little secret about elections in Mexico: they are bought and paid for at the local level by party workers. Twenty pesos and a cerveza could buy a vote from the day laborers. Those with a little more education were lured by the promise of government programs and hand-outs. Those with the most education believe in Mexican reconquista and will vote for anyone who can stick it to the U.S.
Fox was largely voted for because he actually campaigned on the issue of his access and influence with George W. Bush. There was a lot of talk about how much cooperation and concessions Mexico would be able to squeeze from the U.S., and how much it would benefit Mexico. BINGO – jackpot for Vicente Fox!
Why was the status of Mexican influence over American affairs of such paramount importance to the voters of Mexico? Because a full 20% of Mexico’s population is already residing inside America. It is crucial that the billions of dollars of free money flowing into Mexico be safe-guarded, and the promise of more realized.
Once elected, Vicente Fox’s election promises to his people were published in a five year plan called the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2001-2006. I need to make something very clear here: this plan is NOT for implementation in Mexico, it is Mexico’s plan for AMERICA. The Mexican government has been implementing this plan for the past five years. They’ve met many of their goals for forcing concessions from the U.S., and for manipulating and controlling how the issue of illegal immigration is defined and presented to the American people.
Here’s a sampling:
The issue of migration, especially in the United States, needs a new focus over the long term to permit the movement and residence of Mexican nationals to be safe, comfortable, legal and orderly, and the attitude of police persecution of this phenomenon must be abandoned and it must be perceived as a labor and social phenomenon. This requires a complete negotiation that strikes at the structural roots of [migration], its manifestations and consequences, and that considers migration a shared responsibility. (Section 4.8., page 61)
This element of the plan indicates how Mexico wants to be sure the debate over illegal immigration is never framed around the issue of law enforcement, but instead focused on the social aspects. This is where we get the emotional but fallacious arguments of “racism”, “forced mass deportations”, “forcibly separating legal children from illegal parents”, etc.
There’s more:
Make Mexican sovereign decisions with respect to migratory flow and movement count, and offer and demand decent treatment for our countrymen who travel or reside abroad.
Encourage a long-term international migration policy …, with other nations and international organizations, that defends the rights of Mexicans abroad and strengthens their sense of belonging [to Mexico]. Play an active role in ensuring the labor rights of our countrymen [abroad], in the context of international competition.
Devise and implement government programs to recognize and value the contributions that migrants make, as much in the societies that receive them as in their societies of origin, insisting on full respect for their rights during their transit to and from Mexico. At the same time, raise the quality and efficiency of migration services. (Section 7.3.1(g), page 132)
The second point indicates Mexico’s realization that to keep their exported laborers sending money home, they need to remain strongly connected to Mexico. With that type of determined focus on retaining nationalistic pride, which country do YOU think will hold the loyalty of the Newly Amnestied Immigrants?
Furthermore, Mexico has implemented a plan to create programs – not in Mexico – but in America, that recognize and honor migrants. It also speaks of raising the quality and efficiency of migration services. Thus, we now have train loads of illegals trucked to the border gratis, and the Mexican government has published and distributed pamphlets on how to break into America and remain undetected.
Listen, Mexico’s plan has already been successfully implemented for five years now while we Americans wallowed. But don’t take my word for it. Juan Hernandez is a Mexican official in Fox’s cabinet. He is supremely confident, even cocky, in recent U.S. op-eds and television appearances. On June 7th, in USA Today, he said what is all too obvious to anyone who will pay attention:
“Mexico knows where it wants to go even more clearly than the United States knows where it wants to go.”
That evening, on Nightline, he made it even clearer for us:
“We are betting that the Mexican-American population in the United States will think Mexico first.”
Mexico first. Thus, we come to my final point. When the 20-30 million illegals are finally amnestied, they will be voting en masse for the party that best benefits them and Mexico. That will have to include concessions, hand-outs, special programs, and entitlements at all levels. Thus, either party that can devise and deliver advantages especially for them and their native country (remember that they still won’t think of themselves as Americans, despite their cheap citizenship), will “buy” their vote. A few free cervezas won’t hurt either.
So please, party pundits, don’t hold out hope that you will woo scads of new voters with your traditional party platforms. You’ll have to get busy devising ways to buy the Newly Amnestied Immigrant vote. You Republicans won’t recruit millions of Latino voters with family values and tax cuts (they don’t pay taxes anyway!). And you Democrats can’t just pose as the Enlightened Party of Brown People – you’ll have to deliver billions in pork to this very specific demographic in order to buy their vote. We’ll see how well that goes over with Real Americans.
Remember, those newly amnestied Mexican voters will NOT be loyal to the U.S., and they won’t care what is best for the U.S. economically, politically, or socially. Nor will they be vested in the communities that are supporting them. They won’t have any interest in performing the duties and responsibilities of citizenship out of patriotic pride, because their dual-citizenship will ensure that they remain loyal to Mexico.
Last thought: the influx of tens of millions of new “citizens” will be unprecedented in our history and has the potential of breaking our system of government beyond repair. So any politician that naively thinks he will reap a windfall of uneducated voters needs to rethink his strategy. Because unless he’s working for Mexico, he’ll have little to offer. A canny Azltan politician, on the other hand, acting in the best interests of Mexico, will have a willing base of millions of drone voters. How long do you think the Reconquista will take, considering the projected population explosion due to unchecked illegal and legal immigration? So Mr. Senator and Congressman, you’d better be careful what you ask for. ¿Hay alguien aqui que hable inglés?
This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.
If I may, let me point out the obvious elephant in the dining room. Heidi’s plea, “So please, party pundits, don’t hold out hope that you will woo scads of new voters with your traditional party platforms,” is directed toward party leaders who have already, themselves, deserted “traditional party platforms”–if they had not, the whole issue would have been settled long ago.