Meet the Minutemen — My Thoughts on Immigration
While Polipundit is convinced the president will push for amnesty in his televised address on immigration on Monday, I remain hopeful that he will say something like this. I do basically agree with Polipundit that the president can, by and large, attribute his tumbling approval numbers to his stance on immigration. I remain cautiously optimistic that he will change it to meet some of the concerns of his erstwhile supporters.
No matter what the president says, he should at least take the advice included in the above link: “If you really want to get the conservative base back in your corner, go and meet with the Minutemen–on camera–and tell them you appreciate what they’re doing.” Until the rallies last month, I was pretty laissez-faire on illegal immigration. I favored letting them in as long as they worked and stayed off welfare. Today, I see the Minutemen acting in the finest of conservative traditions, undertaking a private initiative to secure our borders.
As the descendant of immigrants, I appreciate that many long for the freedoms and opportunities of our great land. Had America not opened its doors to my ancestors, my parents would have been murdered while they were still children. When my great-grandparents came here, they wanted very much to become Americans. My mother’s parents, who grew up speaking Yiddish, refused to speak that language in front of their daughter. English would be her first language.
Right after 9/11, I, like many Americans, attached a flag (a real one, not a sticker) to my car and noticed that nearly half of the Angelenos similarly flying such flags were Hispanic. I had thought that most immigrants were like them, eager to come here and proud of their adoptive land. And so I welcomed them.
If, however, they’re going to come here, claim loyalty to another nation and insult our country, its leaders and institutions, even its history, then we should not grant them amnesty, but instead do what is possible to send them back to the nation whose flag they wave so defiantly.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
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Loyalty wouldn’t be a problem if the bi-lingual lobby, many Democrats, teachers unions, and Latino racists weren’t goading the community into maintaining a separate identity. You don’t assimilate while obsessing over your non-Americaness. Mexico is not on the other side of the planet. It is not necessary to recreate it in the US. I have zero problem with how ethnicity changes in America but I do not want to ever live in anything like a Latin American state. Mexico is a failed state. Thus Mexicans are flooding to the US. They don’t get to make the same mistakes twice.
Assimilated Latinos are probably going to prove one of America’s best assets ever. All the more reason to kill the bilingual lobby and teach all children English (Its a great language and no one other than Leftists would be ashamed to teach and expand it).
Comment by VinceTN — May 13, 2006 @ 12:48 am - May 13, 2006
The feds have been handing over extensive information on the Minutemen to the Mexican Government. I think this is a complete betrayal of its people.
Comment by Hepastion — May 13, 2006 @ 9:17 am - May 13, 2006
I will be very surprised if GWB suddenly realizes he does, indeed, have testicles, and fulfills your wishes, Dan.
But I sincerely doubt it.
Eric in Hollywood
Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — May 13, 2006 @ 10:19 am - May 13, 2006
Considering the fact that the president at one time called the Minutemen a “vigilante” group, it somehow doesn’t sound feasible that he will spend a minute of on-camera air time with them.
However, stranger things have happened inside the Beltway.
Re assimilation – I can totally identify with that. My parents grew up speaking both English and their parents’ language (which I do not care to name as it is not important), but never did they once ask for everything to not be addressed in English. My, how times have changed.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — May 13, 2006 @ 11:47 am - May 13, 2006
Most polling shows that Iraq still contributes the greatest to Bush’s disapproval ratings…and then gas prices. Immigration might be adding to the drop some but I think the fact things have not really improved for most Americans since he was reelected, people are getting a little disgruntled. Well more than a little.
Second, I know a lot of irish folks who still carry on with irish traditions, wave flags, drink a lot, celebrate st patty’s day. A lot of immigrants who come here legally still greatly identify with their native land. AS someone who isn’t from somewhere else, I don’t think you have much right to judge someone’s love for their homeland, even if it isn’t somewhere safe for them to live. I don’t think if you support immigration reform, you can ask people to completely detach themselves from who they are and where they come from. Generally, I think waving a mexican flag at a rally is a bit silly, but they are Mexicans…either way you look at it. I don’t support amensty or immigration reform frankly, so I don’t care what flag they wave. I don’t think they should be treated as “illegal” or criminals. I think the people who employ them here in America should.
Comment by Lucas — May 13, 2006 @ 1:41 pm - May 13, 2006
Lucas,
Not a single soul is demanding that anybody forget where they came from and, I would wager, especially Dan. There are folks who come to this country for the money and/or benefits and have ZERO interest in becoming a citizen. Those folks need to take their happy asses back home as they contribute nothing to this country.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 13, 2006 @ 11:38 pm - May 13, 2006
#6 ThatGayConservative — May 13, 2006 @ 11:38 pm – May 13, 2006
There are folks who come to this country for the money and/or benefits and have ZERO interest in becoming a citizen. Those folks need to take their happy asses back home as they contribute nothing to this country.
You know, you’re a real a$$. My mother-in-law went (with her husband and son) from Germany to the US in 1957, largely for the money and/or the benefits. She never became a US citizen (her husband and son did, primarily because they were stateless due to WWII). She worked in the factories in the US for 25 years making ball bearings, many of which went to the US military. She paid her taxes–including social security and medicare taxes–and was largely spit upon by the “Einheimer” in the US. After she left Textron–which had bought the company that made the ball bearings, she went to work at a rest home, and often worked double shifts because the Amis were too lazy to show up for work.
After 30 years, she came back to Germany–thank goodness she hadn’t given up her German citizenship. She collects her US SS payments–for which she paid for 30 years. And she collects a nigardly US$85/month pension for her 25-years work for Textron. But, despite her having paid into Medicare, she gets no benefits for that over here in Germany.
You Amis who sit on your butts at your keyboards and claim that people who go to the US “for the money and/or benefits and have ZERO interest in becoming a citizen” contribute nothing to the US literally make me ashamed to be an Ami.
Comment by raj — May 14, 2006 @ 7:41 am - May 14, 2006
I provide, for your edification, a translation (not mine, but accurate…BA in Spanish from Columbia, so I know what I’m talking about) of the so-called National Anthem in Spanish. First stanza matches not badly, but the second is, for anyone with ears, easily heard and sung as a song of La Raza defiance.
Do you see it arising, by the light of the dawn,
That which we hailed so much when the night fell?
Its stars, its stripes were streaming yesterday
In the fierce combat, as a sign of victory,
The brilliance of battle, in step with freedom,
Throughout the night they said: “It will be defended!”
Oh say! Does it still wave, its starred beauty,
Over the land of the free, the sacred flag?
Its stars, its stripes, liberty, we are equal.
We are brothers, it is our anthem.
In the fierce combat, as a sign of victory,
The brilliance of battle… (My people keep fighting.)
…in step with freedom, (Now is the time to break the chains!)
Throughout the night they said: “It will be defended!”
Oh say you! Does it still wave, its starred beauty,
Over the land of the free, the sacred flag?
Comment by EssEm — May 14, 2006 @ 9:52 am - May 14, 2006
Humorously enough, Bush’s approval ratings are still higher than Kerry’s and Gore’s.
Comment by rightwingprof — May 14, 2006 @ 11:26 am - May 14, 2006
I think the problem is that they are here, regardless. Now what do we do about it? America’s economy couldn’t survive without cheap labor. Honestly, our economy could compete better with China if we had more day labors. I’m all for the support of the immigrant cause. later.
Wannabeleader
Comment by Wannabeleader — May 14, 2006 @ 4:25 pm - May 14, 2006
I’ve had this conversation with a lesbian Latina recently. She carefully kept the word ‘illegal’ from her article on immigration.
For the record, it’s important that our President, nor anyone else blanket those who flout the customs of entrance and assimilation with noble intentions.
We don’t have a clue about those who we can’t number, track their whereabouts, nor who they are and what condition they are in when they get here.
This contributed directly to 9/11 and to other acts of crime against citizens and legal residents everyday.
It bears stating that Bush has managed to make gay, contributing legal VOTING citizens a demon class unfit for marriage, child rearing or military service.
But those without the right to vote, and who negatively impact all structures and standards of life here, have his approval.
If I support amnesty at all, it would be for those gay and lesbians from countries where their orientation will mean imprisonment or certain death.
Even gay CHILDREN are subject to public lynchings.
Gays and lesbians worldwide are a minority in whatever country they live. And justice for their lives is very different from the economic imposition of Third World labor values on our standards of the same.
We won’t accept those Third World standards, and why should we?
And how dare the President insult us because we don’t!
And millions of illegal immigrants undercut bargaining power for legal labor.
But, of course, he and his ‘have mores’ know that.
Their loyalty is to the dollar, not the flag or our nation’s identity and sovereignty.
His oath of office is to our nation, not this nation’s corporations if it’s at the expense of citizens and their ability to function successfully and with the support their tax dollars pay for.
And most illegal immigrants loyalty is to money as well.
I’d have more respect for them, if they took the civil right’s real model of demanding rights and justice from the government that owes it to them.
Which isn’t the US government, but that of the country of their origin.
Let’s be clear. If I cheated on my SAT and managed to get into Harvard, and had even done the four years and earned the degree.
The bottom line is I still cheated and took the place that rightfully belonged to the person who didn’t cheat on the test.
And if I weren’t awarded a degree based on that, or all my credit was expunged.
It can only be expected and fair.
Cheating can’t and shouldn’t be rewarded. Our President looks weak and foolish by doing so, and not making his own demands or expectations from say, Vincente Fox.
If he can’t do that, then what can he possibly say to Ahmadinejad and every other evil knucklhead in the world?!
Comment by Regan DuCasse — May 14, 2006 @ 4:32 pm - May 14, 2006
Lucas #5, well said in the second paragraph; it’s why I modified the verb “wave” in my concluding paragraph with the adverb “defiantly.”
It’s not that they identify with their native land, it’s that they insult the land which has afforded most of them so many opportunities.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 14, 2006 @ 5:27 pm - May 14, 2006
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the Minutemen. Being much farther from the border, they seem to span a spectrum from gun-totting xeophobic Yahoos to anti-Mexican racists without sheets. The same arguements were being made against THEIR ancestors attempting to assimulate into the American manistream ever since the US Civil War-era; language, depression of wages, potential underemployment and their threat to the “culture” of America. And they “wait their turn in line” arguement stalls since the US had an basically open-door policy to Europeans up to the First World War. The quotas didn’t start in-earnest until the 20′s and the Depression.
They talk about “national security”, but the threat is not in the meager backpack of the Central American immigrant. It’s the Islamofascist and the threat of uninspected cargo containers entering the US by the tens of thousands….mostly at our ports. We need to regularize the status of the millions of economic immigrants; blue guest or geen residency cards, drivers licenses and auto insurance, and their payroll taxes. We need to make it easy and advantageous to everyone to regularize their status, not drive them father underground. And…make it easy for those who wish to return home to do so without risk of arrest or life-time bans on their legal return in the future. It’s the employers who should be hammered with sanctions, fines and even jail-time. Is it “fair”? Maybe. But I think we have to be practical, not politically-correct, if the issue is “national security”.
Otherwise, we have to admit to ourselves…and the World…that our new national policy is based purely on blatant xenophobia. Welcome to the Kulturkampf, watch your step around the broken glass…
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — May 15, 2006 @ 12:14 pm - May 15, 2006
“contribute nothing to the US literally make me ashamed to be an Ami.”
Raj, anyone who uses the bigoted term “Ami” is basically not worth talking to, so I am not replying to you. It’s a waste of time talking to anyone with your zerdeutsche opinions. But there are others here who may benefit from a reply.
This woman you refer to chose not to naturalize. End of discussion. She is back home, which is not the US. Good. She can die there. As for her pension woes, tough shit. They are completely unrelated to her failure to naturalize. America owes her nothing. She was paid for her work.
“She paid her taxes–including social security and medicare taxes–and was largely spit upon by the “Einheimer” in the US.”
The population of this country is 1/3 German in ancestry. If a German is spit upon here, it is hardly due to ethnic bigotry. Perhaps this woman retained her German social graces and was treated accordingly.
“she went to work at a rest home, and often worked double shifts because the Amis were too lazy to show up for work. ”
That discredited old bullshit about the German work ethic. Between beer breaks at 10:00 in the morning, two hour lunches, month-long or longer vacations and even longer sick leave options for spa cures, Germans are among the laziest people in Europe. If wonder if Raj has become thoroughly German, and mutters about “faule Neger” and so on.
Raj’s post is fairly representative of the level of anti-American bigotry that is common in Germany and that pollutes the German media. Check out Davids Medienkritik for a sense of that atmosphere. In this particular case, it is beyond parody that anyone in Germany would presume to lecture Americans on our immigration situation.
Comment by Jim — May 15, 2006 @ 1:56 pm - May 15, 2006
Jim, wow –and all this time I was thinking that the reason raj baby hates the US and BlamesAmericaFirst was because he was Canadian.
It’s a German thing?
To me, aside from the French, the Canucks are the only ones with an irrational hatred of the US… well and the Palestinians… and the Iranians… and the Chinese… and the Indonesians… and the Russians… and the Chileans… and the –oh well, not enough room to list them now. Now we should add Germans to the list? The world is getting small by the minute, man.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — May 15, 2006 @ 4:35 pm - May 15, 2006
I disagree with the prejudices and tactics of the minutemen, and I agree with the above post that many of them are extremely racist. I’ve seen excerpts from interviews, and heard some of them call in to the radio talk shows I listen to (the leaders have been guests on a few of them), and racism is exactly what they projected. They reminded me of some of the aryans and the kkk members I’ve seen/heard speak over the years. However, I can empathize with their cause, especially those who live in the southwest states, closer to the Mexican border. I know that if I had a house/property in one of those areas, and had to put up with thousands of immigrants (or any other group of people, for that matter) tresspassing through my property every day, camping out, leaving litter and human waste behind when they move on, I’d be angry, too. That problem has gotten out of control, and out of desperation/frustation from our government’s inaction, the minutemen were formed. We’ve needed to secure both the southern and northern borders for years, if not before, most definitely since 9/11. I think deploying national guard troops (those who can be spared) is a good idea. I ALSO think it would be wise to hire more border patrol agents, as was proposed after 9/11. I think they hired a few more right after, but not nearly enough to curtail the problem.
I’m also for a guest worker program, and for building the wall to severely curtail more illegal immigration until the current population assimilates (It can always be torn down in the future). It’s an outrage that many of them don’t.
#7 As for Raj’s mom-in-law, I admire her work ethic, but have no sympathy. She DID get to collect her pension AND her SS after retirment, according to your post, correct? The reason she didn’t get the benefit of medicare is that she went back to Germany, which has a much better socialized health care system than our medicare, and it’s free — smart woman — Whats your point? If she had bothered to become naturalized, and stayed in the U.S., she would have been eligible for medicare, just like every other senior. Oh, and just an afterthought, your post is completely off the thread topic (not to be….sanctimonious… ‘-)
Comment by ndtovent — May 15, 2006 @ 6:00 pm - May 15, 2006
“Now we should add Germans to the list? The world is getting small by the minute, man.”
German hatred of America isn’t news. It was a big deal during Nazi times but it goes back for a couple centuries at least. One codeword to look for is “gemischt” – apparently racially mixed ancestry is cause for shame, but the list of slurs goes – they also sneer at America’s lack of culture – apparently jazz and blues and even probably CW are too gemischt to qualify as culture for those barbarians.
Canadians – you have to remember that Canada is mother’s little helper, and she will never get over the fact that America has bigger tits and doesn’t have to basically bribe immigrants to come in. In this case Mother was the British Empire. Canada was built by Highland Scots, Britain’s own goon squad in Ireland and elsewhere, and a lot of them got to Canada only after a detour in the American colonies, leaving after our War of Independence. They have despised us for a long time. OTOH I understand that an American accent is well-received in Montreal and similar places. Vancouver and the rest of the province is too busy despising Ontario and the east to have any time for us.
As for the rest of the world, you might be surprised who likes us. We poll well in Nigeria, especially the parts where people are well aware of the threat of Islamist tyranny. We are becoming more popular in places like India as the Cold War and alignment with Russia fades into memory, and as the colonial suck-up class declines in power, and as economic links and immigration grow. People in China, to the extent they think of us at all, are often pretty positive. I am sure they worry that we are going to be rivals. That’s just common sense, not irrational hatred.
The Russians – who don’t they hate?
Comment by Jim — May 15, 2006 @ 6:03 pm - May 15, 2006
Eastern Europe mostly likes us as well. And – the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ll take them over a bunch of creepy, crappy Germans any day (and yes, I lived in Germany too and became quite fluent and found some good Germans).
Basically, anyone who has an historically recent experience with REAL tyranny, and thus a sharp memory of what REAL tyranny is like (as opposed to bogus Leftist concerns), loves America. And rightly so.
As for Canada: my great-grandparents immigrated from there, so don’t knock it too much!
OTOH – my great-grandparents immigrated from there. I mean: they obviously considered Canada worth leaving…
It’s the same with all these countries. The real people, the ones with the ol’ “get up and go” among other good qualities, get up and leave – for America. The ones they leave behind… are… the ones they left behind… ugh!
Comment by Calarato — May 15, 2006 @ 8:50 pm - May 15, 2006
(back in my raj babe voice for a bit)
Calarato, I once drank a German beer and ate some authentic brats when I studied international relations in college so I am as well qualified as those who speak German to say that I know the Germans and I’ve never found one worthy friendship… as a lot they are bruttish, envious, short on good manners, the men bypass the Brits in ugly contests, and their cars are inferior to anything made in Korea. They were at their height, culturally speaking, by default when they annexed Austria in the last century. No one can name a single German who’s ever contributed anything worthwhile to Western civilization –and don’t get me started on “classical” music composers… the Germans stole everything from the Poles.
America isn’t loved anywhere except in St Louis and the former Soviet Georgia.
What appears to be something other than contempt for us is just thinly veiled economic opportunism to get at our money… the Irish, the Afghans, those funny sounding little people in Asia, and the whole Indian subcontinent.
Whoops, I got off topic again. Sorry. I don’t know why there’s all this talk about the Minutemen… I saw the statutes in Concord and they had zero fashion sense. End of story.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — May 16, 2006 @ 7:22 am - May 16, 2006