Immigration: They just don't get it

[Brian503a]

http://breakingnews.redstate.com

Immigration: They just don't get it
By malbis
Most of America will be waking up to a New York Times headline that is certain to be repeated in various ways in MSM news stories across the nation, and across the world.

The Times headline reads: G.O.P. Sets Aside Work on Immigration.

As the paper goes on to explain, "Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength."

To be specific, the current GOP leadership intends to focus on Pentagon and domestic security spending bills, port security legislation, and measures that would authorize the administration’s terror surveillance program and create military tribunals to try terror suspects. They feel it would be politically risky to get bogged down in a divisive fight over immigration.

The strategy is to minimize the number of seats lost in the House and Senate by concentrating on basic national security issues of major concern to voters in the Republican base.

As this "strategy" sinks in, Conservatives will be waking up to something that is a bit more jarring and to the point than the Times headline: They Just Don't Get It

Immigration is a national security issue.

This Republican "strategy" might have just handed the House to the Democrats.

More below the fold...

As I write this entry, Pat Buchanan's new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Conquest of America is number 3 on the New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller list. The book was number 1 on Amazon's list of best-sellers the day it was published.

Buchanan was a guest last week on the top-rated overnight talk show in America, Coast to Coast AM, to discuss the immigration issue. Keep in mind that Coast to Coast AM usually discusses topics such as alien abductions, ghosts and hauntings, and the paranormal. This is not a political talk show.

Did listeners complain that the show had ventured afield from its usual menu of the strange and the unusual? Did they tune out?

No, they did not.

The phone lines burned up with callers anxious for a chance to sound off on how important they thought it was to enforce immigration laws and support the rest of Buchanan's proposals--like that 2,000 mile double-line secuirity fence on our southern border. They complained about the flood of illegals and said that the GOP wasn't doing anything to stop what they saw as a major problem.

You hear the same complaints on local talk shows across the country. Most people see illegal immigration and our porous borders as a major national security issue. After all, if migrant workers have such easy and open access across our unprotected borders, who can seriously believe that terrorists do not have the same easy and open access?

Is anyone inside the Republican party leadership listening?

Based on the non-response from House and Senate GOP leaders, I am forced to conclude that they have not seen and heard the same things that I and many other people have become aware of in recent weeks. There has been a strong backlash in this country against illegals following the "Day Without Immigrants" in May.

The GOP strategy seems to be trying to target once more security-minded "soccer moms" as in previous elections. But leaving immigration out of that strategy is failing to recognize that Americans want protection right here at home from what they perceive as a real and immediate threat to themselves and their families.

Buchanan's book has achieved best-seller status in a short time because it speaks to the real concern of a growing number of Americans over illegal immigration. Openly ignore that concern, and you risk undermining confidence in the GOP as the party that can safeguard American families. The statistics the book contains are staggering:

One in every twelve people breaking into America has a criminal record.

By 2050, there will be 100 million Hispanics concentrated in the U.S. Southwest.

Between 10 and 20 percent of all Mexicans, Central Americans and Caribbean people have already moved to the United States.

Every month, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends 150,000 illegal aliens breaking into our country That is more than the total number of troops that we have in Iraq.

On top of the reception that State of Emergency is getting from the general public, one more fact sticks out that the GOP is apparently blind to. It is a fact that quietly points to a shift starting in the electoral wind.

In the face of all conventional wisdom that "knows" that southern California is firmly in the hands of the Democrats...

In the face of Governor Arnold turning more and more left in his bid to maintain the "Republican" governorship of California...

In the face of the overwhelming presence of Hispanics, legal and illegal, in southern California...

...in Southern California, conservative radio has reached a new ratings high: first place.

Radio station KFI-AM rocketed to the top of the Arbitron ratings in Los Angeles this summer. KFI Radio--LA home of Rush Limbaugh and very popular morning host Bill Handel.

This is the first time that an AM talk radio station has surpassed Spanish language formats and FM music stations in contemporary Los Angeles. This in a city that, as Matt Drudge recently reported, no longer supports a single Country music station.

Even more incredible, KFI Los Angeles, with their conservative format, is now the most listened to AM radio station in the country and the highest rated talk radio station in the United States. It has surpassed WABC in New York City.

Ask yourself what would cause conservative talk radio to suddenly move into the top spot in southern California radio. Ask yourself whether the average KFI listener in California would be more interested in and supportive of GOP talk about military tribunals, terror surveillance programs, the war in Iraq, Pentagon budgets...

...or would they be more concerned and supportive of GOP action on the immigration problem that would cut down on the Hispanic gangs going wild in LA? Border security action and enforcement of immigration laws that would cut down on the flood of criminals into southern California?

What issues do you think are driving the sudden surge of listeners to conservative talk radio in liberal southern California?

If, as I believe, immigration concerns are at the heart of KFI's rise to the top of Los Angeles radio, then the GOP has seriously miscalculated on this issue. By failing to stand on conservative principles--or indeed, principles of any kind--they will learn a hard lesson in November.

While well-deserved, it is a lesson that our nation may pay dearly for.

Incredible comment at the end of the Times article! by martinsunn
And I quote,

The major legislation on the floor in the House this week is a bill that would ban trading in horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Couldn't agree more with your comments. The G.O.P. leadership is burying its head in the sand and ignoring what is probably going to be the major issue of '08.

Horse-trading!

Smell the irony.

We are going to get our butts kicked with news like this coming out of Congress.

[Jean]

Great article.

As for:

The major legislation on the floor in the House this week is a bill that would ban trading in horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.

I heard Sean Hannity today talking on the radio about this and not in a positive manner. Are Congressional Republicans trying to self-destruct? Not that the issue is not important. It just isn't one of the major concerns of the public now and during an election year that is what the Reps are first taking on after returning? Makes them look stupid, disconnected and chicken in my opinion.

I recently discovered kfi also and listen regularly. Glad to hear many others found it too. Perhaps more people are awake and aware here than I realized. Very encouraging news.

[Preachingtothechoir]

I heard Sean Hannity today talking on the radio about this and not in a positive manner. Are Congressional Republicans trying to self-destruct?

It's not just the Congressional majority, its both parties. The majorities in both parties are the equivlanet of 3 year old children with their fingers planted firmly in their eardrums and screaming . . . . .lalalalalalala I can't hear you. They are in total denial and think if they ignore us we will go away. They think the economy is just humming right along, that we all have affordable healthcare, that we have indestructable ports and borders, that inflation is low and we should all have a Coke and a smile and shut the muck up because we are bursting their over insulated bubbles.

The issues that concern the American people vs. politics as usual have become the elephant in the room that few politicians in either party want to talk about, they are still playing the "you're it" game while our country is going to hell in a handbasket. Our concerns merely reiterate how wealthy and out of touch with reality the majority of our elected officials are. Reality totally eludes them.