Drop the N-Word Already
Facts, not nativism, account for conservative opposition to the Senate’s immigration bill.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2 ... k0ODIwMmE=

By Heather Mac Donald
May 29, 2007 5:00 AM

To observe the sentimental fantasy and ruthless political calculation that fuels the Bush administration's immigration plans, one need only turn to Michael Gerson’s most recent Washington Post column. Former Bush speechwriter Gerson was a powerful voice in the White House, especially on the matter of injecting faith into policymaking; his May 25 column provides a window into how the administration deals with facts.

Gerson accuses opponents of the Senate’s recent amnesty proposal of a nativist fear of illegal immigrants. Such a fear, he argues, will hurt the Republican party’s electoral chances and miss an opportunity to make the country even more religious. Powerlineblog.com’s Paul Mirengoff has dismantled Gerson’s key arguments, rejecting in particular his claim that illegal immigrants’ religiosity should affect policy decisions about their fate: “The belief that matters most for purposes of this debate [writes Mirengoff] is not religious but civic — not belief in God but belief in our institutions and love for our country. It is the latter kind of thinking, and only such thinking, that will result in successful assimilation.â€