Thread: Walker Stands Strong: Backs Up American Workers Against Open Borders Yet Again

"WEDNESDAY, APR 22, 2015 05:15 PM EDTScott Walker is now toast: The crazy move right that cost him the Koch brothers — and probably the nomination

First he had the Koch endorsement. Then he didn't. Why? A Glenn Beck interview where Walker moved wackier than Cruz


TOPICS: SCOTT WALKER, MARCO RUBIO, TED CRUZ, JEB BUSH, IMMIGRATION, GLENN BECK, KOCH BROTHERS,ELECTIONS 2016, POLITICS NEWS
Scott Walker

(Credit: AP/Jim Cole)

According to a number of well-respected journalists, the Koch brothers are putting their heft and muscle behind Scott Walker for president. Or maybe not. It depends on whom you ask.


First, let’s acknowledge once again that the Great Whitebread Hope from Wisconsin seems to have everyone in the political establishment mesmerized by his alleged strategic and tactical brilliance. Sure, he makes epic gaffes over and over again, but that cannot take anything away from the fact that he barely won a recall election and two swing-state elections in years in which Republicans ran the table. Why this is considered political genius remains a question for the ages. However, there can be no doubt that much of the Republican base loves him and much of the Democratic commentariat sees him as a very serious threat.

So when the news hit that David Koch had told a gathering at a Manhattan fundraiser that the nominee should be Scott Walker, it was as if there was nothing left to talk about. The deciders had decided.

But then something kind of funny happened. Walker’s recently terminated spokesperson sent out a series of notable tweets:

Internal polling must be looking dubious, showing attrition to more grassroots-conservative-preferred candidates for him to try this one.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 20, 2015

Interesting that it’s being reported that Walker got the Koch nod today, bc I’m hearing that Koch folks really pissed re: imm flip-flop.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 21, 2015

David Koch then made a statement walking back this apparent endorsement:

While I think Governor Walker is terrific, let me be clear, I am not endorsing or supporting any candidate for President at this point in time.

---

They are now reportedly going to hold an “audition” of sorts during the summer for the Kochs’ primary Prom King. (Apparently their earlier “Koch Summit” was just a casual mixer.)

So what, exactly, did Scott Walker say that appears to have made the Kochs do such an about-face in record time? Well, it’s a doozy. Walker, you see, was once a “pro-immigration reform” Republican, which is likely one of the reasons the Koch brothers back him. Like most of the more libertarian-minded Big Business Republicans, they tend toward a more moderate stance on immigration. It’s good for business in a number of ways (for both good and bad reasons). Walker, being a proven anti-union, pro-immigration governor, was naturally at the top of their list of nominees. He had recently “moderated” his stance on illegal immigration but it was widely assumed to be a mild feint to the right for the purposes of winning the nomination. It brought him into line with all the other candidates like Rubio and Bush who had once also been pro-reform, so it was no harm-no foul as far as the primary was concerned.

But yesterday he went a step further. He appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio show and he said this:

“In terms of legal immigration, how we need to approach that going forward is saying — the next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and American wages. Because the more I’ve talked to folks, I’ve talked to [Alabama Sen. Jeff] Sessions and others out there — but it is a fundamentally lost issue by many in elected positions today — is what is this doing for American workers looking for jobs, what is this doing to wages. And we need to have that be at the forefront of our discussion going forward.”

It’s hard not to fall down laughing (or lose your lunch) over the most notorious union buster in America waxing on about protecting American jobs, but he’s the last person to understand the irony of his comments. But by taking a position against legal immigration, he’s just placed himself to the right of Ted Cruz on this issue. He’s out in Ben Carson land. Not to mention that he’s obliterated the last tattered shreds of a conservative argument to appeal to Hispanic and other ethnic groups: the idea that illegal immigration is unfair to legal immigrants who’ve been “waiting in line” to come to this country. Walker wants to close down the line altogether. Only the most hardcore neo-Confederates like Sessions want to go that far.

Igor Bobic in the Huffington Post explained the possible reasoning:

By aligning himself with an immigration hawk like Sessions, Walker may be hoping to placate conservatives wary over his previous support for a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants. Walker’s strategy is somewhat reminiscent of then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who, faced with similar questions over his devotion to the conservative cause in 2011, memorably tacked far right of his GOP rivals by endorsing ‘self-deportation.’ Yet not even Romney, who lost the Latino vote to Obama by more than 40 percentage points in November 2012, supported curbing legal immigration, a concept at the core of what it means to be American.

A bunch of Republican senators were appalled when they heard about this. (They can count votes …) Talking Points Memo got them on the record.

Arizona Senator John McCain: “I think most statistics show that they fill part of the workforce that are much needed. We have, and I’m a living example of, the aging population. We need these people in the workforce legally.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch: “I basically think that’s poppycock. We know that when we graduate PhDs and master’s degrees and engineers, we don’t have enough of any of those. … The fact is you can always point to some negatives, but the positives are that we need an awful lot more STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] people. … Frankly a lot of us are for legal immigration and for solving this problem.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman: “We want legal immigration. … As a party we’ve always embraced immigrants coming here legally, following the rules. And it’s enriched our country immeasurably. It’s who we are. It’s the fabric of our success.”

Senate Republican Conference Chair John Thune: “I think if you talk to businesses in this country, they need workers. We have a workforce issue in this country and I know in my home state of South Dakota where the unemployment rate is 2.3 percent, they can’t find workers. So having a robust legal immigration process helps us fill jobs that otherwise wouldn’t be getting filled.”

But recall that Walker said explicitly that he’s working with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions on this issue. And Jeff Sessions had a lot to say about this in his “IMMIGRATION HANDBOOK FOR THE NEW REPUBLICAN MAJORITY” dated January 2015. It’s a fascinating document and well worth reading. It is the perfect example of right-wing populism at its most traditionally xenophobic.

He sets forth an argument that income inequality is not a result of the tax structure or the concentrated power of wealth but rather the result of immigrants stealing the jobs of natural born Americans:

The last four decades have witnessed the following: a period of record, uncontrolled immigration to the United States; a dramatic rise in the number of persons receiving welfare; and a steep erosion in middle class wages.
But the only “immigration reforms” discussed in Washington are those pushed by interest groups who want to remove what few immigration controls are left in order to expand the record labor supply even further.
The principal economic dilemma of our time is the very large number of people who either are not working at all, or not earning a wage great enough to be financially independent. The surplus of available labor is compounded by the loss of manufacturing jobs due to global competition and reduced demand for workers due to automation. What sense does it make to continue legally importing millions of low-wage workers to fill jobs while sustaining millions of current residents on welfare?

He put it into philosophical and historical perspective:

We need make no apology in rejecting an extreme policy of sustained mass immigration, which the public repudiates and which the best economic evidence tells us undermines wage growth and economic mobility. Here again, the dialect operates in reverse: the “hardliners” are those who refuse even the most modest immigration controls on the heels of four decades of large-scale immigration flows (both legal and illegal), and increased pressures on working families.

Conservativism is by its nature at odds with the extreme, the untested, the ahistorical.
The last large-scale flow of legal immigration (from approximately 1880–1920) was followed by a sustained slowdown that allowed wages to rise, assimilation to occur, and the middle class to emerge.

This is heady stuff for the base of the GOP. It’s very much the essence of the kind of right-wing populism we’ve seen in the past and there’s been interest in this idea within the party for a very long time. The usurpation of Eric Cantor was arguably the first shot across the bow of the Republican leadership on this issue for 2016. There’s little doubt that base agitation over immigration was one of the animating issues that led to his demise. If you listen to talk radio, the tone is still nearly hysterical. So there’s an audience for this message.a
Sessions, being a bit more polished than Walker, put it this way when asked about the comments:

“I thought it was a good statement that he made, which is saying, ‘I’m gonna ask the question, what is it going to do for wages and job prospects for my constituents and the American people as I analyze how to create a proper immigration flow into America. We’re not going to end it, we’re going to maintain immigration.”

The question most other Republican leaders are asking themselves is, “How are we ever going to win the presidency if we keep alienating Latinos like that?” And yes, business likes immigration too, but they have always been able to finesse it quietly behind the scenes while their candidates throw anti-immigrant red meat at the base. That’s not going to work going forward. Little Latino pitchers have big ears. And their own TV networks.

I confess I was surprised to read that the Kochs had put their billions on the line for Scott Walker in the first place. I understand the desire for a winning young newcomer, but remain bewildered why anyone would think Walker is that guy. His ratings at home in Wisconsin are in the dirt (and they were never sky high to begin with) and the fact that he’s been pretty much a Koch and Club for Growth puppet is no endorsement — he’s been so clumsy about it he’s left a trail of evidence of dark money collusion in his wake. He’s been very amateurish on the trail so far and now he’s heading off on a wild tangent over one of the most delicate issues confronting the Republican Party.

At the end of the Koch Summit last winter, the consensus seemed to be that Marco Rubio was the fresh face they were looking for. He’s young, good-looking and malleable to their agenda. And he’s Latino, obviously. Whether he’s any more ready for prime time than Walker remains to be seen. But after Walker’s faux pas this week, it’s likely that he’s going to get a good close second look. And there’s always Jeb if things don’t work out with the new kids. What he lacks in charisma he makes up for in dullness. At this point, that may be the best they can do.


Heather Digby Parton, also known as "Digby," is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism."



http://www.salon.com/2015/04/22/scot...he_nomination/

Fortunately Heather Digby Parton is a Democratic blogger whose opinion will count little at the end of the day. She's a Navy Brat raised in Alaska who studied theater in San Jose, California where she still resides, and thus knows very little about the issues that impact our mainland economy, standard of living and sovereignty.

And Jeff Sessions gets it right on immigration, but misses the boat on the impact of the current income tax on jobs and wages, because he apparently doesn't understand that there's a formula for our standard of living, and it involves not only controlling immigration but repealing the income tax and replacing it with the FairTax, protecting our trade which protects our good jobs, capital investment and technology, ending the War on Drugs which currently allows if not protects a foreign cartel controlled black market to suck $300 billion a year of our money supply out of the country in drug sales, and of course producing more domestic energy including oil and gas. I rank them in that order:

Judy's Five Steps To Fix the US Economy

1. stop illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration
2. pass the FairTax
3. protect our trade
4. end the War on Drugs
5. drill baby drill, but do it right

re the birthing of women's rights, the environment and endangered species protections. It brings to mind the issue of the enormous population increase that is happening here and will be even more so in the future due to the overpopulation by illegals. They do not have to pay for schooling, health care etc. The more children, the more monies received. We are paying that bill and they are the future voting block and at this rate, their vote will be the majority. That is what is desired by those in charge.

The more populace the more energy demands and if it is dirty energy we will all suffer more toxicity. Will be less habitat for creatures and the need for food and water will skyrocket. Oil pipelines can and have destroyed water supplies, lands. Animal agriculture poisons our waters and lands also. Even plant crops increasing production with the pesticide methods used will greatly increase our health risks negatively.

The results of ignoring our immigration laws are enormous, outright dangerous & anti American.
Hope candidates surface that will steer this ship on another course.

Originally Posted by Judy

Fortunately Heather Digby Parton is a Democratic blogger whose opinion will count little at the end of the day. She's a Navy Brat raised in Alaska who studied theater in San Jose, California where she still resides, and thus knows very little about the issues that impact our mainland economy, standard of living and sovereignty.

Who Heather Digby Parton is, isn't important. I posted the article to show that Walker isn't exactly "in like Flint" with the Koch brothers.

"David Koch then made a statement walking back this apparent endorsement:While I think Governor Walker is terrific, let me be clear, I am not endorsing or supporting any candidate for President at this point in time."

by William Bigelow
26 Apr 2015
512 comments

The conservative movement’s leading media icons lined up to back Scott Walker after the media attempted to lynch him for talking tough on immigration.

After being attacked by outlets such as MSNBC, Mother Jones magazine and the Huffington Post, Walker stayed the course, telling the Quad City Times on Friday that American workers had to come first.

“A couple years ago, when the unemployment rate was at incredibly high levels and labor participation was low, why would we want to flood the market with more workers?” he said. “So that would be a time when you would have arguably less. As the unemployment rate goes down and labor participation rates go up, the two have to go hand in hand. Then it could be conceivably more than we have today. So it’s not a set number.”

The New York Times reported that Walker told Glenn Beck that he favored restricting legal immigration in tough economic times and that Friday, answering two young Republicans, Walker asserted, “In terms of how wide or how narrow the door’s open, our No. 1 priority is American workers and American wages. I don’t know how anyone can argue against that.’’

The conservative backlash came after Walker had been pilloried not only by the media but also some establishment Republicans such as Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rob Portman (R-OH).

Matt Drudge headlined the New York Times piece: “Walker Unflinching; ‘Our No. 1 priority to protect American workers and their wages’ …”

Sean Hannity blasted, “If these establishment folks, instead of attacking guys like Scott Walker—if they put half the effort into helping these desperate Americans as they do into helping the people who don’t respect American laws, don’t respect American sovereignty, maybe those people would be back in the labor force and back working again. Also, maybe we wouldn’t be $18 trillion in debt. Scott Walker is right. These Washington bureaucrats have failed in their duty which is to secure our borders and now it’s resulting in a situation where it’s making it harder for our American citizens to find work.”

After one guest on Glenn Beck’s show stated, “Scott Walker is getting beaten up over his interview with us. Not necessarily by conservatives,” Beck stated, “Yeah, I know that. It’s been like four days now. He was on with us Monday and he’s still being beaten up. I saw another story this morning. So for four days he has been beaten up in the press because he said, “I want to protect American jobs and American workers.”

Answering a caller, Mark Levin bluntly stated of Walker that he was unafraid to take a hard stand, asserting: “Let me tell you Maureen, one did make it a couple of days ago, Scott Walker. To his great credit. And guess who’s attacking him? The crazy fanatics who write editorials, nameless editorials at the Wall Street Journal. Are you sick and tired of the Wall Street Journal? Are you sick and tired of Wall Street? I am. I mean we spent a million dollars bailing those guys out and now this Wall Street Journal editorial page is their mouth piece. We know who they want. They want Jeb Bush. We know what they want. They wanted Romney. They wanted McCain. We know who they are. Do you happen to know, Maureen, 25 or 30 years ago, they literally took the position, I have it here, I’ve read it before, that there should be an amendment to the constitution with 5 words, Thou Shall Have Open Borders. Did you know that? … So now they’re attacking Scott Walker. These little creeps who have done nothing. He’s run a state. He’s fought the public sector unions. He’s grown the state economy. And these little jerks sitting there at the Wall Street Journal. ‘We don’t like that.’ Open borders. Yeah, open borders. Open borders, my you know what!”

Laura Ingraham wrote, “Right on cue. No sooner does Scott Walker reiterate a principled and populist stance on immigration — one which would prioritize the jobs and wages of everyday working Americans — than the mainstream media and Establishment pols emerge ready to attack. Leading the pack of Establishment attack dogs is none other than failed former presidential contender, Sen. John McCain (which raises the question: should the GOP really be taking their lead on how to run a successful presidential campaign from John McCain?) McCain’s attack echoes that of the mainstream media which slammed Walker for adopting a so-called “protectionist” immigration policy. 

But what do all of the attacks against Walker’s immigration platform have in common? Not one of them mentions a single fact about the United States’ current immigration policy. After all, the cardinal rule of mainstream media reporting and Establishment messaging on immigration is to never mention current immigration numbers — under no circumstance, is a mainstream reporter to ever acknowledge that the United States currently admits one million legal permanent residents, 700,000 guest workers, 70,000 refugees, 500,000 student visas and 200,000 spouses of guest workers annually… Scott Walker’s pro-American immigration platform is an incredibly positive development in the 2016 race. It demonstrates that Walker is a leader who is listening to the American people and is prioritizing their needs above the big money special interests and corporatist elites. While other 2016 candidates like Marco Rubio will talk about a need to “modernize” our immigration system (read: import lots of guest workers for open-border billionaires),Walker is the only 2016 candidate talking about creating a legal system of immigration that (finally) puts the needs of American citizens and legal immigrants already here first.”

Michael Savage was brief, and well, savage: “A bunch of rotten villains, every last one of them. They’re all villainous. There’s no other word for it. The American political system is villainous. At this point, the only one I can back is Scott Walker, and I don’t know much about him. I will not back Rubio. He’s a non-entity and never should have run. He’s a clown. Ted Cruz is unelectable. He looks like a weasel and he sounds like a weasel. I don’t care how much you love him. So who’s left. Scott Walker. That’s all.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...l-immigration/

Originally Posted by Jean

the cardinal rule of mainstream media reporting and Establishment messaging on immigration is to never mention current immigration numbers — under no circumstance, is a mainstream reporter to ever acknowledge that the United States currently admits one million legal permanent residents, 700,000 guest workers, 70,000 refugees, 500,000 student visas and 200,000 spouses of guest workers annually… Scott Walker’s pro-American immigration platform is an incredibly positive development in the 2016 race.

Is there anybody else who's willing to say "Americans first" in public?
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

Is there anybody else who's willing to say "Americans first" in public?
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Not so far. But they've also been strangely quiet. Thinking I imagine on how in the hell do they run a campaign for President putting the welfare of illegal aliens and wannabe immigrants ahead of the best interest of American Workers, American Citizens, American Taxpayers and ... American Voters?

It's going to be a great year for American Politics in 2016, a very exciting race, and Scott Walker just made Immigration the Number One Issue of the 2016 elections.

Michael Savage was brief, and well, savage: “A bunch of rotten villains, every last one of them. They’re all villainous. There’s no other word for it. The American political system is villainous. At this point, the only one I can back is Scott Walker, and I don’t know much about him. I will not back Rubio. He’s a non-entity and never should have run. He’s a clown. Ted Cruz is unelectable. He looks like a weasel and he sounds like a weasel. I don’t care how much you love him. So who’s left. Scott Walker. That’s all.”

IMO, Savage has got it right. Through a process of elimination, we're not left with much to choose from at this point. Is Walker sincere .......... only time will tell.

Originally Posted by artist

re the birthing of women's rights, the environment and endangered species protections. It brings to mind the issue of the enormous population increase that is happening here and will be even more so in the future due to the overpopulation by illegals. They do not have to pay for schooling, health care etc. The more children, the more monies received. We are paying that bill and they are the future voting block and at this rate, their vote will be the majority. That is what is desired by those in charge.

The more populace the more energy demands and if it is dirty energy we will all suffer more toxicity. Will be less habitat for creatures and the need for food and water will skyrocket. Oil pipelines can and have destroyed water supplies, lands. Animal agriculture poisons our waters and lands also. Even plant crops increasing production with the pesticide methods used will greatly increase our health risks negatively.

The results of ignoring our immigration laws are enormous, outright dangerous & anti American.
Hope candidates surface that will steer this ship on another course.

You're most welcome, artist, and you're exactly right. Overpopulation is the single greatest threat to the environment and immigration is the single greatest threat to ours.

Originally Posted by MW

IMO, Savage has got it right. Through a process of elimination, we're not left with much to choose from at this point. Is Walker sincere .......... only time will tell.

I loved his choice of the word "villains" to describe these traitors, because that is exactly what they are: VILLAINS.