Republicans & Conservatives: Archives

This country is evolving into an economic sanctuary - that’s it. A universal country with a universal culture. A region on the earth’s surface.

Welcome to capitalism globalization reality, Mike.

There ISN’T going to be a draft!

Mike,
“This country is evolving into an economic sanctuary - that’s it. A universal country with a universal culture. A region on the earth’s surface.”

Well said, Mike! Exactly right! Welcome to the world of progressive thinking! Now, you’ve recognized the trend. Let’s take a step back, review, and enable you to jettison conservative thinking once and for all.

Human culture has evolved from tribes, to villages, to city-states, to nations, to empires. This expansion continues today. We call it globalization. You know it. I know it. Everyone reading this knows it.

Language has evolved along with culture, in a similar fashion. The number of languages have diminished. Both language and culture are evolving and unifying.

People travel more and more. A trip that might have been inconceivable 500 years ago is routine today. From the long term perspective, borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Everything I’s saying it obvious. You know it. I know it. EVeryone knows it. America is the leader of the process of globalization. The question is, how can we maintain leadership, and guide an inevitable process to our best advantage?

Obviously, a ‘language, borders, culture’ approach is absurd. It didn’t work for the Luddites, and it won’t work for us either; such an approach bucks every long term trend. It is imperative that we make the long term trend coincide with out best interest.

Language changes. Borders change. Cultures change. The question should rightly be, how can we be more inclusive? More open to immigration? More open to developing world government?

Dump conservative thought, Mike. Rethink you’re approach and attitudes towards immigration and citizenship. Your last paragraph indicates that, on some level, you understand the trend. Figure out the big picture, figure out the forest; applying it towards the trees will then become straightforward, and contain the added benefit of philosphical consistency.

Mike T

if I were to renounce my U.S. citizenship I would be entitled to cheaper tuition at the California university system, and even be safe from a possible military draft.

This reminds me of some conservatives’ claims that gays have it easier than others today. It’s just laughably incorrect.

I remain profoundly grateful (why should I be proud of an accident of birth) for my American citizenship. I scarcely believe that Bush’s interest in relaxing rules around working illegals has anything to do with making life easier for them, but rather everything to do with making profits better for the corporations who hire them cheap, without having to worry about mistreated employees being able to gain redress with the rights of a citizen.

Thanks Mike for exposing yet another irony of Big Government, Big Business, Republicanism which abandons the best principles of both conservatism and liberalism.

phx8,

Philosophical consistency?

How about progressives becoming a little more open, a little more tolerant and a little more inclusive… of those who are different?

A progressive goal of global homogenization should embrace global warming as well as ideal.. why should the tropics get all the warm weather.

Mike, interesting thoughts, but some of it doesn’t add up.

For one, there’s is no military draft for you to worry about. It also happens be the case that in our all voluntary military there is a disporportianate number of those from first and second generation immigrant families—some of whose parents are illegal immigrants.

Isn’t it a little unseemly to be worrying about military service nobody’s asking you to perform when so many of the new arrivals to this country whose presence you’re complaining about are signing up to defend this country?

Why would you get cheaper tution in California if you were an illegal immigrant? If true (though I can’t imagine why it would be) this would constitute an unfair policy best addressed by the California legislature—not a problem with illegal immigration per se.

If you’re concerned about getting a job washing dishes in a restuarant, cleaning up New Orleans for a sub par salary or picking fruits and vegetable for $30 a day, then you should be worried about the resident worker program.

I dislike the resident worker program because I think it’s totally unAmerican—the introduction of a caste system into our society where some have rights others do not. I’m all for getting tough on illegal immigration, but I find extremely distasteful this idea of a two tier system under the law.

It’s important not to let debates about illegal immigration turn into hostility toward immigrants—a hostility which would be nothing new in America, where each wave of immigrants has historically hung around a generation or two or three and then complained about how the next wave of immigrants is ruining the country and taking away what they believe to be rightfuly their own.

Jo,
“How about progressives becoming a little more open, a little more tolerant and a little more inclusive… of those who are different?”

Ok.

“Is this responding to anything anyone said?

“A progressive goal of global homogenization should embrace global warming as well as ideal.. why should the tropics get all the warm weather.”

Why? Why would that follow? It makes no sense. I have no idea what you are talking about.

Mike T., fine topic and article. I agree entirely with the gist. Citizenship is being degraded, and almost as important, some 3 million plus illegal immigrants, under Bush and Congress, will be permitted to remain putting huge downward pressure on American wages and knocking citizens out of jobs.

It is appalling. I am all for homogenizing our society with legal immigration designed to meet our nations entrepreneurial and growth needs. But, opening the borders to any willing to cross during this time of terrorist threat is a breach of oath to protect and defend the Constitution and all the laws that emanate from it.

Bush and Congress will be guilty of violating their oath and the mandate of the people to protect our borders. It is imperitive that voters prepare to vote incumbents out of office in 2006. That is the only way politicians who replace them are going to get the message that we the people take our laws and Constitution seriously and we will hold them accountable.

phx8,

Welcome to the world of progressive thinking! Now, you’ve recognized the trend. Let’s take a step back, review, and enable you to jettison conservative thinking once and for all.

Human culture has evolved from tribes, to villages, to city-states, to nations, to empires. This expansion continues today. We call it globalization. You know it. I know it. Everyone reading this knows it.

Language has evolved along with culture, in a similar fashion. The number of languages have diminished. Both language and culture are evolving and unifying.

The question is, how can we maintain leadership, and guide an inevitable process to our best advantage?

Global climate is also ‘unifying’ … break out the progressive party hats! The Progressive Empire… (erm) Progressive Global Village is inevitable.

Moderates, conservatives sign up here for our new global citizenship creed… ONE culture, ONE language, ONE ruler .. PROGRESSIVE rule and LEADERSHIP. SOrry, if you do not sign up to the agreement you will have to be recycled.. down the hall, first door on your right…

Jo,
“Global climate is also ‘unifying.’”

I don’t understand. I can’t even tell if we agree or disagree. The tone in the next few sentences suggests sarcasm, but I have absolutely no idea how you’re linking global warming and a global village. I can do this for you, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

Do you think you’d be less free in a ‘progressive’ future? Maybe you’re right. Can you articulate why?

phx8,

As the climate warms, it is also ‘unifying’.. the temperature extremes are becoming narrower.. albeit at a higher level than i, for one, would prefer.

Yes, i think i would be less free in a ‘progressive’ homogenized society. i like to experience new things, discover new flavors, hear new music and ideas… this will become increasingly difficult should your dream of a progressive utopia come to pass.

You tell Mike to toss out his ideas and replace them with yours. Guess what, i don’t want everyone to be the same, equal yes, the same, no way. That is boring and imo, oppressive, not liberating. I want to hear your ideas as well as Mike’s and everyone else’s… well, i at least want the freedom to choose which i will hear and which i will just pretend to hear. ;)

What is it that Augustine said? Oh lord, let me be chaste… But not yet!

Bush is taking the same angle on immigration. He wants to please those who see undocumented workers as a threat, and also those who see them as a way to cheat the fair market prices on labor (prices influenced by the prices businesses charge for goods and services) So his solution? Go one further on Solomon, and actually split the baby in half.

This guest-worker thing… did Bush happen to inquire in Europe as to what came of that? Why are we going to create communities of people in this country who owe no loyalty, economic or nationally, to our country?

Undo some of the more unfair restrictions on immigration, sure, but I agree: don’t dilute citizenship by vacillating in the direction of guest workers.

As for folks doing the work that Americans are unwilling to do? well, I always add “at the price they’re asking”. If you can’t afford the labor, can we really say you’re successful enough to compete properly? If you truly believe in the free market, the market should be free to raise wages in places where the cost of living is high. The market both makes certain things cheaper, and certain things more expensive, as supply, demand, and other factors dictate. To only expect it to cut down on prices is to have an imbalanced view of the economy.

Stephen,

As for folks doing the work that Americans are unwilling to do? well, I always add �€œat the price they�€™re asking�€.

Here! Here!

China and India have plenty of room for our slaves! We should not have to subject ourselves to the sights smells and filth of those brutes within our own borders. Let them commute daily to clean our toilets and wipe our grandparents’ chins.

If you can�€™t afford the labor, can we really say you�€™re successful enough to compete properly?

Proper?! Why we are HELPING those poor lost souls. They would be so much worse off without our aid. Even Jim Bob up the holler has benefitted from our generosity. The old factory that shut down a couple years ago has offered him a job and is moving his whole family down to Mexico to further help their sorry state.

Jo,
Violence and conflict are caused by difference.

For this reason, in education, we need to stress a melting pot, rather than value diversity. Conflict originates in difference, and minimizing differences means minimizing conflict and violence, whether it’s a matter of immigration or world government.

It does come with a price, perhaps the loss of some of the spice in life- as one advertising campaign humorously puts it, “different is good”-and while that might be true for culinary choices, it’s not a desirable philosophical choice; a progressive, synthesizing approach makes sense. It’s liberal, progressive progress in the truest sense, as opposed to the conservative way of thinking, which seeks to close doors, and reject change in favor of tradition.

phx8,

Seems to me you are the one closing doors— on anyone not like yourself, anyone with differing ideas.

Yes, difference can cause conflict and violence. Try ‘melting together’ your bicep and tricep and see how much you can accomplish with your tranquil homogenized body.

Jo,
Closing doors? Just the opposite! It means opening doors to immigration, wide open. It’s logical and consistent with a progressive point of view.

Too often, conservative positions surrounding multiculturalism and immigration barely conceal fear, hatred, and bigotry. Too often, the underlying position assumes we’ll never change- not our language, not our culture, not our borders- and that others are different. This difference is used as a justification for exploitation in the workplace. It allows conservatives to dehumanize ‘the other.’

Think about it- how did most people react to the London bombings? Yet in the past week along, the equivalent of a London bombing has occurred on an almost daily basis in Iraq. We do not know the victim’s names. We do not see them interviewed on tv. When forced to confront this, almost anyone will readily agree those poor dead people are human beings first, and Iraqis second. Yet the lens of cultural difference allows our conscience to distort the perception of Iraqi suffering without hesitation, to dismiss their deaths as being somehow unworthy of the same attention we give to the London bombings.

Think about it. The nature of love is unifying, an ‘oceanic feeling.’ In an ultimate sense, this is what underlies progressive thought, and liberal thinking.

It is in stark contrast with the underlying, fundamental fear typifying conservative thought.

ONE COMMENT…WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WE ALWAYS THINK THEIR FROM OUR SOUTHERN BORDERS…LOOK AT THOSE COMING FROM OUR NORTHERN BORDERS (CANADA) THEY COME FROM ALL OVER EUROPE THRU CANAGA ON TOURIST VISAS AND THEY OVERSTAY THEIR VISITS, ENROLLED IN OUR SCHOOL, ENTER INTO OUR WORK FORCE.

phx8,

Think about it, the ocean is far from homogenous. It abounds in diversity… and conflict and violence. So too our forests and wildlands.

Is it your proposal that these also be ‘homogenized’ and perhaps genetically meld them all together for a single superior and peaceful creature? Perhaps if we just cut it down to one creature per phylum that would satisfy you? Of course we have already started with our food crops but this could be carried further, again with representative plants for what you judge as inferior, old fashioned, unevolved diversity of species.

Even as a supposed bleeding heart liberal i am sick to death of leftist elitists couching their hatred for others in ‘progress’, ‘evolve’ and the like. It is no different or better than that for which you judge the conservatives.

i dare a ‘progressive’ to poll Euopeans and ask how they would feel about ‘uniting’ under say the German culture and language, or perhaps the French? Ah, let’s be democratic and let them vote for their preferred culture.

If the world were peaceful, full of progressive six foot brunnettes with medium brown skinnned, esperante speakers sipping latte’s at the corner cafe, what WOULD you liberals have to protest against? What would unite you? Perhaps you would have to populate your new world with clones to ensure unity of thought.

A few times now (and i haven’t been here that long) i have heard liberals boast how they can live green even in an urban environment and that ours is no longer an agrarian based society. Seems ‘progressives only concern for the environment is nostalgic. Elite progressives are far advanced to actually need the earth for their own survival.

Sorry, but i disagree. i do NOT think that we have ‘progressed’ and ‘evolved’ to the point we have ‘outgrown’ the earth. i think we are a long way from establishing farms, parks and zoos on other planets or in other solar systems and i think you ‘progressives’ will have a little wait before you can stage award ceremonies for your cleverness.

But then, not to worry; a unifying, homogenizing sterilization and family planning system will quickly rid you of such irritating stressors as myself.

Mike,
A good article and one that the Republican Party started when President Reagan waived our country’s right back in the 80’s when the first large wave of illegal aliens crossed our borders.

However, President Bush is not doing this out of the concern for the people of our Nation or Mexico. By proposing this Bill to Congress they insure that Unskilled Labor Jobs in American will continue to have low wages and the corporations that hire will not face Treason Charges for working to undermine our economic well being.

No, the Congress needs to start enforcing our immagration laws before they start allowing people to cross our borders just to work. In fact, even some Republican Leaders out of Arizona and New Mexico are coming around to speaking out on the President’s idea of a Workers Passport. I just want to see the Democrats speak out about it and force the President’s hand at the Public Pulpit. If they were smart they would do it before the 2006 Elections begin next spring.

Jo,
The ‘oceanic feeling’ as love was originally developed by Freud. Interesting that, when you write about an ocean, you write of submerged conflicts & violence.

lol :)

I support any opinion, movement or actual action that is focused on deporting every illegal alien residing in this country.

Lately there has been more than a tolerabl;e level of talk from posters about the advantages available by leaving this country and going to live elsewhere. To this I quote the response made famous several years ago “IF YOUR HEART IS NOT IN AMERICA, GET YOUR ASS OUT!!!

And BTW, good riddance to you. Either fight to make whole that which you feel is broken or, put your tail between your legs and run.

If I had any doubts about weather liberials hate the US or not reading their comments on this post would confirm that they do.
Excepting a one world government would mean that the US would have to give up it’s sovereignty and just be another state to be told what to do by those that hate us to start with and would make sure that we’re left in total poverty.
How can anyone claim they love this country and advocate such things as globalization.

LEROY
ONE COMMENT�€�WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WE ALWAYS THINK THEIR FROM OUR SOUTHERN BORDERS�€�LOOK AT THOSE COMING FROM OUR NORTHERN BORDERS (CANADA) THEY COME FROM ALL OVER EUROPE THRU CANAGA ON TOURIST VISAS AND THEY OVERSTAY THEIR VISITS, ENROLLED IN OUR SCHOOL, ENTER INTO OUR WORK FORCE.

Your right, an illegal is an illegal, regardless of where they come from. However it seems that the most of them are from south of the boarder. Weather this is true or not I cann’t say. It just seems like it.

I�€™m all for getting tough on illegal immigration, but I find extremely distasteful this idea of a two tier system under the law.

Yikes! I actually agree completely with sanger about something. :)

Ron Brown, every time the US signs a treaty on trade or finance or whatever, we give up some sovereignty. A one world government is never going to happen, but the US has never been a strictly sovereign nation.

Ron,
Come on, now. Liberals & progressives love this country just as much as conservatives. The trends I’m talking about are long term trends.

Meanwhile, globalization is a fact. The movement of people across borders is a fixed feature over thousands and thousands of years of history. It’s going to occur. Globalization is going to occur. The only question is how to deal with it.

We spend way too much time consumed by our fears. Let’s dump that way of thinking and become positive again.

It’s not becoming worthless Mike, it already is worthless to many.
It is wrong to believe your country is the best and it is wrong to believe its well-being should come before the others.
We are the world, not the United States of America. To think different is wrong.

With the downward slide of recuiting becoming a problem for the military, I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if Bush didn’t start a draft to fight his war in Iraq.

Heaven help us if that becomes true.

kctim
It�€™s not becoming worthless Mike, it already is worthless to many.
It is wrong to believe your country is the best and it is wrong to believe its well-being should come before the others.
We are the world, not the United States of America. To think different is wrong.

Aint that the truth! I live near a college town and you’d be suprised at the number of people that tell me that the US doesn’t matter because it’s the ‘Global Community’ that counts.
When I asked a couple of them if they had any love for this country their answer was “Are you kidding? Why should we love America?”
And we’re considered more conservitive than Athens.

What about the rule of law? It is called illegal immigration because it is ILLEGAL. It is also illegal for the president to ignore his duty to equally enforce the laws of the land. Until the law is changed, which may be his ardent desire, he is bound to enforce it. What authority does the government have to select which laws they will enforce and which they will not. How I see this relating to the original post is that if you are an American citizen trying to play it straight, you are put at a disadvantage by following the rule of law. How can the contractor that only hires legal labor compete with the one that hires illegals, who should be rewarded?

Walter,

“I scarcely believe that Bush�€™s interest in relaxing rules around working illegals has anything to do with making life easier for them, but rather everything to do with making profits better for the corporations who hire them cheap, without having to worry about mistreated employees being able to gain redress with the rights of a citizen.”

Well said!

Look how quickly he changed the wage rules and invited cheap labor(illegal aliens) so his buddies like Haliburton KBR will be able to profit even more in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
If he responded to the hurricane victims this fast there may have been fewer lives lost.

too bad neither party has the ball needed to properly address this issue. I know plenty of liberals who are up in arms over the illegal immigration and the failure of our leadership to stem the flow. It is a bi-partisan issue and not a dem/rep issue. Too bad so many of the right fail to see that!

this is bs as a hispanic i feel we are giving this country away. put national guard at the border, stop illegals, stop drugs at the source end of story…………….

JACOB - You’ve got the right idea :)

Personally, I think it’s the liberals who have ruined the USA for all but the social program receivers. This used to be the main reason many wanted to come to USA, get a job and be guanrenteed to always have opportunity, whether working or not. I have traveled the world and I have heard from many, “we hear the US governement has plenty of social programs for immigrants.”

Well, now I am finding that the USA is mainly a great place to make money, but not to spend it. Thus I have decided to make my money in USA and invest it and spend it in China. I have decided the USA is not such a great place to live for many reasons, but in retirement, my money will give me a much better life in China then USA.

It is easy to make money from stupid Americans, as they are the most wasteful of all on earth. They care more about brand name then quality, so they can be duped very easy. I love it. Just keep spending like crazy, borrowing from China and like leading cultures of past, the USA will end up being a beggar.

Mike T,

I don’t see what the big deal is.

Rarely do more than 40% of the registered voters vote in any election.

What difference does citizenship make?

Mike T.

While I really don’t like the notion of giving all the people who “snuck in” to this country a free-pass, as in citizenship, you lost me with the Rome comparison. Roman citizenship was so prized because of how non-citizens within the Empire were treated. It was a form of elitism.

I don’t want American citizenship to be some sort of elite class. I want the illegal immigrants OUT…and if then we want to make it easier let them back in, fine…but, IMO all AMERICAN CITIZENS should enter our coutry legally.

Everett Hatton,

Is there any way we can accelerate your departure for China?

I think you’re overstating the problem allot. First as allot of people have stated already their is no draft, nor much of a realistic prospect of one soon. Second as for the education claim illegal immigrants only get in state tuition. Basicly they pay the same as any other california resident, not out of state tuition. But that’s only if they can prove residency which usually means you have to go to high school in California. As a note all you have to do to get in state tuition in state schools if you’re out of state is establish legal residency in the state you want to attend. In california it takes a year so you can move to california for a year then go to a state university and you’ll pay in state tuition. No big mystery there it’s a hassle I agree, but that’s because of the out of state tution laws. If a student popped in from china or canada or anywhere and wanted to apply for college they’re not getting in state tuition fees unless they can prove legal residency for a year, ie: rent stubs, electricty bills, etc, otherwise they’d pay out of state tuition like every non-state resident, wheather their legal or illegal. Also illegal immigrants are at huge disadvantage going to college becuase they can’t recieve federal student loans which means they usually can’t even afford the in state fees in most states. You should also keep in mind that most people applying to college are minors. Meaning they often had no choice in being brought into the US illegally. They’re parents usually dragged them here at a young age and they themselves have often commited no crime. Not to saying they’re not they have legal residency or anything like that, but it’s no different than if you were a foreigner in a plane than crashed in us territory while flying over. You haven’t commited any crime by being just getting out of the crash. Allowing them to pay for college like every other student at a in state rate, hardly seems like a huge deal when you consider they pay most state taxes like everyone else, but get few if any govt benefits. Ie: social security, medicare, student loans..