Republicans Go On an Immigration Reform Bender

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine 

Rather than twisting the political knife in the gaping wound that is Obamacare, House Republicans are off on a “comprehensive immigration reform” toot. The 519px-Greatwall_largelatest news has the Speaker putting off any action for now, and waiting until after the midterm elections in order not to anger the anti-amnesty base, and “to goose Latino turnout or to swing purple districts” in 2016, as political blogger Allahpundit put it. In other words, electoral timing rather than principle is determining what happens.

But principle, not to mention common sense, is what’s at stake here. Anyone proposing “comprehensive” anything after the debacle of Obamacare is delusional. Complex problems are not going to be solved with grandiose legislation that tries to politically please everybody. Nor are most sensible voters likely once again to play Charlie Brown to the Congressional Lucy jerking away the promised “enforcement triggers” and “border security” football after the de facto amnesty is already in place. We went through all that in 1986, when the same promises of employer checks of legal residency and beefed-up border security were broken, more than doubling the number of illegal immigrants from 5 million to 11 million today. Continue reading “Republicans Go On an Immigration Reform Bender”

Explaining the Democrats’ Success

by Bruce Thornton

Frontpage Magazine

The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans’ defeat, from the “woman problem” and the “Hispanic problem,” as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney’s fatcat persona and his inept campaign. But there’s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics of democracy starting in ancient Athens — Obama and the Democrats promised voters more free stuff. Continue reading “Explaining the Democrats’ Success”

Graffiti on Trees, High-Speed Rail to Nowhere: The Wages of Liberalism

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Last week, while reading about an insolvent California’s insistence on going ahead with the first leg of a proposed high-speed rail line (total cost of the system: an estimated $100-$300 billion), I heard the following story on a local ABC news affiliate about a nearby low-Sierra lake: Continue reading “Graffiti on Trees, High-Speed Rail to Nowhere: The Wages of Liberalism”

Legal Illegal Immigration

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

President Obama recently issued an edict exempting an estimated 800,000 to 1 million illegal aliens from the consequences of federal immigration law. Ostensibly that blanket amnesty applies to those who arrived before the age of 16 and are younger than 30; who are in, or graduated from, high school or have served in the military; and who have not been convicted of a felony or multiple misdemeanors. Continue reading “Legal Illegal Immigration”

Chameleon Nation

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Sometimes a trivial embarrassment can become a teachable moment. It was recently revealed that Harvard professor and US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren had self-identified as a Native American for nearly a decade — apparently to enhance her academic career by claiming minority status. Continue reading “Chameleon Nation”

From the Trayvon Martin Tragedy to a National Travesty

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The Rules of Outrage — Or Why the Trayvon Martin Tragedy Divides the Country

Every year hundreds of Americans are shot and killed under controversial circumstances, where the evidence is incomplete and subject to dispute, often making impossible an immediate charge of murder or manslaughter, at least until further witnesses or information come forth. Continue reading “From the Trayvon Martin Tragedy to a National Travesty”

The Strange Case of Trayvon Martin

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

Racial-Relations Regression

The Trayvon Martin tragedy, by the time the entire process is played out, will reflect poorly on lots of people and groups, who in mob-like fashion have weighed in before all the facts in the case are fully aired. Continue reading “The Strange Case of Trayvon Martin”

Obama’s Demagoguery

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The atrocity at first seemed undeniable: A white vigilante, with a Germanic name no less, hunted down and then executed a tiny black youth — who, from his published grammar-school photos, seemed about twelve — while he was walking innocently and eating candy in an exclusive gated community in northern Florida. Continue reading “Obama’s Demagoguery”

Please, A Little Honesty about Illegal Immigration

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

President Barack Obama recently assured El Salvador that the United States would not deport the more than 200,000 Salvadorans residing illegally in the United States. Continue reading “Please, A Little Honesty about Illegal Immigration”

Illegal Immigration Is Immoral

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Illegal immigration has been in the news daily during the Republican primary campaign, even though a depressed economy here, stronger border enforcement, and vast new finds of petroleum in Latin America may soon radically curtail the number of illegal entrants into the United States. Continue reading “Illegal Immigration Is Immoral”