Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Pendragon is no expert on immigration (although my wife and I recently navigated the legal corridors of the institution), but the bill coming out of the US House of Representatives this week is A Bad Thing. I remember urging members of Congress, particularly Republican members of Congress, not to ignore the illegal immigration issue, thus giving opportunity to a third party to spoil next year's presidential election. That said election has as its second most dominant issue, after the War, illegal immigration is a record to how mainstream the Pendragon really is in America. What I and others should have remembered to mention apparently is that bad action is not better than no action. This is what Ted Kennedy and his cronies who sponsored the bill are telling us: "It's not perfect but at least we moved on the problem." It is so far from perfect the fact that probable Republican presidential nominee John McCain is behind it should give pause to all registered Republicans. McCain and Giuliani favor amnesty, see. I don't know why Bush is going along with it. The bill calls for all illegal aliens within the country to be granted temporary worker status so that they can begin the process legally. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, to their credit, are attacking this legislation already, despite the fact that it has won the approval of the current (Republican) president. I think they have their fingers on the pulse of the country better than this bill's sponsors. Americans want action on the immigration issue, but the first thing they want to see is punishment of illegal immigration and stricter enforcement of our borders. The Pendragon once favored a kind fo "guest-worker" program, but only on the understanding that it was offered not to illegals already here, but to those who wanted to live in Mexico and work in the United States.
The key lesson to take away from this is that action is not an end in itself, but its merits depend strictly on the kind of action taken. Acting unwisely is not a better alternative than not acting at all. Nor can members of Congress plead any need for speed that compromised the deliberative process (like, say, a matter of national security). They've been arguing bills like this for years. They had plenty of time to take their polls and study the dynamics of the situation. There was no urgency until suddenly both parties realized they could make political hay out of it. It is suggestive that Ted Kennedy sponsored both this bill and No Child Left Behind--flawed programs that people feared to oppose because it was politically unfeasible. It's about time politics in this country took a backseat to serving the national interest. Of course, this would also require Ted Kennedy's ejection from the Senate and imprisonment, so it's easy to see why perhaps he chooses the easier road.
The key lesson to take away from this is that action is not an end in itself, but its merits depend strictly on the kind of action taken. Acting unwisely is not a better alternative than not acting at all. Nor can members of Congress plead any need for speed that compromised the deliberative process (like, say, a matter of national security). They've been arguing bills like this for years. They had plenty of time to take their polls and study the dynamics of the situation. There was no urgency until suddenly both parties realized they could make political hay out of it. It is suggestive that Ted Kennedy sponsored both this bill and No Child Left Behind--flawed programs that people feared to oppose because it was politically unfeasible. It's about time politics in this country took a backseat to serving the national interest. Of course, this would also require Ted Kennedy's ejection from the Senate and imprisonment, so it's easy to see why perhaps he chooses the easier road.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 9:31 PM 
