One New York Life

I kind of got away from this with baseball and football and because I got burned out on the election. Much like 2006, I find it increasingly difficult to spend a lot of my free time in a medium where most people are exactly the same. Any political website is frequented by 25-40 year old college graduate, hippies who can save the world. I’m not. I rarely, if ever, look at anything other then sports’ news online anymore and I don’t really listen to any news other than Sportscenter and Mike and the Mad Dog Random Co-Host X.

Anyway, to try and get myself to focus on something other than my relative hatred for the obnoxious, self-righteous branch of Obama supporters, I need to get back to this. If for no other reason than to be sure I’m making the right decision based on issues and not my hatred for the political version of Philadelphia Eagles’ fans (smug, think they’re better then everyone, and haven’t won anything yet).

When we last left off, Obama took right to choose, McCain took possible supreme court appointees and a two-point round in gun rights, they pushed in Iraq, and McCain was assessed a penalty point for his campaign’s criticism of bloggers. The current score is 2-1 McCain.

Obiden: Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

McCalin: As you know, I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic contribution of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country. Many Americans did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts. I don’t want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy. We have economic and humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in meeting them.

This is pretty high on my list of “who gives a f*ck” issues, but I’m perfectly willing to admit that I might have a different view of that then people in border states. I think that politicians love this issue because it taps right in to America’s love of hating people and distracts them problems that aren’t “people from other countries want jobs.” I understand people come here illegally… also, having been to Mexico, I understand why they do. The poverty that you see in Mexico — people living in stick and mud huts with no windows selling beaded necklaces to survive — is horrific. And, for some reason, we’re only bothered by Mexicans. There is a relatively large piece of Manhattan that is nearly a Chinese nation state. Maybe they’re all legal. Maybe not. But, the Chinese already did their time as the hated import du jour 100 years ago, so they’re OK now — just like the Japanese did in the 1920s, the Irish did in the 1850s, and the Italians did in the late 1800s.

What really surprises me is the number of people who are stubbornly unwilling to admit that the United States has a rather obvious pattern when a new group decides it’s their turn to start coming here en masse. They usually come for the same reason — to escape really crappy situations like famine, plague, or poverty, and it’s always met with the same jingoistic hatred, panic, and lawmaking from people whose families have been here for a solid three generations. I mean, think about it… the country was founded in the 1780s. By the 1850s we were trying to keep the Irish out because they were Catholic so we didn’t like them. Then the Italians came, and we didn’t like them because they spoke a weird other language. They were Catholic, too but the Irish decided they weren’t the same kind of Catholic so they made them go to their own churches (seriously… my little town of Mechanicville had an Italian neighborhood and an Irish neighborhood both with their own Catholic churches that the other side couldn’t attend). Then the Asians came who not only spoke a WAY different language but looked different and wanted to retain their culture so we didn’t like them. Then the Eastern Europeans started coming by they were creepy Orthodox so we didn’t like them. It’s ultimately laughable. These douches want to create laws that would have banned their grandfathers from entering the country. Well-played. I met my great-grandfather. He still spoke Italian and came here in 1920 for a better life. I’m going to yell and scream about people from Mexico who want to do the same thing 100 years later?

Both of them want to crack down on employers, which is fine — even though you are on then one hand are complaining that illegals are straining the system and then further strain the system by having a bunch more people with no jobs. Both of them want to secure the border, which is a joke. Criminals have a lot of time and money to figure out ways around the border.

Both plans have flaws. McCain’s plan has a terrifying idea of a biometric employment verification. Obama’s version contains the stupid idea that we have to help Mexico’s economy to prevent illegal immigration. That’s a flowery, sweet, idiotic statement. Mexico has the 12th largest economy in the world. The problem isn’t that Mexico has no economy. The problem is that the poor are REALLY F*CKING POOR. It’s not Mexico’s economy that sucks, it’s their income disparity and the fact that while the US kind of helps its poor, Mexico doesn’t.

What Obama’s plan points out that McCain’s doesn’t is that process of immigration needs to be streamlined. It shouldn’t be as hard as it is for people to move here. That’s not supposed to be what we’re about. We have a statue in this city that asks for huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That symbol can’t sit at the gateway to the biggest city, in front of a monument to immigration, and then spend so much time trying to keep those same huddled masses out. Just because an exceptionally small percentage of illegals come here to scam the system, it doesn’t change that a solid majority of them would be here legally if it was allowed. Do we really believe that these people wouldn’t go through channels and would instead prefer to pay a criminal who may or may not just steal their money and kill them instead of smuggling over the border? Is that the argument? Most immigrants are here for the same reason my great-grandparents came here — for a better life. The hate-peddlers on the radio should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for framing all illegals as lazy system scammers. If they could get here legally without waiting 20 years, most of them would go through channels. Their choices are starve to death in Mexico or sneak in to the US. The reason they’re stressing the system is because of our idiotic policies making it so hard to get here and work legally.

So here’s the answer: fix border security, streamline the immigration process. Obama hits on those without a terrifying biometric database. I’m in.

Point: Obama (2-2)

Related posts:

• As If It Matters 2008 – As If It Matters
• As If It Matters 2008: Iraq
• As If It Matters 2008: Gun Control
• As If It Matters 2008: Right To Choose
• As If It Matters 2008: I Hate Politics