When Joel Kaplan, Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff, offered a comprehensive briefing on the Immigration Bill before its demise earlier today, he made a lot of sense:
"Look, this is a complicated bill. It's taken some time for people to understand what's in there. Obviously, it's a compromise and it's in the nature of compromise that everyone doesn't get everything they want."
But here's the problem: We're not conditioned to hear complicated proposals from this White House. They've been more committed than any White House in memory to turning us into simpletons. The President has been proud of framing everything in black-and-white. (If "nuance" weren't a French word, would he hate it as much?)
From the beginning, keeping things as simple as possible has been a guiding principle of the Bush White House. Remember Bush naming Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher at a 2000 New Hampshire debate? A bold answer, shared of course by millions. But what was Bush's reason? "Because he changed my heart." That's it? That's your reason for naming the central figure in Western religion? You've still got 30 seconds, Mr. President. How about something from the Sermon on the Mount? Anything?
His answer ranked with Paris Hilton's answer to Larry King when he asked for her favorite Bible passage. (Answer: She smiled and looked away.)
But until now it's been hard to argue with the simpleton strategy. He got us into Iraq with three letters (a record in crystallization): WMD. And it got him re-elected with three numbers (with a slash through the first and second): 9/11. The 2004 Republican Convention was a master class in messaging: Each night had a smartly named theme but the whole thing was really 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. Ironic that the Democrats, the party in bed with Hollywood, can't produce its way out of the electoral toilet. Their convention was a total snooze.
I'd give Trent Lott points for courage (madness?) in criticizing talk radio for branding a complicated Immigration bill as nothing more than mass amnesty - except that talk radio's not to blame. The right-wing hosts didn't like the amnesty part of the bill so naturally they were going to highlight that part of it and ignore the tightened border security, guest-worker program, and fines. That's their prerogative and they'd be stupid not to exercise it.
(Meanwhile poor sad John Kerry once again misses the point and wants to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine so that talk radio will be more diverse. Classic loser issue for the Democrats. What's next? A bill to affirm the rights of Americans to burn the flag? I'm shocked that the normally sensible Dianne Feinstein would even flirt with the idea of bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.)
President Bush, you probably won't have another shot at Immigration legislation. But if you do, make sure you make it easier to understand.
Start with "immigration": That thar werdz got fore big sillables! Ow my hed hertz!!
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
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Dumbocracy in Action: The Immigration Bill Goes Down
Posted Jun 28th 2007 1:30PM by Mo Rocca
Filed under: George Bush, Democrats, Republicans, 9/11, Illegal Immigration, Mo Rocca
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Reader Comments ( Page 15 of 15)
211. .
Ken Berg at 10:13AM on Jul 5th 2007
212. Other than Liz, none of you have commented on my post about Americans following immigration law. What do you think?
---------------------------
In order to control our borders, we Americans first need to learn to control ourselves.
If we insist on thinking, "yes, it is wrong for big business to hire illegals, but I just need my house painted, and so will hire "just one" Mexican indocumentado", we will only perpetuate this problem.
We need to grow up and quit bawling and blaming our troubles on other people.
These Mexicans did not just wake up one morning and decide to head north without reason. They have decent minds and they watch what is going on in the world and since 1987, they could see there was plenty of good paying work available in the USA and that for some reason, neither the American people nor the American government was worried about Mexican workers having proper documentation.
And so after considering what was best for their families, some Mexicans headed north to work.
Now after twenty years of us being happy to save money by having Mexicans do this work, we Americans have managed to work ourselves up into a royal American hissy fit and are bawling and want to punish these Mexicans for their "crime".
We all know it takes two to Tango. Also involved in every one of these "crimes" were Americans who were very willing to sell their own countrymen down the river just to save a buck.
The American who thought is was Ok to screw the local American (usually union) tradesmen and hire indocumentados to remodel his house is a big part of this "crime".
I would like to know what any of you super-nationalists think about this part of this situation.
If the IRS can track down people so effectively and get all of us to pay our taxes, it should be possible for our government to enforce immigration law, and a large part of that is punishing the Americans who hire indocumentados.
And a large part of punishing Americans who hire indocumentados will involve leavying heavy fines, not only on big business, but ALSO on John Q. Public who decides he wants Juan to mow his lawn and doesn't care that Juan is illegal.
Just like we are already accustomed to the IRS auditing average Americans over their federal income taxes, we should be ready to have the INS investigating average Americans over any foreign workers they hire.
We do not need to be morons and build a wall of America; we simply need to learn to control ourselves and what we do, have some real pride in our country and in ourselves, and stop being so childish and so cheap.
Ken Berg at 10:20AM on Jul 5th 2007
213. Other than Liz, none have commented on my suggestiong that we Americans begin to respect and actually follow US immigration law.
What do you think?
----------------------
In order to control our borders, we Americans first need to learn to control ourselves.
If we insist on thinking, "yes, it is wrong for big business to hire illegals, but I just need my house painted, and so will hire "just one" Mexican indocumentado", we will only perpetuate this problem.
We need to grow up and quit bawling and blaming our troubles on other people.
These Mexicans did not just wake up one morning and decide to head north without reason. They have decent minds and they watch what is going on in the world and since 1987, they could see there was plenty of good paying work available in the USA and that for some reason, neither the American people nor the American government was worried about Mexican workers having proper documentation.
And so after considering what was best for their families, some Mexicans headed north to work.
Now after twenty years of us being happy to save money by having Mexicans do this work, we Americans have managed to work ourselves up into a royal American hissy fit and are bawling and want to punish these Mexicans for their "crime".
We all know it takes two to Tango. Also involved in every one of these "crimes" were Americans who were very willing to sell their own countrymen down the river just to save a buck.
The American who thought is was Ok to screw the local American (usually union) tradesmen and hire indocumentados to remodel his house is a big part of this "crime".
I would like to know what any of you super-nationalists think about this part of this situation.
If the IRS can track down people so effectively and get all of us to pay our taxes, it should be possible for our government to enforce immigration law, and a large part of that is punishing the Americans who hire indocumentados.
And a large part of punishing Americans who hire indocumentados will involve leavying heavy fines, not only on big business, but ALSO on John Q. Public who decides he wants Juan to mow his lawn and doesn't care that Juan is illegal.
Just like we are already accustomed to the IRS auditing average Americans over their federal income taxes, we should be ready to have the INS investigating average Americans over any foreign workers they hire.
We do not need to be morons and build a wall of America; we simply need to learn to control ourselves and what we do, have some real pride in our country and in ourselves, and stop being so childish and so cheap.
Ken Berg at 10:22AM on Jul 5th 2007
214. Nothing? Amazing how the narrow-minded bellecose nativists have quieted down.
Ken Berg at 10:59AM on Jul 6th 2007
215. Ken, I backed off to give you the forum.
You've outlined thoughtful, logical, coherent ideas on immigration. Don't think that people haven't read what you have posted.
Maybe it's the attention span of the posters or maybe it's the Libby pardon and the calls for resignation of Bush/Cheney or the fact that senior republican leaders are calling for a reevaluation of Iraq, but a bunch of us are elsewhere debating these issues. Nothing but dead air here now, but your efforts are not for naught.
This isn't my particular issue and I am not especially informed on the particulars and history of immigration. So, for me, your ideas distill some of the complexities of the debate. I am sure I'm not the only one.
See ya' around the blogs.
Liz at 2:46PM on Jul 6th 2007
216. This from Andy Borowitz:
Illegal Immigrants Seek Scooter's Deal
'El Libbre' Becomes Folk Hero, Beacon of Hope
In a development that could complicate the Bush administration's
position on immigration, millions of illegal immigrants over the past
few days have sought an amnesty deal similar to the one obtained by the
former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby.
Just hours after President George W. Bush commuted Mr. Libby's prison
sentence, news of the deal spread like wildfire through the illegal
immigrant community, inspiring many who have sought amnesty to view Mr.
Libby as a beacon of hope.
According to reports, immigration officials across the country have
been deluged in recent days by illegal aliens willing to plead guilty
to perjury in exchange for a deal similar to Mr. Libby's.
The former chief of staff's story has become so compelling, in fact,
that Mr. Libby himself has become something of a folk hero to illegal
immigrants across the U.S.
At a café in El Paso, Texas, illegal aliens referred to Mr. Libby
reverentially as "El Libbre," loosely translated as "the free one."
"If I get an amnesty deal, I will owe it all to El Libbre." said Juan
Carmelo Gutierrez, 35, who plans to plead guilty to perjury this week.
But "not so fast," says White House spokesman Tony Snow, who today
tried to pour cold water on the plans of illegal immigrants hoping to
follow in Mr. Libby's footsteps: "Before these folks expect to get
Scooter's deal, they should ask themselves, 'Can I cut a check for
$250,000?'"
Elsewhere, people with no lives have stopped waiting in line for the
iPhone and started waiting in line for the new Harry Potter book.
Liz at 6:27PM on Jul 10th 2007
217. Liz ... (you guessed wrong) and I don't mind change at all if it is constructive, but why should I have to be forced to learn another language in order to keep a job because someone comes into this country and demands it? Why should I lose all the benifits I worked years for in order to pay for benifits for someone who came into this country & expects me to pay for their benifits when they havn't added anything towards thoes benifits? As for never having been outside of this country, man are you off. Lived in europe for over a year & while in Germany )a tiny town out in the hills, even though everyone spoke English, did try to learn some German while I was their. A couple years later also went to another three countries, again English was spoken. My grandparents came from another country & they learned English. My husband was half Mexican & his whole family spoke English, even all of them that came from Mexico, so what is wrong with todays socity pushing for everything in Spanish. Why are the Mexicans more important than all the other nationalities that come to the United States, do they also have to give up their customs & language to also become second class Mexican-Americans. And if you think we Americans are loud & crass why are you even in our country??
Ann Yank at 3:08AM on Jul 29th 2007