OK, I realize that I’ve been out of pocket for the past week or so, and I haven’t exactly been paying the sort of close attention to the news that I normally do. Even so, it was difficult to miss Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s futile swing-and-a-miss with his latest proposal to deal with the political quagmire that is the immigration issue.
Of course, with November’s midterm elections looming and with Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s poll numbers steadily circling the drain, SOMETHING has to be done. Republicans have to have some sort of concrete program or proposal that they can point and say, “SEE! We ARE doing something to deal with the illegal immigration issue!”
Granted, being out of the loop as if have been recently, there do seem to be a few serious questions that the proposal to call up 6,000 National Guard troops raise. So far, at least, I’ve heard no specifics and nothing that indicates that the implications of this program have been thoroughly thought through…not that this surprises me, of course.
I seem to remember hearing something about the National Guard being pretty well worn-out by it’s extended employment in the war in Iraq. Some Guardsmen have done two tours in Iraq, and this may not be the end of the line. Now, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader wants to use the Guard in a support role along the US-Mexico border? How severely can we overextend these weekend warriors before retention becomes a serious issue? How much is too much…and aren’t we close to being there?
Could it be possible that the Guard units from border states will bear the brunt of this service, or will the burden be spread out?
Am I the only one that thinks this whole program rather silly when viewed in light of the reality that the US-Canada border is the longest undefended border in the world? Or is this whole thing really just about looking as if something is being done to keep out brown people? No matter how much the overstuffed white Republicans or Minutemen bloviate about preventing terrorism, the complete lack of attention given to our northern border demonstrates beyond doubt that this is about keeping brown people out and winning the November elections. Period. Preventing terrorism is merely a clever smokescreen designed to lull the American sheeple into thinking that these folks actually care about security.
This may seem a bit of a stretch now, but are we headed in the direction of turning this country into an armed bastion? How long before we have regular Army units stationed along our borders?
Don’t I ask a lot of questions for someone who’s been out of touch for the past week??
It would be nice to think that politicians in Washington could come up with a sensible, fair, and bipartisan solution to the illegal immigration issue. Here in the Real World, of course, the odds of that happening are about the same as my being elected Queen of England. With a mid-term election coming up in November, Republicans are in trouble- and they know it. With a Republican President whose approval ratings are hovering near 30%, and with polls showing that fewer Americans now trust Republicans than Democrats, GOP leaders know that they need an issue to exploit. Illegal immigration is perfect in that it comes with a group (brown people) who can be demonized and portrayed as a threat to Our Way of Life and to the security of the Fatherland Homeland.
Of course, it’s not as if Democrats are poised to jump into the void armed with intellgent, coherent programs and ideas….
