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Chill
by Steve WhiteUnless you live in a cave, you're by now aware of the recent law passed in Arizona that requires that the police, when given reasonable cause in a law enforcement situation, to check the citizenship of a person. This has, predictably, caused the progressive Left and the various La Raza-type groups to explode in anger. They are promising various protests that the mainstream media will describe as mostly peaceful', in the same way an anarchist protest at a G8 meeting is mostly peaceful'. We can expect provocations, large and small, in the coming weeks. We've seen this before. In 2006 there was a similar debate over immigration policy, and the same groups that are protesting today protested back then, in the same way and for the same reason. No, not for a change in immigration policy. Don't be silly. For a change in political leadership in Washington. Back in 2006 the Democrats used their progressive and latino pawns to foment trouble. They hoped that the Republicans would fracture over the issue, and they got their wish: that's just what Republicans did. Throw in a few tawdry scandals and dismay over the Iraq war, and the Democrats regained control of Congress. Four years later the Democrats are in big trouble with the electorate, bigger than the problems the Republicans had in 2006. The economy is their problem now. The scandals are theirs. The stalemate in Afghanistan. The health care bill. The progressive base isn't enough to lift the Democrats, and voters who might ordinarily favor them are dispirited and unhappy. Independents think they were suckered. Working people see their money disappearing. In response, Democrats apparently plan to double-down their progressive push on immigration, all in an effort to rally their own base and, once again, fracture the Republicans. It will work like this, as Elizabeth Scalia explains at The Anchoress: the Democrats will provoke the Right. The Right will overplay its hand. The public will become disillusioned and will turn off the Republicans. The Democrats will squeak by in November, and then go after their agenda again in 2011. If you recognize the sequence of events, it's because this is how leftist groups, particularly terrorist groups, try to get the public on their side, by provoking the other side into an over-reaction. It has to be immigration as the wedge issue. The health care bill has hurt them but that's over. Cap and trade is too technical. Afghanistan is too far away. Democrats are too encumbered with people like Barney Frank and Chuckie Schumer to whack Wall Street but so hard. But immigration provokes an emotional response. We're a country built on immigration, but illegal immigration, lax border security, rampant drug importation, and good old fashioned hypocrisy give immigration the potential to be a weapon for Democrats. They can provoke their opponents, and when conservatives over-react, they can demonize them. Just in time for November. Keep in mind that the Democrats and their friends in the media have been preparing this play some time now. The description of the Tea Party as ugly', violent' and racist' will be used, should conservatives over-react, to paint the tea party activists as personally responsible for what happens. Discrediting the Tea Party is essential to the Democrats retaining control of the Congress, and provoking people over immigration has the advantage, for Democrats, of being something that they have done before. They think it will work. It might, if people let it happen. How does the Tea Party prevent this? How do conservatives keep the Democrats from successfully labeling them as nativists, racists and slack-jawed wing-nuts? How do we keep the Democrats from getting the public relations victory they need, one that the media will give them at the very first moment? It's simple. Chill. Don't over-react. Don't attack Hispanics. Don't wave rude signs and chant obnoxious slogans at tea party rallies. Keep it civil. Talk about the harm that illegal immigration is doing to our country. Talk about the two-legged coyotes who take money to leave people to die in the desert. Talk about the drug problem. But show concern and empathy for the illegals themselves. Don't hate them, don't attack them, don't denigrate them. Keep the focus on the law, on national security, on doing what's right, while at the same time making sure that the average person hears us acknowledge the humanity of the immigrants. The progressive Left thinks that conservatives are, by definition, bigots, and are planning this campaign based on that definition. They lose if conservatives prove them wrong. Chill. Posted by: Steve White 2010-04-29 |
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