The passage of the Arizona border illegal immigration law is causing virtually unprecedented reactions around the Country. The top California Senate Democrat (he of the state with huge deficits and serious unemployment) wants to ignite a trade war with Arizona. San Francisco’s Mayor has cut “official” travel to Arizona. Staged protests on the Left have turned violent (in contrast to the peaceful tea parties) and the White House is considering court actions in lieu of an immigration bill, i.e. they would rather sue than legislate.
Much Ado? It is worthy to note that the law passed by Arizona “merely echoes federal immigration statutes” – at least according George Will and PoliticalFact.com. Existing federal law requires:
“Any alien required to apply for registration and to be fingerprinted in the United States who willfully fails or refuses to make such application or to be fingerprinted, and any parent or legal guardian required to apply for the registration of any alien who willfully fails or refuses to file application for the registration of such alien shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed $1,000 or be imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”
According to Arizona’s Governor : “”Despite erroneous and misleading statements suggesting otherwise, the new state misdemeanor crime of willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration document is adopted, verbatim, from the same offense found in federal statute.”
So why are some on the Left going so far overboard? It may well be it is because they have no issues to run on this Fall.
Nationally, the Democrats are facing a hostile center-right electorate over cap and trade and health care. Beyond that, unemployment remains very high and there is no clear sign of a turnaround on the horizon – in other words, many job seekers are without hope, if you will. Economists by-in-large agree the stimulus plan didn’t help. But it did drive up the deficit – another source of voter anger. On the Left, the Democrats face voter apathy if not anger over the continuing wars and the failure of Obama to deliver nationalized health care, card check and more.
Lacking any issue clearly in their favor, and knowing that center-right voters are motivated, Democrats think they found an issue, in the Arizona law, that might motivate their side.
Lacking clear facts in their favor, however, the Left is resorting to the demonization of people on the center-right. Quite frankly, it has become perhaps their favorite tactic in this last two years of political troubles if not outright failure.
It is worthy to note that today’s demonization tactics are an outgrowth of the political correctness wars of the past. Political Correctness was a means by which the Left sought to plant guilt in the minds of Americans over issues of race and poverty – all in an effort to neutralize opposition to liberal legislation. As that tactic began to lose its effectiveness, the Left upped the ante and began labeling people “extreme” for their views – views which often a majority of Americans held and continue to hold. The treatment of the tea partiers is that case in point.
Still dealing with fact that a majority of Americans are against run away deficits, government cram downs, and the abandonment of the Constitution (otherwise known as what the Left believes are the extreme views of tea partiers), the Arizona law is a prime example of how far the Left has come since fighting their PC wars. Now they are outright demonizing people through claims of racism and beyond – even if 60% of American voters believe authorities should have the authority to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant (even though that is not what the Arizona law will actually do).
In sum, faced with intellectual and factual failures, we have seen come on the Left go from charging average people with insensitivity through the PC wars, to claims of extremism, to outright demonization. Lacking a record to tout for this Fall’s elections, and a Supreme Court nomination fight still to go, we may have seen nothin’ yet.
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