Welcome to The Hoosier Illuminati. Macintosh bigot, clothes horse, motorsports fanatic (as long as they turn right), Anglophile.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance. --Henry Ward Beecher

Illegal immigration and why I don’t think it mattered

I agree with my friend and former HI colleague Nathan, who believes that both sides are seriously underestimating the nation’s passion over illegal immigration.  I’m not convinced that it was a turning point issue in the campaign, however.  J.D. Hayworth of Arizona was one of the congressmen most passionately committed to that cause.  He was defeated convincingly.  (His being named one of Congress’ ten dumbest members didn’t help.) OTOH, our man Pence was criticized by some for his relatively moderate immigration compromise which introduced some level of amnesty and allowed for a guest worker program (while strengthening enforcement).  BetterImmigration.com has a scorecard of members’ grades on immigration.  Lugar received a D- and the Dems didn’t even run anyone against him.  Hostettler and Sodrel received an A-, Chocola a B and all three were defeated.  If illegal immigration is your hot button issue, you do not respond by making Nancy Pelosi (F-) third in line for the Presidency.  This is not the Dems’ strongest plank. 

There’s more going on here.  I still believe that the exponential growth of government combined with the FU stand of the administration on so many issues is what caused the disaffection of the base.  Bush promised us excellent judges and gave us Harriet Miers.  When the base (quite appropriately) rebelled against the Miers nomination, I knew the Republicans were in serious, serious trouble in the midterms.

I still say Foley hurt worse than anyone is willing to admit.  I can’t escape the feeling that the leadership knew about Foley’s disgusting behavior and simply chose to look the other way.  A lot of people agree with me.  A party that comes to power promising to return dignity and responsibility to government simply can not conduct itself the way the Republicans have.  DeLay, Abramoff, Ney, Foley, Haggard, a poorly prosecuted peace in Iraq, a worthless immigration policy, refusal to curb spending or veto pork, creating vast new entitlements, working with Ted Kennedy to enlarge and empower the Department of Education, allowing the Dems to frame the stem cell debate, Harriet Miers, Don Rumsfeld, Katrina, Rush’s inability to say anything without inflaming everyone… It adds up after a while. 

The simple fact is that conservativism has been replaced with Republicanism, and that is not acceptable.  The kind of governance we’ve seen since Mr. Bush came to office is not what Reagan and Gingrich left us.  Conservativism must be restored.  Conservativism is a philosophy and a methodology that works across party lines to achieve greatness.  Republicanism is about party over philosophy, it maintains the status quo at the expense of our political and personal honor.  That is not us, it is them, and we cannot govern as they do.