Of Gods and Generals...and of immigration...

The WaTimes features a well-written article by Ronald Maxwell, director and writer of such movies as Gods and Generals and Gettysburg:

What is happening on the southern border is unprecedented. Not only in our own history, but in the history of the world. No country at any time anywhere has sustained the influx of tens of millions of foreigners across its borders. A wave of anti-American leftism is sweeping Latin America. A socialist radical may soon be elected as the president of Mexico, a country which officially encourages its emigrants to vote in Mexican elections, urging them to think of themselves as Mexican first and perhaps only. The eventual outcome is plain for anyone with eyes to see. This is invasion masquerading as immigration.

It may already be too late to avoid a future annexation of the Southwest by Mexico or the evolution of a Mexican-dominated satellite state. This is not to say Mexican people are better or worse than any of God's children. It is to say that millions of ethnically and culturally homogeneous people will seek self-determination in a land they will increasingly feel justified in claiming as their own. Especially when the natural weight of demographic change is accompanied by the soundtrack of radical demagoguery which seeks to legitimize and moralize this phenomenon as a "reconquista." Many pundits claim you will be remembered in history as the president who won (or lost) the war in Iraq. I see it differently. I believe you will come to be seen, in the years and decades to come, as the President who saved (or lost) the Southwest of the United States.

Mr. President, this is a time for candor. Your immigration policy is viewed as captive to the cheap labor -- big business lobby and inimical to the survival of our country. It is splitting the party and draining away support for your presidency. We who understand the vital stakes will not be placated by rhetoric or slogans. The failure to recognize this growing and deep disaffection among Republicans, conservatives, independents and, indeed, many Reagan Democrats, is, in the short run, going to lead to a monumental defeat for your party at the polls in November.

Please read the whole thing. To say that it will be well worth it would be an incredible understatement.

Bush's approval rating, now reportedly at 29 percent, should be a clarion call that things are not all that well in Mudville, or in Washington, D.C., for that matter. Of course you'll always have the 43+ percent of the fever-swamp crowd who wouldn't approve of Bush if he himself came up with a cure for AIDS. But the troubling part is, in extending his make-nice, "new tone" policy to the illegal immigrant hordes, even Bush's own loyal base are starting to question whether they should move to Australia or vote liberal. It's one thing if you're getting a 29 percent approval rating for doing the right thing. It's quite another to be getting a 29 percent approval rating that is wholly justified because you really are doing something wrong.

Bush will no doubt give his speech of the year tonight. Quite possibly the defining speech of his presidency. There is currently talk of the possiblity of placing National Guard troops at the border, pretty much providing the same service that the Minutemen are currently providing (much to their peril, I might add). Vicente Fox has already phoned Bush, supposedly concerned that such a move would have the effect of militarizing our border with Mexico (although it would appear that Mexico has already made the first move in that direction).

But Bush needs to decide. Is he the President of the illegal (read: law breaking) immigrants, or is he the duly elected president of the citizens of the United States of America? Much as when Bush proclaimed, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," Bush cannot, nor should he, have it both ways. His duty, first and foremost, needs to be directed toward what is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States.

Bush will need to make that demarcation very clear tonight. No trite "nation of immigrants" type platitudes.

And the quaint "doing the job that Americans won't do" line isn't gonna cut it anymore.

Not that it ever did.


(Filed under Reconquista!)