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January 09, 2004
 Shock
And Awe: The Moral Arrogance Of George W. Bush
By
Joe Guzzardi
In
the late 1980s, George W. Bush and I got our initiations
into the crazy world of U.S. immigration policy.
Little did we suspect where it would take us.
Bush cut his teeth in 1989 when he became the
managing general manager of the Texas Rangers. I had
a
one-year head start by signing on in 1988 at the Lodi
Adult School to teach English as a second language.
This is a curious coincidence because in our previous
jobs—Bush an
oil potentate and me an
investment banker— neither of us cared a fig about
immigration.
But in the intervening years we both have become
obsessed—albeit from
different perspectives—with immigration.
Bush saw immigration’s glamorous side. His Ranger
superstars were Cuba’s
Rafael Palmeiro and the
Dominican Republic’s
Julio Franco and
Sammy Sosa. They became multimillionaires who were
cheered
on the field and
admired off it.
Who knows? Maybe hobnobbing with All-Stars turned Bush
into a
mass immigration cheerleader.
While Bush checked the baseball standings and statistics,
my task was quite different. My
English students were—and still are—poor, uneducated
and only marginally employable.
For fifteen years, I have written columns urging reason
in immigration policy. But all appeals to reason have
been repeatedly rebuffed by
open-borders lobbyists (and now Republican
and Democratic
presidential candidates) who present the same tedious
platitudes—that illegal immigrants are
net contributors to the tax base, that they have
revitalized our country and, my personal favorite, that
they are
responsible for the lettuce in my salad.
In
reality, these painfully predictable comments are
half-truths or outright lies.
So
I was not surprised then when Bush in his treasonous
January 7 speech, [
Read The Transcript;
View;
Listen] tried unsuccessfully to
smooth talk the American people by quoting liberally
from the usual parade of immigration of platitudes.
Said Bush:
-
“They bring to
America the values of faith in God, love of family,
hard work and self reliance.”
(Illegal aliens from Mexico comprise approximately 25%
of California’s inmate population. And if we can’t
catch and prosecute them, murders illegally in the US
flee to Mexico for safe haven. Thousands are right now
living free lives in Mexico with the tacit
blessing of Bush’s best buddy Vicente Fox.)
-
“Some of the jobs
being generated in America's growing economy are jobs
American citizens are not filling.”
(The American economy has
lost 3.5 million jobs since Bush took office. Many
are not quite ready to accept $10.00 to
hang sheetrock.)
-
“Workers who seek
only to earn a living end up in the shadows of American
life—fearful, often abused and exploited.”
(Dozens of my
unemployed students recently marched in broad daylight
in downtown Lodi—fearlessly
and in complete confidence— demanding driver’s
licenses.)
Listening to Bush, I finally got the sense of “shock
and awe” he was pushing so hard just a few months
ago. I was “shocked” at how idiotic and
anti-American his proposal is. I was “in awe” of
his
recklessness.
Here’s a brief profile of three students who have
recently enrolled in my class:
- Maria, illegally in
the US from
El Salvador, landed an $8.50 an hour as a cashier
at Denny’s. As a part-time employee working from
11AM-4PM, she doesn’t collect benefits.
- Khalid, a legal
immigrant from
Pakistan, works the swing shift full time at a
local
food processing plant. He earns $9.25, low for
factory work, but has benefits and paid vacation.
- Azbia NLN, legally in
the US from Pakistan, speaks no English and has no
apparent jobs skills. She, and other members of her
family who sponsored her, collect
welfare. Only 20, Azbia will be on the dole for
some time. By the way, “NLN” stands for “No
Last Name” and is now the name she will officially
be known by.
Maria and Khalid’s jobs would be great for college
students trying to defray tuition costs or for a single
Mom struggling to make ends meet. These are clearly not “jobs
Americans won’t do”—even at the depressed wages my
students are receiving.
Attention President Bush: there are already too many
legal and illegal immigrants
taking American jobs.
Ironically, under Bush’s proposal those very aliens might
be at risk if, for example, Denny’s filed a claim stating
that it needs cashiers…at $7.00.
To
try to understand Bush’s amnesty nightmare is exhausting.
Even a
bit player like Arizona Republican Congressman
Jeff Flake cannot even open his mouth without showing
what a fool he is.
In
an interview with New York Times reporter
Elisabeth Bumiller for her January 7 story titled
“Bush Would Give Illegal Workers Broad New Rights,”
Flake, a
co-author of
legislation similarly proposing
guest workers said:
“We’ve
maintained all along that you have to deal with both
sides of the issue…”
Think Flake means the U.S. interests as well as Mexico’s?
You haven’t caught on yet!
For Flake continued:
“…those who
want to come to the country and those who are here now.”
In
other words, what concerns Flake is Mexicans here and
Mexicans there—not US citizens!
Here’s the real tragedy: Bush’s plan is not about
courting Hispanic voters. On January 6th, the
day before amnesty announcement, CNN political analyst
Bill Schneider
told Lou Dobbs that Bush would beat
Howard Dean—the likely Democratic nominee—in a
“blowout” by 20 points.
If
that conventional wisdom holds up, why would Bush need an
increase in his share of the Hispanic vote?
And I believe it is not totally about the
New World Order either even though Bush is happy to
sell America out for pennies on the dollar.
The problem—insurmountable—is how Bush sees himself.
In
an interview with
Rolling Stone Magazine, Kevin Phillips, a
former Republican strategist and author of the
newly-released book about the Bushes,
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics
of Deceit in the House of Bush, accused Bush of
“moral arrogance and backstage disregard of the
democratic and republican traditions of U.S. government.”
[The
House of Bush, January 5, 2004]
Accordingly, Phillips told reporter Eric Bates,
“deceit and disinformation have become Bush political
hallmarks.”
And Phillips added that Bush gives the sense of “not
having to pay attention to democratic values.”
The Phillips/Bates interview took place before Bush’s
amnesty announcement. But Bush’s speech confirmed all of
Phillips’ charges: moral arrogance, deceit,
disinformation and disregard for the democratic process.
I
believe that Bush’s cozy deal with Fox represents the
last straw for many fed-up Americans.
To
paraphrase
Frank Sinatra, Bush is riding high in January—but
will he be shot down electorally in November?
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English at the Lodi
Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column
since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM. |
