More on Immigration (and, no Doubt, More to Come...)

PoliPundit (multiple posts, just scroll down) is clearly not happy about the immigration policy proposals of the President. While I still remain undecided on the actual contents of the proposal, having not yet had the chance to review them, I am (and have been for some time) basically pro-immigration liberalization.

Part of why I take the position that I do (and that I basically take on illicit narcotics) is that it is extremely difficult to fight the power of markets and of the basics of capitalism itself. The immigrants are willing to come, and risk much, as I have noted, and those who employ see great economic benefit in hiring them. There is an economic synergy here that is not as easy to stop as some argue, partially because there are a lot of people who don't want to stop it. To do some of what PoliPundit wants (like new throwing execs in jail of companies which hire illegals) would require changing the law. Somehow I don't see a law which would punish CEOs in this fashion passing the congress.

However, the main purpose of my post is to argue a bit with PoliPundit that this is, as he notes on his blog, "suicidal" for the president, or, as he noted in an e-mail to me a "betrayal of conservatives. To which I would answer:

There is a twofold problem with a "betrayal of conservatives" thesis: 1) Not all conservatives feel betrayed so it is hard to make such a sweeping statement, and 2) a lot of conservatives are either apathetic, or will have forgotten about this, in large part, by November.

On balance I find this argument that this policy is going to have radical electoral effects one way or another to be absurd. Which Democrat will Conservatives want to be President over Bush as a result of this policy? I just don't see it.

Posted by Steven Taylor at January 8, 2024 09:57 PM | TrackBack