Are Senators crazy? This is the thought that occurs after reading Tony Blankley's latest. The US electorate is piling on in one direction and the US Senate is piling on in the opposite direction.
This is a recipe for electoral suicide and US Senators are not notable for senseless acts of political suicide. So why are they doing it? The Senate and House have amply shown that presidential leadership on an issue does not bring an automatic assent. The Dubai Ports World explosion shows that.
So why do it? This is where Blankley is really falling down on the job. He doesn't even ask the question because to ask the question is to answer it. What bad outcome is viewed as likely to happen if Mexico and the rest of Latin America doesn't have its unemployment woes significantly addressed by liberal US immigration policies? What kind of turmoil is brewing south of the border if we don't have a guest worker program? What bad effects are going to happen in the USA if the inevitable political instability of another 5 million mexicans get shoved back over the border (almost certain to be unemployed) leads to regime change in Mexico? Are these countries really that unstable?
It seems that 3/4ths of the Senate thinks that they are and are willing to risk their careers to avoid that bad outcome. This is a rare bit of political courage, especially since few seem to be willing to point out how humiliating it is for Mexico that they can't create enough jobs to absorb their own population's workers. Pointing out that reality is also a recipe for instability.
Posted by TMLutas at March 29, 2006 09:52 AM