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Loudmouths and the madness of crowds

Yeah, I listened to the president’s speech this evening. I liked it, I had no real issue with it, I would have preferred he keep it to the single issue of border enforcement as I consider all other discussion on immigration to be moot until that problem is solved, but that’s a minor quibble with the speech as a whole.

After it was over, I went on my normal evening run and while I was out I listened to a few of the normal AM talk radio shows just to hear what the general consensus was.

To my total surprise, it seemed that most of the audience was incensed that the President didn’t call for a wide reaching pogrom on the illegal immigrants and that anything short of that was a clear sign that he was just a “limpwristed flop who was just caving in to political pressure” and in the end “not much better than a damn democrat”.

The loudmouths were crying out for blood and utterly furious that the president didn’t give it to them. They didn’t just want a border fence anymore because that just wasn’t good enough; now they wanted a border fence with immigrant heads impaled on it.

I have to tell you that its hell to run when you are spinning around like a character in a Warner Brothers cartoon.

Here’s the problem that the President now faces. The Republican party has always had a “knuclehead nativist” stripe a mile wide down its back, and for 60 years the kind of knuckleheaded thinking of “I’d rather lose on principle than win by compromise” kept us away from any sort of political power and deservedly so, because it’s the kind of thing that adolescent children say not adults in the process of running a government of a great country.

Here’s a clue for you knuckleheads – Politics is Compromise. You will not get everything you want – ever. No matter how big your political party gets you will always have to compromise your vision of the “perfect” you want in order to settle for the “good” you can get. No amount of “bloody shirt” speechifying is going to change that fact, no matter how much you want it to be different.

A Democracy is an ugly thing that runs with the coordination of a three legged dog. If you want purity of movement then go get yourself a dictatorship. And when you do get the kind of simplistic purity of movement that your emotions seek, you can stop calling yourself Americans because you will be slaves again. Democracy is supposed to work like crap; its not supposed to be smooth and simple. Its supposed to be hard to get anything done, its part of the design! You talk, argue, complain, debate, and finally you put it to a vote. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and you start all over again the next day.

You knuckleheads are just not going to deport 11 million people from the continental United States, and it isn’t just a lack of political will that’s keeping that from happening, it’s hard cold political reality so stop thinking that anything else short of that is a loss, because it isn’t really a starter in the first place.

This immigration problem of today was a reality that was well underway long before President Bush ever thought of even being Governor of Texas, much less President of the United States. Yet, President Bush is the first President since James K. Polk to make border security a serious issue, and you are all ready to crucify him for the effort.

There are now so many of you knuckleheads that you started to listen to the madness of crowds and will settle for nothing short of an open declaration of war on Mexico as a small sign that “he’s finally serious about border security”.

Well I say grow up you prancing loudmouths, this is not the WWF and Bush doesn’t need to hit Vicente Fox in the head with a metal chair just to get your vote. It’s easy to call anonymously for blood from the safety of the mob, but its hell to be the man to actually make the call. George Bush is not the leader of the mob; He’s not an alderman of Chicago who lives by doing your bidding and kissing your ring.

He is the leader – nay – the President of this country.

He is the President of all of it, the left and the right, the legal and the illegal, the throaty mob that hates him and small quiet group of us who do not. He is not just the President of the sniggling, smartass, whining, blowhard “kill them all let god sort them out” false bravado, knucklehead constituency who are oh so willing to toss away a government, all because they didn’t get their way.

You don’t like his plan on immigration? So your idea to make it all better is to put Nancy Pelosi in charge? Yeah, that’s showing them!

You think he should deport 11 million people immediately, so you think that process can be furthered by “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid”? Oh he’ll get right on your priority list first thing, why he’s the people servant that man is…

And of course the cause of freedom and national security will be greatly amplified by the administration of President Hillary Clinton. Ahhh, just think of the cabinet she will have! Think of the two Supreme Court choices she will get to make. Just think of the fun you will get to have when our military officers are routinely pulled off civilian aircraft overseas after she agrees to allow the International Criminal Court to have jurisdiction over our military. Why, just think of how fun it will be to see War Crimes trials across Europe, not for Dictators, but for American Servicemen.

Oh, and just think of how because of you and your little "pity party" that there won’t be a Republican of any stripe in any position of power to stop them. That’s right man, you “showed them”.

Yes, that will show us all just how righteously angry and pissed off you are.

And for all your anger, what we get is a return to a command economy, the superiority of the UN, less sovereignty, more taxes, the further erosion of the family and the shaming of the US Military.

The Second Coming of the Clintons will make the Carter years look like “Golden Mycenae” in comparison.

And just think, its you loudmouths that will have made it all happen. It will be something to be proud of, something to tell your grandkids about.

If we manage to live through it.


Posted @ May 15, 2006 09:54 PM | Current Affairs

Comments

VF - All ClearChannelian NightTalk bluster aside, asking for the laws of the nation to be enforced is hardly a "pogrom."

Yes, politics is about compromise, but you also have to "dance with them that brung ya." POTUS seems to have forgotten that, as has the GOP - a fact which will be pointed out to them very clearly in November.

This speech could have been about 1) Enforce the border; 2) Enforce the law; 3) Reward those who do it right - like that Marine he spoke of at the end; 4) Punish those who do not do it right.

Instead, all that people will be talking about is amnesty, for that is precisely what POTUS has offered to up to 11M people who have no bidness being here.

And no amount of third-way verbiage will alter that fact.

POTUS could have opened up a can of whoop-ass tonight. Instead, he opened up a can of 91 octane.

Posted by: JD at May 15, 2006 11:04 PM

Frank, you and Dafydd share the same brain.

Yes, compromise is inevitable. That's why you set the starting price high, because you know it will be bargained down. When you set the starting price in bargain-basement territory, you end up settling for diddly-squat.

Have you heard Hugh Hewitt's interview with Julie Myers of ICE? If a fence actually gets built, it won't be due to Bush; it'll be due to Congress sensing an opportunity to look good by comparison to Bush.

And I'll tell you what I told Dafydd: Step away from the ledge & cool it with the end-of-the-GOP-world rant. If I can't find a principled conservative to vote for in November, I'll hold my nose and vote for the politician who stinks least -- most likely that'll mean the (R) column. Just because I'm principled doesn't mean I'm a moron.

Posted by: Splashman at May 16, 2006 05:52 AM

"You knuckleheads are just not going to deport 11 million people from the continental United States"

Who said "we" wanted to?

If the dynamics change, such that it's *really* hard to get along in the US as "undocumented" (It's not), then those 11 million will largely.. go home. No mass deportations required. In the meantime, we just deport the ones that we come across. The guys who get pulled over for speeding, have no licence and no insurance (you try that in any state, Gringo, and let me know how the jail is).

I was completely irritated by the speech. Because it's the *same thing he's said for 4 years*.

And we *don't* have more BP agents. In fact, they've been cut. Apparently, the BP agents we *do* have are giving intel to a foreign government to _assist people to break the law and cross the border without being checked_.

Now, I dunno about you, but how would you feel if it turned out the FAA was giving Airbus info on Boeing's ongoing certification, to allow them to certify their airliners without going through the rigorous process required? I'd bet you'd say "Wait just a damn minute". (I would too).

"You don’t like his plan on immigration? So your idea to make it all better is to put Nancy Pelosi in charge? Yeah, that’s showing them!"

I'm really, really, really torn by this. Of course, not being a Republican, it's more confusing. But I *don't* want to vote D, in fact, right now, I'd say that I can't, because I can't reward the Pelosis and Feinsteins and Kerrys and Kennedys.

But the day of this speech, Rove apparently gave a talk, where he was positive that we'd see the D's as so bad, we'd have to vote R.

Maybe he's never *met* George Bush, President 41.
Or Bob Dole.

But to presume that he's got my vote, because look at the alternative - which is bad - is the sort of entitlement BS that plagues the "minority" voters. No. You don't get to be "less bad" and get my vote. How about you stand up, and do what you were elected to do? And if not, and if it takes getting worse, before somebody who *will* will step up, then, maybe that's what we need.

Is that *my* fault? Or *yours*, for not doing what it would take to reliably retain my vote?

I'd argue it's yours. You know why I, and many others, are upset, and you say breezily "They gotta vote for us, **** 'em".

We understand _compromise_. But repeating the same promises (that you didn't fufil) isn't compromise, it's futility.

Posted by: Addison at May 16, 2006 07:57 AM

Inertia is a bitch.
People who build and maintain systems know this.
Others, well, they go into talk radio and occupy the ends of the political spectrum.
In order to "enforce the law", you first must re-establish a climate in which "enforcing the law" can occur.
Looking at this from a tech perspective, think about it this way:
Some times you are forced to reboot a system because no matter how hard you try, you can't get the memory to turn loose of the bits that are screwing the pooch.
On your way to the reboot, you don't get pissed off and heap more screwed up bits upon the memory stack to show the rest of 'em how mad you are.
No, you continue to try and clean out the mess and once you hit the wall, O F F / O N.

With the amount of internal/external pressure present, who knows how close we are to booting it all?

Posted by: Brian at May 16, 2006 08:04 AM

Heh, now, easy on the knuckleheads thing. The people you are so rightly wailing on are NOT knuckleheads; they are dopes and maroons.

Posted by: Knucklehead at May 16, 2006 08:19 AM

Brilliant piece. Just came over from the Anchoress' site to read it.

Good to see someone who's actually reasoned this thing through. Now will you please go over to Malkin and LaShawn and Charles Johnson and tell them to CHILL THE F*** OUT before they screw us all over?

Posted by: Michael Andreyakovich at May 16, 2006 08:55 AM

The President, in his speech, went over, line by line, what needs to be done and what will, when implemented, actually work effectively to solve these long neglected problems.

and by doing so, he makes all those nitpickers show their true colors, that they are, deep down, plain old racists, with nothing to add to the remedy.

Good job, Mr. President.

Viva Bush!

Posted by: roberto at May 16, 2006 08:48 PM

We don't have to deport them. Remove the free healthcare, the free education and start enforcing the existing laws that forbid their employment and the vast majority will leave of their own free will.

Simpler and far less expensive that fences, troops etc.

Posted by: The Freeholder at May 17, 2006 12:01 PM

The problem with the talk show people is that they are only talking to each other. Real-world problems are complicated and they are solved by inspired cooperation, not competition. The kind of gamesmanship implied by the "negotiation" approach is truly counterproductive. Think about the people who put the Constitution together. They were trying to reason their way toward the Truth, taking everyone's positions into account. They are the ones we should emulate.

Posted by: jj mollo at May 17, 2006 07:36 PM