A Liberal Reader Explains The Downside Of Single Issue Candidates

By VDARE.com Reader

03/30/2008

03/29/08 — Saturday Forum: A Former U.S. Embassy Employee In China Says Pay Attention To Chinese Students; etc.

From: Paul Verizzo

Re: Joe Guzzardi’s Column: He Can’t Win: How The Immigration Reform Patriots Betrayed Tom Tancredo (And Duncan Hunter)

Until last fall, I Iived next door to Tom Tancredo’s Colorado District 6.

And being a political wonk, I was familiar with Tancredo’s immigration history and his Congressional votes.

T.T. was a one-trick pony. Outside of immigration, he had no place to hang his hat. I’m not aware of any legislation Tancredo initiated that wasn’t immigration related.

As for Duncan Hunter, I once tuned into radio talk show host Thom Hartmann (an anti-illegal alien liberal). Hartmann was interviewing what sounded like some right wing whack job. But by the end of the interview, I realized it was Hunter. In Hunter’s case, he was off of the spectrum on other issues like the Iraq War and trade.

Sadly, the patriotic immigration reform movement can’t dial in the right candidate combo. Single-issue voting requires a suspension of the bigger picture.

But that picture is always there, and that’s what voters (rightfully) see.

Verizzo, who recently moved from Denver to Miami, is a Quaker and an anti-illegal alien Democrat. His previous letter about why so few songs have been written about the Iraq War is here.

By Peter Brimelow writes: I just don’t agree with this. Tancredo was deeply involved, for example, in education reform and accordingly figured prominently in my 2004 education book, Worm In the Apple, for reasons that had nothing whatever to do with immigration.

I do think that voters who are still stuck in Civics 101 class have a hard time grasping the point of single-issue voting. It was memorably summarized by another (former) liberal Democrat, George Wallace: "Send Them A Message".

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