11/24/2011
Limbaugh: Is this really a good idea?
Newt Gingrich’s strident declaration in Tuesday’s GOP debate that he favors Amnesty and cheap labor importation shocked Rush Limbaugh into discussing the immigration issue today — something previously he was trying hard to avoid: Newt Says Let Illegals Stay, Drawing Raves from CNN Liberals for Having a Heart November 23, 2011
Limbaugh seems genuinely puzzled by the Gingrich stance. He does see that the slickly sentimental packaging ploy for Amnesty Gingrich used — postulating the 25-year resident peaceable church-going grandfather — is unviable as a policy definition:
"I understand what he’s saying about somebody here with roots and family and all that, been here for a long period of time. But how exactly would this work? What if somebody’s been here not 25 years but 22? What if somebody’s been here 20, 17? Pick a number less than 25 but longer than five. What’s the cutoff here? He said 25 years. What if it’s 14? What if it’s 13? What if they don’t have a family but they have been hardworking and tax paying for 24 years? Just because somebody is here 25 years does not mean that they have assimilated into our society. It doesn’t necessarily mean that. They could be rabble-rousing for La Raza out there for 24 of the 25 years. Do they have to speak English, for example? What is the test here to determine that they have assimilated into our distinct American culture? …If they're told that they get to stay if they've been here 25 they'll tell you that they've been here 25 years. Well, how we gonna prove if they haven’t been here 25 years? Well, don’t ask me, not my plan. I don’t know."
But he seems not to grasp that Gingrich’s ideas are not new — merely a reversion to the Bush Amnesty policy, which also constituted acceptance of the invasion of illegals, with the old Krieble so-called “Red Card” aka Serfdom gambit added. Unsurprisingly, he also seems not to comprehend that having voteless workers legalized does nothing to protect working Americans from wage erosion and job theft — as Roy Beck has pointed out — nor the taxpayer from benefit theft. Nor that of course unless the birthright citizenship loophole is fixed the political benefit is illusory.
But the fact that Limbaugh has reacted is significant and heartening. He is a businessman. Having seen rank-and-file revulsion over immigration destroy Perry, he is not going to risk losing touch with his base. Unquestionably this is why he was sound in the Bush Amnesty Wars –unlike others. Immigration is proving difficult to exclude from the 2012 election
Of course Limbaugh is absolutely correct to be disgusted by the CNN applause for Gingrich’s treason. But Gingrich and other aspirants have consistently seemed to care more for MSM approval than for the GOP voter, as I pointed out in Newt Gingrich and GOP Nomination: Accepting Treason Lobby Veto. Why this should be is a fascinating question.
But given Gingrich’s habits, one thing is certain: money is involved in some way.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.