Re-Arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

This phrase fits perfectly well within the description of today's GOP trying to figure out a way to reach Latino voters before this coming Novembers election. Sadly, it is at their own hands, not because of some savvy political ploy by the DNC or President Obama. The recent events including President Obama's executive order regarding immigration or the SCOTUS decisions on the same issue did not prep the path to the GOP's demise, no this path was built of many bricks. Bricks laid by the likes of Tom Tancredo, Russell Pierce, Kris Kobach, JD Hayworth, Steven King, and many many others, including even some in the media.

 They took the bait given to them by FAIR and  John Tanton network and went on a rampage against mostly brown skinned people from countries South of our border. I won't go into the full history of FAIR here, that would take multiple days and hundreds of pages. You can read more about them here.http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/federation-for-american-immigration-reform-fair

Ironically, John Tanton is an admitted progressive liberal, yet his biggest fans are staunchly conservative Republicans, mostly older like himself and of course very much Caucasian. Strange bed fellows indeed. So while these bricks were being laid for the past several years by the most ardent anti immigrant proponents, there were some voices of reason that unfortunately were drowned out. Voices like GW Bush, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Dick Lugar, Colin Powell and others. Former RNC Chair Ed Gillespie said this in 2009,  

"It's hard to see a path to the White House that doesn't include us getting a bigger share of the Hispanic vote than 31 percent and a bigger share of the African-American vote than 4 percent,"

In addition, the GOP hired a new chair in Michael Steele, an African American who wanted a stronger minority outreach program. he said this in 2011,

"We stopped talking to people," said Steele of his party's downfall in earlier election cycles. "We stopped trying to connect directly with people. We stopped expanding and reaching. We are the party of Lincoln, we are the party that understands the value of the individual in this American enterprise ... When we stopped talking to our friends in the Latino community and the African American community, and when we stopped engaging with individuals and we make assumptions about, 'Well, they don't vote for us anyway,' that's when we really start to lose. And going forward, we will lose big if we lose sight of the fact that America is not the America of the 1950s or 1960 or even the 1990s. It is a very different day." 

While these newer bricks were being laid with laws like SB1070 and other similar laws in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and other States, the GOP could have made a strong statement by pulling these bricks out while the cement was still wet. Instead, people like Marco Rubio, the Tea Party darling took out a dry branch and carved his initials in the wet but setting cement. He wasn't the only one. John McCain also caved, as did other more moderate GOP leaders who fell in behind the GOP machine in spite of it's ringing endorsement of "self deportation" Mitt Romney. Are you kidding me folks? The man that hires the guy responsible for SB1070 expects Latinos to back him? Why would we? He brought Pete Wilson to his party, remember him? he is the man behind Prop 187 in California, the single proposition that forever turned California a blue State. Prior to prop 187, California was not a slam dunk for the Democrats. Today, the only reason Democrats visit California is for vacation or for fund raising among the Hollywood elite who fall in line like fats kids near an ice cream truck on a hot summer day.

Speaking of Hollywood elite, that brings me to a conclusion, and the title of this piece. Wouldn't electing Marco Rubio simply be like "Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic". I think so, which is why I grabbed myself a life vest and hopped on a vessel named The Libertarian Party. While the Titanic (GOP)  is sinking, there is another vessel that you can hop aboard. I believe the name of that ship is the Edmund Fitzgerald. That is the Democrat ship. I will let you Google that name. ;-)  For those that choose to remain on board, I wouldn't get too comfortable, I see an iceberg on the horizon.

Day three, and it looks like immigration is still being talked about quite a bit. While on Twitter today I came across a short video speaking about the strong need for labor among our family farms in California and Arizona. I was also drawn into a brief argument with a young female Republican who just happened to be Latina.  On the one hand, you have some Latino/Latinas who take issue with the illegality of border crossing, like the young lady did with me this morning, and on the other hand you have middle aged white farmers who are asking for more labor help. Now take a step back with me and ask yourself this one simple question. When viewing the immigration debate from the eyes of the media, is this what you typically encounter? Or rather do you see so often as I do, young people holding anti SB1070 signs and "Veto Romney" signs, while on the flip side of that oft repeated scene you see older white angry males wearing camouflage gear looking like they are about to enter a war zone?

Take a look at this video and recall when is the last time you saw this type of reporting from the MSM.

Well, just one day after starting this new blog, we get a fairly historic decision from the SCOTUS. They strike down all but one of the four provisions of the controversial SB1070 law in the state of Arizona. It is in my opinion a very positive result not only for Latinos, but for the country as well. I have read many opinions today and they were all just about as partisan as the very politicians so many vilify these days. It's no wonder we have a congress that can't seem to work together to fix the countries problems, which are numerous. Immigration is one of many problems we face as a nation, and the SCOTUS in my opinion has helped to put this issue in the spotlight with this decision today. It is my hope that we can get this figured out before the 2012 elections, but realistically it seems to be a longer shot than the proverbial snow ball getting out of hell in tact. Unfortunately, the current path the GOP is on does not seem to be changing direction in any way as it relates to immigration. Ronald Reagan would be rolling over in his grave if he saw what was happening in the modern day GOP.

But it is not only Republicans who are to blame for the immigration problem, Democrats are just as much to blame. President Obama had a majority in the House and Senate when he was elected and he chose to ignore this issue in spite of promising Latinos he would tackle it in his first year in office. In a word, he lied. Now that he is in a fight for his political life, he has made a calculated decision to once again make empty promises towards Latinos by offering only short term relief via his executive order. To be sure, it is better than nothing, but still falls far short of where we as a nation need to be. So how about some good news!

Well, I do believe that in spite of the SCOTUS seeming to be ok with racial profiling, it is my opinion that leaving that provision alone will end up haunting Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe as they continue to feel the heat in Arizona from immigrant advocacy groups (pun intended). The provision that was left alone, the so called "papers please" provision, will provide plenty of purpose for these groups seeking to oust Sheriff Joe and eventually Governor Brewer just as they unseated Russell Pierce in a bi partisan fashion just a few months ago. I hope by this part of the act being held up, that it becomes a catalyst for mostly partisan groups to come together in an effort to elect more common sense folks to positions of power. Groups like Citizens for a better Arizona and Somos Republicans who are at opposite ends of the political spectrum came together in an effort to oust Pierce, and they succeeded by helping elect Jerry Lewis, a moderate and common sense Republican. CBA certainly deserves kudos for being willing to help put a Republican in office in spite of their leaderships clear progressive and liberal leanings. I hope they will choose the same path by siding with a common sense Independent in Mike Stauffer as he seeks to unseat Sheriff Joe Arpaio. His more than 30,000 signatures is a clear sign that Arizonans are ready for new leadership, and he has the experience to provide it. Let's hope the CBA, and other organizations can step up and come together yet again in an effort to make Arizona a better place for all of it's citizens and a more compassionate place to live and work.

That is my hope! Is it far fetched? Perhaps, but so was the idea of electing an African American as President of the USA not so long ago. There is always hope, ALWAYS!!

My motivation for starting this blog has been a long and arduous process of watching, reading and listening to a dizzying amount of commentary from both the left and the right political elements in this great country of ours, and I just simply had enough that I finally decided to start my own blog. The majority of the commentary I chose to focus on was immigration, but it sometimes dovetails into economics, religion and occasionally sports and entertainment.
 What really got me going this time, was the Presidents address to NALEO in Miami which in general I agreed with. While I agree with his thoughts regarding the hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth who have to live in the shadows of society for the sins of their parents, I have been extremely disappointed in his administrations actions toward any solutions, which quite frankly were ZERO up until his recent executive order. Up to that point he was the deporter in Chief as he deported more immigrants than all of his predecessors up to Eisenhower who only had more because of his what came to be known as "operation wetback" program that deported record numbers of people in the 1950's.

Two days after his speech to NALEO, President Obama went on the offensive against Mitt Romney by attacking his so called "jobs outsourcing" practices at Bain Capital. This is what motivated me to start this blog. You see, I must in all fairness tell my dear readers that I was 95% certain that the Presidents sudden heart for undocumented youth was entirely motivated by politics and his need for a large share of the Latino vote. His decision to attack Romney as an "outsourcer" crystallized my already strong suspicion of President Obama's motivation. By attacking Romney as an outsourcer, President Obama is in a sense wanting to have his cake and eat it too. You see, most of the jobs that the Latino undocumented already do here are what we would call an "outsourced job". Let's be clear here, an outsourced job is a job that was once occupied by Americans and now being done by foreigners. The majority of jobs today being done by undocumented folks like working the agriculture fields, busing tables, lawn care, hospitality, construction, slaughter houses, housekeeping and many, many others were at one time jobs done by Americans. But as America developed and grew richer, and as each generation grew wealthier and understood the importance of education, we began as a nation to insist that our kids go straight to college from high school. In addition, while my Mother and Fathers generation routinely had 4, 5 or even six kids and sometimes more, the following generations were having far fewer kids, which meant there would be less people to do the jobs once held by young Americans. In other words, demographic forces were at work and these changes which evolve slowly over time were not met with changes in the policies we have in place toward immigration.

While the policies did not change, what did change was the workforce by what I call the free market forces. There are some who stand behind President Obama's position of ridiculing Romney as a "jobs outsourcer", yet two days earlier he was suddenly a fan of our undocumented who will be taking jobs as non citizens just like the one's who reside in India, the Phillipines, China and any other country where US jobs are "outsourced" to. While I am no fan of Romney's, I do believe in free market forces and in allowing US businesses to run their businesses as they see fit. I do not believe in protectionist measures which President Obama seems to be supporting when he attacks the idea of "job outsourcing". After all, what is the difference if we outsource a job to a non American who is in this country illegally or if it is outsourced to an alien in a foreign land? Would the President support the idea of shipping hundreds of thousands of Chinese to our shores here and letting them live here just as guest workers so that they can perform their duties in America as opposed to China? If he wishes to be consistent, he would have to answer yes.

As a Libertarian, I am a big believer in allowing the free market forces to best determine our course of action, especially in the economic realm. If the President wants to send a consistent message regarding immigration, then he must embrace the idea of a free market economy that allows companies to make decisions in their own best interest and in the interest of their shareholders. His compassionate position regarding those young undocumented dreamers is a good start, but he sends a very mixed signal when he attacks the free markets only days later.