Thoughts on Amnesty
Everyone's linking to this Stanley Kurtz post in the Corner, with good reason:
Somehow this immigration battle feels different. The bill is wildly unpopular, yet it’s close to passing. The contrast with the high-school textbook version of democracy is not only glaring and maddening, it’s downright embarrassing. Usually, even when we’re at each others’ throats, there’s still an underlying pride in the democratic process. This immigration battle strips us of even that pride.It's already stoking the forges of the NAU conspiracy crowd. It's only deepened divisions, instead of healing them--if that was ever really the intent of this bill.I’m still stuck on the way this bill was going to be pushed through without a public airing of crucial provisions, in the two or three days before Memorial Day recess. But I should be stuck even further back–on the way this bill was cooked up in a backroom deal that bypassed the ordinary process of public hearings. We take them for granted, but those civics textbook fundamentals are there for a reason. We’re going to pay a steep price for setting the fundamentals aside.
Instapunk wonders what it's really all about. Have the right-o-sphere and the press just plain missed some crucial aspect of this equation?
JYB tailwag to Ace on the second.