Ron Paul’s immigration speech to a Hispanic group in Las Vegas today was a remarkable blend of incoherence and pandering, spiced with a little America hatred.
While his campaign website says, sensibly enough, “Enforce Border Security — America should be guarding her own borders and enforcing her own laws instead of policing the world and implementing UN mandates,” he said in his speech that he doesn’t want “barbed-wire fences and guns on our border.” What’s he going to guard the borders with, lollipops and unicorns? If you want truly open, unmonitored borders, like between North and South Dakota, then say so. But to call for enforcement of the borders, and then oppose the means to do so, is just gibberish.
Then there’s this bit, meaningless even by the standards of political rhetoric:
What the country does need, he said, is “a much better immigration service” fed by more resources. Not that he’d “vote for extra money.” But he does, he told the crowd, have a plan.
I’m glad he has a plan. Care to share it? And then he descended into the scurrilous:
I believe Hispanics have been used as scapegoats, to say, they’re the problem instead of being a symptom maybe of a problem with the welfare state. In Nazi Germany they had to have scapegoats to blame and they turned on the Jews.
Nazi Germany? Really? I know he’s a truther and thinks giving Li’l Squinty a nuke would be just peachy, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at his lazy adoption of the rhetoric of the America-hating Left. What’s next, a get-well card for Hugo Chavez?
What else did you expect? He's obviously playing to his base, i.e lunatics. Cordially, Bill
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat I expect is something better than ad hominem attacks from writers at National Review. What I get is another matter.
You could critique Paul day and night, easily, without the ad hominems, but you choose not to. You either like alienating a young energized base which is keen on smaller government, or you are a lazy writer and analyst.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"from writers at National Review"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePretty sure that Bill Wilde is not a writer at National Review.
I'm pretty sure Mark Krikorian, the author, and the "you" I was referring to, is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOK. Your comment is indented as a response to Bill, so I took Bill as the antecedent for "you".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy first sentence was a comment on Bill's first sentence, the following paragraph was aimed at the author and would have been more clear ending with ", Mark."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOK.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMan, you really get your knickers in a twist whenever someone proposes having a de-militarized border, don't you? There are other ways to police the border rather than fences and guns. And Paul is right - the problem is the welfare state in all its forms that attracts the immigrants, though the Nazi Germany analogy is stupid and counterproductive.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"There are other ways to police the border rather than fences and guns."
Such as?
Folks like you always say that, but never seem to get around to telling us a workable plan.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCrocodiles and moats?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNah. Build the electric fence and BBQ them on the Texas side of the border ;)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore Drivel from the Crank
A suitable title for this contribution from The Corner's one-trick immigration militant.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI thought "drivel from the crank" was mild considering who the subject is. Perhaps "lunacy from the crackpot" would have been more to your liking? Cordially, Bill
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseArgumentum ad Hitlerum.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGodwin's Law. You lose. Cordially, Bill
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"America-hating Left"
Of course, anyone who disagrees with Mark Krikorian must hate America. How childish can you get.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnother buffoonish comment from Jason.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse1. That he prefixed left with "American-hating" indicates that there is a left that is not America-hating. But if it helps you to get righteously indignant, by all means object to the idea that he was talking about 'anyone who disagrees with' him.
2. Do you think equating the US immigration policy debate to Nazi German propaganda demonstrates a particular love for America?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"[On Ron Paul Websites and in his Newsletters] they had to have scapegoats to blame and they turned on the Jews."
Fixed!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseInteresting that the first three commenters use ad hominum "arguments", rather than refute Mr. Kirkorian's arguments. How does one reconcile "Enforce border security..." with having no "barbed-wire fences and guns on our border”? And tell me, how does one have “a much better immigration service” without voting to fund it?
And I'll agree that the Hispanics as scapegoats like the Jews is as scurrilous as Newt's Holocaust non-kosher food statement.
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