Obama Hates Me, This I Know, For His Speeches Tell Me So

Our President has once again sought a safe place outside the United States to show his contempt for Americans who think the First Amendment actually means something. In a speech in Guadalajara, Mexico, he informed the audience which included the Canadian Prime Minister and the Mexican President that Americans who oppose instant citizenship for twelve to fifteen million illegal immigrants are demagogues.

In response to a reporter's question about health care possibly sidetracking the immigration debate, Obama gave a longwinded and slighly incoherent answer on health care then moved on to say that "I believe we can secure an immigration reform package which includes a pathway to citizenship." And then for the money quote he went on to say: "Now, am I going to be able to snap my fingers and get this done? No. This is going to be difficult. It's going to require bipartisan cooperation. There are going to be demagogues out there who try to suggest that any form of pathway for legalization for those who are already in the United States is unacceptable." At least he recognized for the first time that his poll numbers are slipping badly, since he said: "And those are fights that I'd have to have if my poll numbers are at 70 or if my poll numbers are at 40. That's just the nature of the U.S. immigration debate."

Wow, what a man. Fighting against the odds (actually his poll numbers are at about 47% and declining, but that's just a quibble). If only it weren't for all those demagogues we could have twelve million more Democrats overnight. And that would solve the health care debate by stacking the electoral deck. Demagogues are very bad people, standing in the way of instant direct democracy.

Obama slipped for a moment and actually said something that's true. "But ultimately, I think the American people want fairness." Yes, we do. Fairness like not having instant citizens whose first act in the United States was to break the law by being here at all. And perhaps fairness for those who very much wish to become Americans in the best tradition by following the rules, entering legally, and doing what is required to earn citizenship. I realize that the word "earn" is not in the liberal lexicon, but then the polls also show that two-thirds of Americans are not liberals. You don't earn money by stealing it from your friends and neighbors, and you don't earn citizenship by sneaking across a very porous border and demanding it.

What is a demagogue, exactly? According to most dictionaries, a demagogue is a person, especially an orator or a politician, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions and passions of the people. Hope and change, anyone? Yes, we can? Evil capitalists? Wall Street bankers? I look different from the other Presidents? The rich should pay their fair share? A demagogue inflames passions, not thoughts. He plays on fears and false hope. He sets one class against another. He creates imaginary enemies. And most of all, he squelches legitimate debate by calling his opposition names that denigrate them personally rather than addressing their ideas. So who is the demagogue here, Mr. Obama?

Stateside, the liberal Immigration Policy Center jumped into action to advance the President's theme. "Comprehensive immigration reform (read: amnesty) that includes a path to legalization for undocumented workers (read: illegal immigrants) would pay for itself. In contrast to the failed and costly enforcement-only policies that have been pursued before. A reform program would more than pay for itself by raising more in tax revenue than it costs in increased bureaucracy." Bureaucracy is the least of the costs. What about the integrity of our borders? And what about the massive welfare programs, Medicaid, not to mention the crime costs?

The demagogues who oppose blanket amnesty seem to have found slightly different facts. Some studies (including some done by liberal universities) place the cost of illegal immigrant amnesty welfare at somewhere between $1 trillion and $2.5 trillion. And since these will be among the lowest wage-earners because of their limited work skills and English language deficiency, they will benefit from Obama's tax plans that excuse them from paying taxes at all. Twelve million immigrants, all claiming the "earned income" tax credit. Some revenue!

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, another demagogue, asks the obvious question. "If you don't enforce the law, it has no effect. How can you say that something has failed which has never actually been tried?" In those rare cases where specific laws have been enforced, they have been highly successful. Contrary to liberal baloney, illegal immigrants aren't all that hard to find and deport. And the answer to the question of "how do you get rid of twelve million illegal immigrants" (to which you are supposed to respond with 'impossible') is "the same way you eat a whale, one bite at a time."

Meanwhile, Harry Reid, soon to be the ex-Senator from Nevada if his poll numbers keep falling, prophetically says that "we will bring eleven million people out of the shadows (I say twelve million, but what's a million people between friends?)." But only after passing cap and trade, fixing the climate, and passing comprehensive health care. Senator, if we have anything to say about it, that will be some time in the year 4545. The illegals can come out of the shadows right now. Just hop on the closest daylight express back to the border. And if your President succeeds in getting half of his crazy schemes passed by a Congress that doesn't read its own bills, the economy in Mexico will quickly be better than ours anyway. So we are doing them a favor by providing them with a free ride home.

Another way of misdirecting the demagogues is to use a different expression for illegal immigrant comprehensive reform. Once tagged with the expression "blanket amnesty," it died an unpleasant death nearly three years ago, even with the support of future Presidential loser John McCain. So the Democrats have picked up a new expression, most often articulated by Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Although the President has picked up the refrain, Hoyer was among the first to refer to blanket amnesty as the "Pathway to Citizenship." Now doesn't that sound pleasant? Illegals are now just travelers on the pathway to citizenship. A pathway which has thus far managed to avoid borders, the law, the Constitution and just plain common sense.

But Hoyer isn't satisfied with merely getting an instant boost in the number of Democrat voters. He has much more foresight. Blanket amnesty must be supplemented by a comprehensive guest-worker program. After all, invited "guests" aren't here illegally, so they can quickly hop on that shining path to citizenship too. Democrat guests don't understand that eventually guests are supposed to go home, not take up permanent residence in your home and demand that you feed and clothe them like the family children. You see, once the illegals become legal, the guests can become residents. It's all very self-explanatory.

I would simply suggest that if Barack Obama is looking for demagogues, he need look no farther than his own mirror and some photographs of his Congressional leadership.