Saturday, May 1, 2010

Claims of "Racism" in Arizona Politically Motivated


This post comes from the Legal Insurrection blog.
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Saturday Night Card Game (When the Race Card Met Godwin)

This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:

It has been eight days since the Governor of Arizona signed the immigration law. A few tweaks have been made in the wording of the law since then, but the essence of the law remains the same:
Illegal immigration is illegal and will be treated as illegal, and the laws setting forth that illegality will be implemented in accordance with longstanding practices for determining citizenship and immigration status based on a constitutionally acceptable "reasonable suspicion" test.
A law which was not extraordinary, except to the extent that it signaled an intention to take the immigration laws seriously, was met with a crescendo of accusations of racism and Nazism (with a dash of communism and Apartheidism thrown in to spice things up a bit).

It really is hard to remember any event which has caused this level of vitriol, hyperbole and outright fabrication.

It's as if the Gods of the Race Card conspired with the Gods of Godwin's Law to create a noxious stew of false accusations of racism and Nazism for political gain.

Not all of those seeking political gain were on the left. Connie Mack (R-Fla) also engaged in shameless accusations that the law was the equivalent of Nazism.

And not all of those who criticized the law did so by using the race card; there were legitimate libertarian, civil libertarian and other concerns which were not expressed in the form of the race card or amid accusations of Nazism.

But by and large, the overwhelming majority of voices heard against the Arizona immigration law sought to use false accusations of racism and Nazism for political gain.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The core issue is whether we want to enforce the immigration laws, or not. There is nothing racist about that, unless one views our sovereignty as inherently racist.

Let's have that debate.

But that is the debate the race-and-Nazi card-playing critics of the Arizona immigration law do not want to have, because the inevitable result is to expose their open borders policy position which is untenable politically for them.

And that is why the race and Nazi cards have been played so aggressively this past week.

To prevent a debate on immigration policy, to paint anyone and everyone who supports enforcing the immigration laws as racist, and to obtain de facto open borders through neglect.

Now if only they would be so honest as to admit it.