I’ll be honest, I don’t care about illegal immigration. As far as I’m concerned illegal immigration in this country started when the Europeans floated over the Atlantic Ocean and took this land from the Native Americans by force. To concern ourselves over illegal immigration today is a bit hypocritical.
Judging from the reactions I’ve been reading elsewhere I’m in the minority, at least on sites I read normally. There’s nothing unusual about that but I do find it rather funny how many people are suddenly up in arms over the fact Obama just changed immigration police using an executive order:
Appearing in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama announced Friday that, effective immediately, young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally before age 16 and spent at least five continuous years here would be allowed to stay and apply for work permits if they had no criminal history and met other criteria, such as graduating from high school or serving honorably in the military.
By acting unilaterally, through an executive order, Obama underscored one of the great strengths of presidential incumbency: the ability to change the campaign conversation in an instant. In the time it took for word to leak in Washington, Obama’s move shunted aside a not-terribly-well-reviewed speech on the economy he had delivered in Ohio a day earlier.
How anybody can be surprised or shocked by the king’s latest move is beyond me. Obama has been using executive orders to bypass Congress for a while and has actually been the first president to blatently brag about having such power:
Each time, Mr. Obama has emphasized the fact that he is bypassing lawmakers. When he announced a cut in refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages last month, for example, he said: “If Congress refuses to act, I’ve said that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to act without them.”
Earlier this year Obama went so far as to, basically, collectivize this country’s resources through an executive order and granted state officials the power to invoke sanctions against countries that use technological means to violate human rights (with no apparent acknowledgement of the irony involved in such an order).
Some people are pointed to this most recent executive order as proof that Obama believes himself to be a king and are calling on Congress to push back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Congress isn’t going to push back. In fact Mitt Romney isn’t even will to say he’ll repeal the order. Moving against Obama’s latest executive order would be political suicide this close to the election. Once again we see that the only difference between the monarchy in many European countries and the presidency in this country is that one claims their position by divine right while the other claims their position through the peoples’ vote.
Even though I don’t care much about the illegal immigration debate I will say this maneuver by Obama has apparently woken a few up about the powers a president actually enjoys in this country. That’s good, people need to pull their heads out of the sand and stop pretended there is any separation of power in the United States government. All three branches are in collusion to bring the statist agenda upon us.
So the president does something I approve of in a way that I am 100% against. I don’t know how I feel about this yet. Personally I feel the only limits to immigration should be, maybe a background check, and the actual expense of getting from point A to B.
It’s always a bitch when a politician does something one considers positive using a method that one considers distasteful.
If we stop giving shit away for free illegal immigration isn’t an issue. We will only attract the best and the brightest that want to work for a better life here and contribute to our country. But as long as we give everyone that comes across the border a free handout (let us educate your kids, and come use our emergency rooms when you are sick, and on and on), then we are giving freeloaders an incentive to come in. On a side note all the illegals that I see here in Texas seem to be hard workers I think to many people are willing to downplay the contributions they make (especially given that the price of unskilled labor is much cheaper down here than in Minnesota from my recollection).
Part of me wonders if increase the rate at which handouts are given would force this country to deal with its massive debt problem sooner. Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, it would be better if the state just started doling out “free” stuff to anybody who wanted it. Increased illegal immigration, where the illegal immigrants are given free stuff, may force a situation where the economy must be allowed to correct.
It’s unfortunate that the only solution to our economic woes appears to be total collapse. Collapses are painful but can be made more or less painful depending on how long an imminent collapse is kicked down the road. Part of me, the part that believes the collapse will be more painful the longer we try to push it down the road, actually welcomes illegal immigrants who enter the country to receive freebies. The other part of me, the ever dwindling part that believes we can avoid the metaphoric iceberg, doesn’t.
Ultimately you’ve stated the only actual solution, the state need to stop giving people “free” shit.
The danger of a collapse is we don’t know what we are going to wind up with on the other side of it. Are we going to go the way of the Wiemar republic when the monetary collapse led to Hitler? We may lose what little bit of freedom we have left if it comes to a collapse as the masses look for someone to save them liberty be damned. The last thing we need is for the government to have more emergency situations in which they can use to justify the end of what little of the original idea of the United States is left.
Given that anything we can do to avoid the situation is desirable, but unfortunately we don’t have a congress that is willing to do anything so as time goes on it looks more like we aren’t going to be able to vote our way out of this mess. If that is the case the next best thing to do is to educate people (as Ron Paul has been trying to do or even your blog here), so that when the collapse comes perhaps we can begin to decentralize power and return this Republic to the state it was intended to be when founded.
I’m certainly in agreement that a collapse will have an uncertain result and I would love to avoid it, I just don’t believe we can anymore.
From what I can see we’ve hit the metaphorical iceberg and we can either move quickly to get as many people to the lifeboats as possible or continue hiding the fact that the ship is sinking from the public. The longer we wait the more lives will likely be lost.
It’s political suicide for any politician to end the entitlement programs so I have no faith a political solution exists. If the situation gets bad enough then something might be done to stave off complete disaster but that is the only ray of hope I have for things to get corrected right now.
We’re in a lose/lose situation and it’s rather depressing.