I Think They Just Shot Themselves in The Foot
The AP is reporting that 500,000 (the headline I read earlier said 100k, so I am not at all sure this count is even close to accurate) people just marched in Los Angeles demanding that the US sop trying to control illegal immigration. The article claims many were "activists" and at least some were illegal immigrants.
Many waved Mexican flags. Organizers told marchers to carry American flags, but I guess many didn’t get the memo.
As Micky Kaus noted, this may not have been a spectacularly bright move.
If the anti-war crowd can only draw a few thousand (in all protests across the country), and the illegal aliens can muster half a million (in one protest) can anyone else see a major problem? There are an awful lot of illegals, aren’t there? And they just made sure every, single LEGAL citizen of this country found out about how many there are. In a very open and visceral way.
I rather suspect that a wall WILL be built and predict a crackdown on illegals everywhere. Good job of ‘waaaaaaay overplaying your hand, folks.
Glenn Reynolds reached much the same conclusion. He writes more succinctly than I do.
Dumb Stuff, Politics | Gaius Sunday, 26 March , 2006
By Bush, Sunday, 26 March , 2006 @ 12:41 am
To those that defend legislation such as HR 4437 as patriotic I say to you that it is not patriotic to be racist. Some wrongly believe that this legislation will protect our nation from future terrorist attacks but the facts have proven that not one of the 911 hijackers crossed the US border with Mexico or wired money out of the US to help support their families.
As a concerned citizen I am just appalled at such mean spirited legislation. The simple truth is that we are all immigrants and immigrants have always been the source of our national identity.
By someone else, Sunday, 26 March , 2006 @ 2:30 am
well what did you want them to do? sit around and wait until Congress, the US Chamber of Commerce, and others decided to do something nice fot them?
They already tried that strategy…for the past 10 years–@1.5 million deportations–check the government’s statistical yearbook on immigration (uscis.gov click on office of immigration statistics).
and, the anti-war crowd actually did draw several hundred thousand people prior to the war, in any case.
By Gauis Arbo, Sunday, 26 March , 2006 @ 6:42 am
It was NOT a good idea to do this, in my opinion. This will only make legal residents MORE supportive of the legislation.
Think about it - most people realize that only a small percentage of any group actually show up to protest any given subject. This just gave average people a visual picture of how bad the problem actually is. Telling most people that there are “12 million illegal aliens” in the US means nothing - they cannot visualize one million. But they can sure see what half a million looks like now. It will scare them, don’t you get it?
And the mexican flags were just plain dumb.
By Black Jack, Monday, 27 March , 2006 @ 9:31 pm
“I say to you that it is not patriotic to be racist.”
And, in response, I say to you: it’s not racist to be patriotic. In fact, attempting to equate patriotism with racism is as wrongheaded as attempting to excuse illegal immigration by pointing to legal immigration.
I’m the grandson of legal immigrants, and if others want to join us here, let them demonstrate the integrity of their desire by respecting our laws.
By Gauis Arbo, Monday, 27 March , 2006 @ 9:50 pm
The racist card is played for one reason only - to silence debate. It is not racist to point out people who are breaking laws.