The issue of immigration was not discussed at either political convention. Of course, it would be foolish for us to think this is an election based on issues. Only losing politicians think of issues. As Rick Davis, the Chair of John McCain’s campaign, has already said this election is not about issues, it is about personalities. You know what he means, don’t you!
With some 14 million illegal or undocumented aliens living in this country, no one has yet had the courage to speak up on immigration. Obama seems exhausted from the primaries to bring it up and until he is attacked, one guesses, he may not. McCain seems to be drifting on policies as it is, and now with his gun-toting Snow White with him, he is even more unlikely to confront the issue or even “defeat it.” (He likes to defeat evil instead of confronting it).
There are only 3.7% Blacks in Alaska against Whites at 70.07% and Hispanics at 5.6%, according to the 2006 U. S. Census. It would be unthinkable, given what we know of Sarah Palin now, that she has thought about immigration, let alone considered the legality of it, unless she heard it in passing in one of her required courses in high school or several of her colleges.
How are we to think of this burning issue unless it comes up in debates and it is spun immediately by both sides soon thereafter? We wait to see how either administration takes it up courageously or compromises to an extent that we are still at the same point until the next election? Or, should we give Lou Dobbs a gun and have him approach it himself? Or, we should simply wait until the brownies and Blacks together are in a majority and somehow all of us forget about all of this by that time?
Party platforms do not say much. If the return of the Talk Radio conservatives after Sarah Palin nomination is any indication, the issue is to be forgotten. Elections are meant for exactly that. To forget things until they hit us again.
September 6, 2008
| |
