Why I Am Not a Republican
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 09:31AM Southwest Mississippi has a heady political year coming up. Here in Mississippi's 3rd Congressional district, our Congressional Representative, Chip Pickering, has announced he is not running for re-election. Trent Lott, the state's long-serving senior Senator, retired in December. This means that in November, in our neck of the woods we will elect a brand-new U.S. Congressman, Senator, and President all in one day. An uncommon event.
The local newspaper has been running profiles of the candidates for the 3rd Congressional seat. Yesterday, the confection was Gregg Harper, Republican candidate and resident of Rankin County. He seems like a typical Republican, affable enough, pro-life, in favor of the Iraqi War. In fact, he seems to think the only problem with the Iraqi War is that the government is not selling it well enough:
“The Republican Party has done a lousy job explaining why we’re in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said, adding that officials need to better explain the country’s role in fighting Islamic terrorists “who want to destroy everything we believe in."
Interestingly enough, he is anti-stem cell research, but with a twist. His son has Fragile X syndrome, exactly the kind of disease stem cell proponents (erroneously) believe stem cell research can cure in short order. So in a sense, he is willing to practice what he preaches.
None of this is as troubling as this passage:
The main issue in the district, Harper said, is immigration.
“We need secure borders; it’s an issue of national security,” he said. “We need to enforce our existing (immigration) laws. I’m opposed to amnesty. I don’t think taxpayer benefits should go to illegals.”
This is exactly the claptrap that alienates me from the Republican party. I will save you a trip to the U.S. Census website and tell you a little about the 3rd Congressional district. Pike County, where I live, has a population of about 38,000, 51% white, 48% black, 0.7% Hispanic. Rankin County, where Mr. Harper lives, has a population of about 130,000, 81% white, 17% black, and 1.3% Hispanic. Unless Mr. Harper has detected a huge number of African or white-European illegal immigrants, there is no serious immigration problem around here.
This is the problem that I have with the immigration issue: It is a problem of the rich. Poor counties like Pike (per capita income $14,000) don't attract illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants go where the money is, to relatively wealthy states like California, Arizona, Texas, and New York. They tend to flock to big cities like Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta, bypassing rural areas like Mississippi. Yes, migrant workers do go to farms, but usually corporate farms, and corporate farming is not a big player in the Magnolia State.
We don't have an immigration problem here. Yet Mr. Harper calls this the number one issue in his own district at a time when we are at war, when the majority of Mississippians couldn't find Iraq on a map, when half a million Mississippians have no health insurance, when our per capita income is one-half the national average.
The best measure of a person's decency is his priorities. Ask someone what his first priority is, and his answer gives you pretty good insight into his character. Right now, President Bush's first priority seems to be securing legal amnesty for the telecom companies for privacy law violations. For the new Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal (also a Republican), it is comprehensive ethics reform for politicians. The depth of the chasm between the two priorities is arresting.
So here we have Harper, with all the things he ought to be worrying about, like education and crime and excesses of executive privilege and the mortgage crisis, and what's on his mind? The immigration status of Hispanics, who make up about one in one hundred Mississippians. Good God.
Of course Harper is just mouthing the tripe of his national party. The G.O.P. has no answers to America's real problems, so it makes up fake ones instead. Make no mistake, I think immigration laws should be enforced, but what threat do illegal immigrants really pose to our society? They take jobs no one else wants. They work for white people for half of nothing, and while their bosses charge the market rate for their services, the workers themselves are often are stiffed on their paychecks anyway. They get no insurance, no legal protections, no schooling, and as little health care as possible, and in return do a lot of our most unpleasant labor so uneducated Americans can work in air-conditioned malls. There is no strong evidence that they commit more crime than anyone else. Yes, they take jobs away from Americans. Now go find the nearest illegal immigrant, kick him across the border, and take over his job for 4 hours. I dare you. In 4 hours you will be out looking for him, begging him to take his old gig back.
People as clueless as Harper should be shoveling horse stalls for a living. I think I would trust the priorities of a Mexican who risked his life walking across hundreds of miles of desert so he could nail shingles for a living and send half his pay back to his family south of the border, over someone like him.
That is why I am not a Republican.
Reader Comments (10)
Priceless, Dr. Hebert.
I'm sure you're proud of the activities of your alma mater UVA. (http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1406).
Pat yourself on the back because you liberals are sooooo tolerant of others.
As for the UVa thing: I had no idea, and certainly condemn what they did. There are two newspapers at UVa, the liberal Cavalier Daily and the more conservative University Journal. I wrote for the U.J. I will have to look into this because I too find it repulsive.
Sloppy logic: Just because I went to school somewhere doesn't mean I approve of everything that happens there.
Anon #2: Patrick Henry's opinions were not universal among the founding fathers. In fact, Henry was a minor light in this group. You have to stop equating politics with religion. Politics no more equals religion than plumbing does.
Well, if what one person does/say does not represent everyone involved in that organization then you should quit painting people (Republicans) with such a broad brush. There are at least as many wackos on the other side of the isle. Since you are from New Orleans, I am sure you think that everything Ray Nagin does/says represents all Democrats, right? And William Jefferson, a fine Democrat, and representative of the whole party, right? And your Democratic Governor, Kathleen Blanco did so much for the people of New Orleans during Katrina right? I mean crying on national television makes everyone think you are a strong leader, right?
If you really want to end the partisinship in this country, don't be a part of it yourself! Otherwise, your opinions ring hollow.
I get to choose to be a Republican or not. I choose not to be. I explained why. I reject their values in no small part because of their crazy approach to immigration. That is what they teach. Tell me the Republican party isn't anti-immigrant. You can say it if you want, but it would be a lie if you did. Now, not all Republicans are anti-immigrant, but enough are that I choose to be against them.
As for your UVa and New Orleans arguments, don't make me laugh. I haven't set foot in UVa in over 20 years. Any relation between the kids there today and me is purely coincidental. We were a pretty conservative lot then; we were all Reagan Republicans, and yes, I voted for Reagan twice. Surprised? You wouldn't be if you actually paid attention to what I was trying to say.
As for New Orleans: NOLA is a place, not a philosophy. People who live there can think anything they want to, and do. I don't see how this is germane to the discussion.
But the GOP is a political party. It represents a point of view. Therefore, it can be criticized on the basis of its point of view. UVa is a university, not a philosophy, and therefore its members CANNOT be criticized as a coherent group. Same goes for NOLA.
Anyway, Big Shot, what I don't hear from you is that you disagree with the Republican belief that immigration is one of the crucial issues of our time. If you think that, and think immigration is more important than health care, or global warming, or education, then yes, you are a wacko.
I would be the last person to argue that right and wrong are not founded on God's principles. I believe they are. On the other hand, I have been in too many discussions with too many people to know that everyone reads the Bible his own way. So if we are a Christian nation, which one? Catholic, Baptist, Jehovah's witness?
There is no point in arguing with people about the fine points of belief. No one ever gives an inch. Not ever! We have a country to run and can do a better job of it than thumping Bibles.
But as long as we are quoting:
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”
-- George Washington
And how about this one:
"Of all religions, Christianity is without a doubt the one that should inspire tolerance most, although, up to now, the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men”
-- Voltaire
All throughout the governmental buildings of Washington D.C. (The Capital Building, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court) we see Judeo-Christian figures. Moses is in the center on the front of the Supreme Court, statues of Moses and Paul in Main Reading Room, Library of Congress, the Gutenberg and Mainz bibles in the Library of Congress, a quote from Prominently Inscribed on the Liberty Bell: Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
The Very First Prayer ever uttered in Congress, as recorded in the Journals of the Continental Congress.
"Be Thou present O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsel of this Honorable
Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations;
that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony and
Peace may be effectually restored, and that Truth and Justice, Religion and
Piety, prevail and flourish among the people. Preserve the health of their
bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions
they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seeth expedient for
them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to
come. All this we ask in the Name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy
Son and our Savior, Amen.
There is a marble relief of Moses within the House of Representatives, directly opposite the Speaker's Chair.
Nowhere is there mention of other non-Christian religions. We don't have statues of Buddha, or Mohammed prominently displayed in our governmental halls.
I am not IN ANY WAY proposing intolerance of non-Christians. Quite the opposite in fact. But,if the United States was not founded with a Judeo-Christian heritage, then why is that?