There was an important session at the conference on academic diversity that I very much wanted to attend in order to listen to folks.
But what I found to be instructive is the degree to which the Democrats are (ab)using the Chicano vote the same way Republicans do the small-government voters (and then the so-called “conservative” shitheads get all in my face about how wanting less in the way of entitlement spending somehow makes me and my political peers fundamentally immoral, but I digress).
Several chicana activists were deeply upset about Republicans moving to make sure that illegal immigrants wouldn’t get any health care under the new bill. And that’s fair game politically — the actual research shows that lots of illegals do pay into the system, and imho thereby should qualify on equity grounds. I’m both libertarian-leaning and historically literate, and don’t approve of the drenchingly racist history of immigration control anyway. (But I digress again.)
What the chicanas in question were missing is that the current bill has no healthcare provisions for illegals, because the Democrats who write the legislation have steadfastly refused to put it there. And guess what? It’s not the Blue Dogs who are in the senior leadership positions writing this legislation — it’s the Progressive wing of the Democrats, doing exactly what the Republicans do whenever their constituents gripe about pork. That is, they talk out of both sides of their mouths, and openly betray their constituents while promising them the moon.
Man, and I thought us small-l libertarians were getting hosed…
I could be justifiably derided as a rube for lamenting the lack of honest politicians… but it’s sad to see people, no matter what their political stripes, being so openly played by their representatives, and on an issue where the bastards are playing so hypocritically with basic human sympathy. It’s one thing to say “these folks shouldn’t be here and we should follow the law.” It’s another to give the other side of the argument and promise to help somebody’s 80-something grandmother get some access to basic preventative medical care (since illegals by definition don’t get Medicare/Medicaid) while she gets by selling bottled water at construction sites… and then turn said grandmother’s family into “useful idiots” while purposefully screwing them over.
