Thursday, June 14, 2007

Republican Divide on Immigration Policy

The Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman has a most interesting piece this week on President Bush's "suicide mission" on immigration policy. Half ironically, half seriously, he descries the President as a man who thinks he's a hacendado -- a member of the old-line Mexican landed gentry, "duty-bound not just to work 'his' people but to protect them as well."
That seems a little off the wall to me, but Mr. Fineman is onto something when he tells us that President Bush once told him that he was a "southwestern" Republican, and not a "southern" Republican. This is of importance because the heart of both the current GOP and the opposition to the President's immigration legislation is in the South ". . .where the threast of being inundated by immigrants is less immediate, but the sense of estrangement from metropolitan, bi-coastal America [is] great."
By contrast, some "Southwestern" Republicans, those from places such as Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada -- are simply not as concerned about immigration, and more open to the pro-immigration arguments of the business lobbies. Southern and Rustbelt Republicans are answering Fineman's question as to whether "borders mean anything" with a resounding YES.
The history of American politics is largely the story of rivalry between urban North and rural South, with the Midwest and West falling into one camp or the other. The immigration controversy shows us that this pattern continues. Mr. Fineman is spot-on about the estrangement between the South and "metropolitan bi-coastal America." I think it's deepening too, and goes both ways. Wonder where that leads us ?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lind's peice in Foreign Affairs a few years ago about the Civil War by other means was spot on.

I find that living closer to the border makes Borders seem MORE important.

andrewdb

Anonymous said...

Found it.

See here: http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/1999/civil_war_by_other_means

andrewdb

Anonymous said...

Someday I will figure out html

Try here

andrewdb

El Jefe Maximo said...

Isn't that a good article ? I had always been aware of Lind, but Civil War by Other Means made me a reader. I agree with him completely about regional differences here...with the difference being that I tend to take a much more pro-southern view of things than he does. His articles about Bush and Texas are good too: again, the difference between us is that I tend to hew more to the southern view he derides.

But I keep a Lind clippings file, I don't do that for many other authors. He's VERY smart.