Mark Steyn is as good of a columnist and commentator as there is out there. And this article, "The Documented Delusion," from the June 11 Washington Times, is as good as he gets.
With his characteristic clarity and precision (not to mention wit), Steyn performs a masterful surgical dissection of the delusional phrases, propaganda and anti-concepts that we've been spoon-fed for decades regarding immigration. Thus, for today, JonQuixoteWorld has reclassified Steyn as a journalistic surgeon --- hence his honorary designation, "Dr. Steyn."
What kryptonite is to Superman, what a wooden stake is to Dracula, and what a silver bullet is to a werewolf, Dr. Steyn's article is to the fraudulent "comprehensive reform" that is being foisted upon America by a bipartisan group of political panderers.
Excerpts (the full first part of the article):
I forget where I was when I first heard the phrase "undocumented worker." Possibly it was after swimming the Rio Grande and emerging dripping on the northern shore to be handed a fake Social Security number and a driver's license. But I assumed, reasonably enough, that this linguistic sleight of hand was simply too ridiculous to fly even with the American media. I underestimated my colleagues, alas.
The "undocumented" are, as it happens, brimming with sufficient documents to open bank accounts or, on the other hand, rent a Ryder truck, as Mohammad Salameh did in 1993 when he and his pals bombed the World Trade Center first time round. Being "undocumented" means being documented up to the hilt as far as everyone else is concerned but "undocumented" only to the U.S. government. Which, when you think about it, is a very advantageous status. Anyway, about five years or so back, I started referring in columns to "fine upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community."
But from the lame Steyn joke of yesteryear to the reality of tomorrow is a mere hop and a skip. A few days ago, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, declared: "This week we will vote on cloture and final passage of a comprehensive bill that will strengthen border security, bring the 12 million undocumented Americans out of the shadows, and keep our economy strong."
Talk about "a fast track to citizenship." Never mind probationary visas, Z-visas and Green Cards, in the eyes of the Democrat steering "comprehensive immigration reform" through Congress these guys are already "undocumented Americans." Was it simply a slip of the tongue? (Speaking of which, I thought thanks to George W Bush we had "the worst economy since Herbert Hoover." When did it get "strong"?) Or did Mr. Reid mean it?
If he did, the very concept of citizenship is dead, and the Senate might as well opt for "really comprehensive immigration reform" and declare everyone on the planet a U.S. citizen with backdated Social Security entitlements. As Le Monde's famous headline of Sept. 12, 2001, put it, "Nous sommes tous Americains." ("We are all Americans"). Literally.
I don't know whether this sham of a bill is dead or just resting "in the shadows" like a fine upstanding member of the Vampiric-American community. But, if it rises on the third night to stalk the land once more, I would advise its supporters to go about their work more honestly.
First of all, the only guys "living in the shadows" are the aides of American senators beavering away out of the public eye to cook up this legislation and then present it as a fait accompli to the citizenry (if you'll forgive the expression). That is an affront to small-r republican government, and, if intemperate hectoring mediocrities like Trent Lott and Lindsay Graham don't understand that, their electors should give them a well-deserved lesson.
Second, the bill's supporters should stop assuming the bad faith of their opponents. On Fox News the other night, I was told by NPR's Juan Williams, "You're anti-immigrant." Er, actually, I am an immigrant -- one of the members of the very very teensy-weensy barely statistically detectable category of "legal immigrants." But perhaps that doesn't count any more. Perhaps, like Colin Powell's blackness, it's insufficiently "authentic." By filing the relevant paperwork with the U.S. government, I'm not "keepin' it real."
I wouldn't presume to speak for the millions of Americans who oppose this bill, but it's because I'm an immigrant myself that I object to the most patent absurdity peddled by the pro-amnesty crowd. The bill is fundamentally a fraud.
Its "comprehensive solution" to illegal immigration is simply to flip all the illegals overnight into the legal category. Voila. Problem solved. There can be no more illegal immigrants because the Senate has simply abolished the category. Ingenious. For their next bipartisan trick, Congress will reduce the murder rate by recategorizing murderers as jaywalkers.
Read the rest
here.I hope that "Dr. Steyn's" analysis and commentary gets the exposure that they so richly deserve.
Because if his views --- and those of similarly clear-thinking, liberty-loving patriots --- are not exposed via our "political-journalistic complex," and we continue to allow ourselves to be spoon-fed the deceptions and propaganda that he identifies, we are going to get exactly the "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation that we deserve.
And America, as we know and love it, will have taken one more giant leap into a form that we will no longer recognize.
Original content is © Copyright 2007 by Jon Quixote. Email to jonquix@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment