A Conservative Issue?

Source: wapo

Charles Krauthammer asks an excellent question in today's Washington Post...

Bush's enforcement provisions were advertised as an attempt to appease conservatives. This is odd. Are conservatives the only ones who think that unlimited, unregulated immigration is a detriment to the republic? Do liberals really believe in a de facto policy that depresses the wages of the poorest and most desperate Americans, African Americans most prominently among them? Do liberals believe that the number, social class, education level, background and country of origin of immigrants -- the kinds of decisions every democratic country makes for itself -- should be taken out of the hands of the American citizenry and left to the immigrants themselves and, in particular, to those most willing to break the very immigration regulations the American people have decided upon democratically?

And is it just conservatives who think the United States ought not be gratuitously squandering one of its greatest assets -- its magnetic attraction to would-be immigrants around the world? There are tens of millions of people who want to leave their homes and come to America. We essentially have an NFL draft in which the United States has the first, oh, million or so draft picks. Rather than exercising those picks, i.e., choosing by whatever criteria we want -- such as education, enterprise, technical skills and creativity -- we admit the tiniest fraction of the best and brightest and permit millions of the unskilled to pour in instead.

To my liberal friends (not you GTL), what's your take, how do you respond to this? Is border security merely a conservative issue? I actually know the answer to this question, but I'd be curious to hear what others think.

Our good pal The Gun Totin' Liberal has a different take. To answer GTL, I will coment that I have spoken to far to many (Kos kid) liberals who reflexively assume this issue is racist from the word go and seem to see it merely as a way to feel superior to their pitiable brethren who care about this country and they do seem to give off the scent of NOT caring about this country. A conservative perspective from the big city, take it for what it's worth.


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