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Immigration Reform: What Would America's Supermen Think?

Melanie Sturm | @ThinkAgainUSA Read Comments - 7
Publish Date: 
Thu, 07/04/2013

 

The summer blockbuster “Man of Steel” reveals why Superman is an American icon, like the courageous revolutionaries who declared American independence. They couldn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, but our founders’ steel-like resolve forged an against-all-odds victory over a Kryptonically-powerful British military in pursuit of radical ideas – human liberty and self-government.  

 

Breaking with history’s repressive norms, they declared the uniquely American idea that everyone is born free and equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In order to prevent future Lex Luthers from tyrannizing the people, they established a constitutional system whose powers are limited, separated, and checked. The government couldn't act without the people’s consent, nor could the people act except through elected representatives. Like Superman, American government would safeguard individual rights and liberties while defending truth, justice and our American way.

 

Anticipating America’s unprecedented freedoms, prosperity and global influence, James Madison said, “the happy union of these states is a wonder; their constitution a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world.”  Even during the Civil War’s darkest moments, Abraham Lincoln believed America would “ once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”

 

Though Americans share Lincoln’s reverence for our inspiring heritage, many have begun to Think Again about whether our  “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” may indeed “perish from the earth.” When surveyed by Rasmussen, only 40 percent agreed that America is “the last best hope of mankind,” down from 51 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, two-thirds majorities believe a too-powerful government is a bigger threat than a weaker one, and consider our government to be a special interest group that looks out primarily for itself.

 

As Americans have endured a decade of economic and wage stagnation and persistently high unemployment, Washington, DC booms with seven of America’s 10 wealthiest counties -- like the capital of “Hunger Games” whose powerful and entitled aristocracy live off the tribute paid by impoverished citizens in the territories.

 

Our 226-year old constitution is exhausted kryptonite to a government that’s abusing its expansive powers. Today, the blob-like public sector consumes nearly half America’s economic output as it browbeats citizens and jeopardizes the American Way.

 

In a comic strip-worthy plot line, diabolical lawmakers conspire behind smokescreens of compassion and idealistic rhetoric, trading political favors for donations. Forsaking the public interest, they pass legislation laden with special-interest benefits, while granting ever-increasing discretion and power to the unaccountable fourth branch – the administrative state -- whose reach into citizen’s lives is greater than the three legitimate branches combined.

 

This summer’s episode features the immigration reform drama -- compelling for lawmakers, though not Americans for whom economic problems overwhelmingly trump immigration concerns 53 to 6 percent, according to Gallup. It’s another gripping “you have to pass the secretly negotiated 1,190-page bill to find out what’s in it” spellbinder that flew through the world’s most deliberative body faster than a speeding bullet, but not without inserting senatorial kickbacks and booby-trap-like loopholes.

 

In the “massive legislation era,” comprehensive means incomprehensible – if not unread -- while votes are based on talking points and favored provisions, not thorough analysis.  This bill’s central talking point echoes the 1986 immigration reform rationale – one-time legalization of 11-13 million undocumented immigrants and improved enforcement and security “will make illegal immigration a thing of the past.” It won 68 senators’ votes, even after the Congressional Budget Office concluded it would reduce illegal immigration by only 25 percent.  

 

There’s public support for limited amnesty – assuming controlled immigration flows – and skills-based immigration, like Canada’s.  Yet the CBO expects this bill will cause an influx of an additional 25 million predominately low-skilled immigrants by 2023 (4.8 million illegal and 20.4 million legal), increasing income and employment pressures on America’s most vulnerable demographic -- lower-educated workers (including legal immigrants) already devastated by globalization’s effects: falling wages, long-term unemployment and intergenerational poverty. 

 

Why do Senators ignore America’s greatest socio-economic problem by voting to absorb unprecedented levels of less-educated workers, thereby jeopardizing the economic security and dignity of lower-income Americans? Money.


Not the 0.2 percent bump in per capita GDP the CBO projects by 2033, but $84 million from the bill’s supporters (33 times more than opponents) who apparently believe Americans don’t work cheaply enough, even after 15 years of declining wages.

 

Feeling betrayed by a political class that’s eroded their hope, it’s no surprise many doubt America is still mankind’s best hope. But on the 237th anniversary of our independence, hopefulness springs in remembering America’s supermen and the providential ideas they bequeathed us, as restated by Abraham Lincoln:  “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

 

Think Again – Without Superman, defending truth, justice and the American Way is our charge.

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The very idea of a republic

The very idea of a republic operates under the premise that the common man is not smart enough or ethical enough to rule himself that he needs an intellectual elite. Nice idea and in the beginning of our nation we did have this condition. Unfortunately this is no longer valid today as it has in fact been reversed in the republican party where we now have a unintelligent greedy unethical group who think that if they call themselves republicans they can claim the right to rule the common people who in fact have become more intelligent fair and ethical than they are.

We understand that not all people have the intelligence and ethics to be rulers and we at the same time should understand that Republican label does not give us the right to assume they embody the republican label. In fact they have ruined it.

The democratic party is not perfect but now there are just as many unintelligent people in it today as the republican party and reflect the original basis of the elite benevolent and intelligent values the republican started with.

It would seem Melanie we need to start calling our selves americans and forget the rhetoric that is now too confusing . We only have one basic dilemma and it is centered around money and how we fairly asses how we manage it. Globalization has upset and confused our system just as the party affiliation labels have . Time to reevaluate ways that work to restore the original intent of a public servant and forget the rest of the labels..

People who support the

People who support the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" bill really need to read this. Brilliant, quick read analysis for those who want to think, not just romanticize and emote about the issue.

Was this a Freudian slip?

Was this a Freudian slip? "The government can’t act without the people’s consent; nor can the people act except through elected representatives." The people can only act through their elected representatives? Whoa now!

happy 4th.. This one is a

happy 4th..

This one is a little too technical for most readers, I think...but you make great points.

The key in my view is that the legislation gives the Executive Branch unlimited power to waive pretty much everything in the bill..it is fatally flawed to begin with. And that is perhaps the most important point to make for opponents.

Great events in Egypt though. Obama is "deeply concerned".. Good news for us all.

What would they think? They

What would they think? They wouldn’t be surprised by Obama, Pelosi, and their ilk. After all, they warned us about tyrants often enough. But, they would be shocked at us: fat, complacent, turning their grand experiment over to third worlders who couldn’t even get into the bronze age without it being handed to them on a platter, spending our time watching sports while the nation crumbles to dust.

Then, they’d turn on the news and see Egypt and know that the will to be free does exist somewhere in the world.

While the vast majority of

While the vast majority of the American people would differ with the below political objectives if the truth was known.

It is very obvious that the politicians of the two political parties have their own agendas when it comes to immigration reform, the end result as far as the Democrats are concerned being the certainty in the years ahead, if any facsimile of their Senate created amnesty bill passes, that they will eventually pick up tens of millions of mostly poor and generally uneducated, unskilled, and socialist oriented new foreign born Democrat voters. As far as the Republicans are concerned, it is clear that a portion of them are all agog at the possibility that the bill will either legalize or allow into the USA a virtually unlimited supply of cheap foreign labor in the years ahead, who would have total access to the legal US job market, and be legally able to compete with American workers for just about any job out there across the entire US economy, thus keeping wages and job related benefits as low as possible.

It looks like, at least if the politicians who support this bill are successful, that the just regular old American worker is going to be the third man out when looking for a job in the future, or being able to earn a wage that will support the customary American standard of living.

I was just reading a

I was just reading a description of the Luddites related to something else and it struck me why the Republican leadership wants immigration reform (and it reflects poorly on them). One of the things that led to the Luddite movement in the early 19th Century was the fact that the various people who controlled the new manufacturing plants that were springing up wanted to maintain surplus labor so that there was no wage pressure when the economy was booming and demand rose.

This is what those who run our corporations want now. They want to guarantee a supply of surplus workers so that they can keep wages down as the economy improves. Of course, what they fail to realize is that by doing so, they actually guarantee that the economy will not improve.

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