The Subway Canaries

I have a family emergency that calls me out of state tommorow. This shall be my last post but feel free to drop a email. I will be on the net tonight. My grandfather is having a operation and your prayers would be appreciated. This is a long post but I wish you would read it. I feel it is important. Also most of it is in the words of others, so you will not have to deal with clumsy engagement of the King’s English. There are two post I am highlighting. One is current and shows how far we have fallen in political discourse among us conservatives. The Second is a trip down memory lane by a blogger that pegged the problem way back in May. I think both are revelant and perhaps are benefical to look at so we can save ourselves and make something good come out of this mess.

The first is a Called as Seen post on the immigration issue and ever present Congressman Tancredo. I am not just highlighting his post because he linked to me lol. I think his post is aptly titled. It sums up the whole way many of us “conservatives” have felt we have been treated by this self proclaimed “base”. The Title of the Post is Shut up, Tom Tancredo explains. Basically Called as Seen is talking about Tancredo’s Press release. Go to his blog and read it. It is quite a press release. I urge you to read the whole thing. Tancredo bascially tells Our President the we all voted on to stay in the White House and shut up. You see the President of the United States feelss he has something still to say. In fact he is coming to us to speak to us. Tancredo says “We’re trying to brand this as a fight between the Reid-Kennedy bill and the Republican bill. Nothing will do more to destroy our progress with voters than to have the Republican President follow us hearing-to-hearing arguing for the Reid-Kennedy approach.” Congreesman Tancredo from Colorado, this Louisiana boy respectfully says put a sock in it. If the President of United States that we voted on and the leader of the Free World wants to come to the towns where you are speaking to have his voice heard well more power to him. Called as Seen said exactly what I have been thinking but can’t put into words:
“That said, it is not so much Tancredo’s agenda that makes me see red. I have my disagreements with other people, like Internet Esquire (over Iraq). My partner on this blog and I first came across each other in a disagreement over reactivation of the Iowa-class battleships. But these disagreements have had a quality that has been in very short supply from the Tancredo-Malkin crowd: Respect.I’m sorry, but when your response to a person’s disagreement with you is to tell them to shut up, it means you do not have much of an argument.

Why does Tancredo fear the Administration making its case for a comprehensive bill? Is it because recent events (and polling) have shown that the President’s approach might be passed into law if it is explained?Tancredo has not only revealed that he lacks class or respect for those who disagree with him and wants to be able to freely demagouge a serious issue, he’s also revealed that he doesn’t have the guts to have a fair debate with the President of the United States. That says a lot more about Tancredo than it does President Bush.”

Exactly. So well said if you ask me. Respect is the thing that has largely been missing from this debate. I have been voting Republican all my life for the most part. How people that dare question the extreme hardline approach in this debate have been treated is awful and unexcuseable. We have been told that we are part of some mythical open border lobby. We have been called trolls on internet forums, called spineless, and traitors. Well, I suppose if Bush can handle it as well as carrying on the weight of the World on his shoulders I can take a few barbs. There have been other Republicans that have been brave under these barbs. Governor Huckabee, Senator Grahmn , and Senator Brownback just to name a few. But what has happened has been unexuseable. Respect is the key. I and other conservatives I feel are still in a tad of shock that we are being called RINOS. Let me give you a tad of a warning. Many of us are taking names right now and we have long memories. That is not some threat. But why should you be trusted when you have turned on so many of your fellow conservatives like a pack of rabid dogs.The important factor is not where you are at on this immigration issue but how you have conducted yourself. That goes for officials, bloggers, media, and other people in the public square.

This has been noticed by other bloggers. I have never met the Anchoress but I have been in politics long enough to realize that the way she views things is very much the way vast numbers of people view political things. The exception being that the Anchoress is tuned into the political scene more than most are. Her post on immigration here is the best I have seen and shows what I am struggling with and this nation has to struggle with. She was quite honest about this problem we have allowed to ferment for years. Just a part of her wonderful post:
John Paul II used to say that. In encouraging Solidarity, in evangelizing, he would say, “you have to deal with the world as it is, not as you would ideally like it to be.” He was right. And the world right now – as it is – is in flux, due to a systemic lack of interest in addressing this problem for decades. Point the finger at the government – every part of it. Point the finger at ourselves, too, for tuning this problem out for too long.

That also means we can’t blame it all on the illegals either. We have used their talents and labor too for decades. You just can’t break up families en mass without giving consideration to them or respecting their humanity. There is culpulbility on our part too. Sorry to say that. Americans hate blaming themselves. But justice demands it. It also needs to be considered when coming up with a solution and dealing out punishiment.

But I digress. It was amazing to see how this Catholic lady from up north was treated. Really it is not shocking in retrospect because we were getting the same treatment. And this was the good ole days. It is far worse now. I think her observations are important to look back on. On May 12 2006 she posted in part of a great post:There is a terrible toxicity to our political and social exchanges – there is little real thought and lots of shrieking going on, lots of noise, little real discourse and precious little honesty. There is no way to debate because – no matter which side tries to get serious – a well-thought-out discourse is immediately shot down by the other side with a one-line-sneer, usually a specious one, that distorts or misdirects and never allows a thought to go forward. The disrespect between “sides” is staggering, and completely unproductive. But non-productivity seems to be what people like. It’s “safe.” If you don’t do anything, you can’t get blamed, right? More kicking things down the road. Let the guy who actually wants to take some action bear the brunt of your fear, your insecurity, your anger, your scorn, your impotence. If he doesn’t do it all perfectly, he’s a bum. That was May 12th!!!! The good ole days really. I wasn’t being accuse of being a part of a plot back then. She also said in that post :The roiling hate that is the driving force behind the MSM and some parts of the blogosphere and so much more cannot produce anything good. All of these negatives cannot create a positive. I can’t be the only one who is feeling increasingly ill – not ill-at-ease, but physically ill.
Well thank God, The Anchoress didn’t pack in talking about politics as she was announcing she was going to do. She like the rest of us took a deep breath and dared to state our views. On May 15th the Anchoress when refering to a opinion piece on a “conservative” internet site that equated the ease of deportation of the Mexicans to Hitler’s final solution said:Sadly, I’ve read similar sentiments on conservative forums all day. That’s where this unhinged, over-emotional rage-train is headed, folks. If this is representative of the current conservative fever-swamp, then I guess I will have to say pardon me, I guess I’m not a conservative, after all, and take one step leftward. Sadly it has gotten worse. If people don’t want to be called racist then quit associating and giving approval to people that make such statements. Has anyone seen what Mexicans are described as lately. There is countless talk of how dirty they are and the diesases they carry. There are cartoons that describe them as parasites and leeches on the system. There is talk about how they are part of a plot to take over the Government and talk of their morality. Take a deep step back people. Look at your history that for all that is holy. That is freakin 1936 except it was a German man saying those things. It is has become unhinged.