Palin on Immigration
Rightwingers are hyperventilating a bit, but I'm thrilled by Palin's emphasis in a recent interview on immigration at NRO. She said she supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants "because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here. It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country."
Naturally, this pisses off conservatives who seem to have forgotten that the biggest effect of the great 2006 immigration crisis was to move Hispanics away from the Republicans after Bush moved heaven and Earth to nearly close the gap with Hispanics. And how did all the immigration frenzy help out the Republicans? They got spanked in 2006, with the fuller-throated anti-immigration advocates often getting the worst of it.
Conservatives are saying that Palin didn't have personal opinions against immigration so she didn't moderate McCain's opinion on immigration when giving it in an interview, and that she just regurgitated McCain's immigration views without the security-first requirement.
Forget that the question (as cited) was simply for her views, not McCain's. Forget also that immigration has been a topic for decades, and that it was a big topic in 2006 when she was already running for Governor of Alaska. It doesn't seem to occur to the NRO author Mark Krikorian that maybe these are Palin's personal views, shaped by her Alaskan attitudes.
Alaska is a state, first, founded by a bunch of people who come from somewhere else, with a huge proportion of people born in another state (perhaps the highest of any state, but I don't have that data on hand). It's also a state with a strong libertarian impulse to be left alone, to get away from others, to follow your own prerogatives. The kind of state where massive roundups of suspects might be viewed very suspiciously by locals. It's also a very large state with a lot of space left, so it might make sense that immigrants would be welcomed. (I don't know Alaskan attitudes to immigrants, but I assume they're hands-off on the issue).
Being libertarian on immigration also fits nicely with Palin's (and Alaska's) opinions on marijuana and gay partnership benefits - not to mention guns. She's of course not a full-on libertarian, but she does have some nice trends in the right direction.
Naturally, this pisses off conservatives who seem to have forgotten that the biggest effect of the great 2006 immigration crisis was to move Hispanics away from the Republicans after Bush moved heaven and Earth to nearly close the gap with Hispanics. And how did all the immigration frenzy help out the Republicans? They got spanked in 2006, with the fuller-throated anti-immigration advocates often getting the worst of it.
Conservatives are saying that Palin didn't have personal opinions against immigration so she didn't moderate McCain's opinion on immigration when giving it in an interview, and that she just regurgitated McCain's immigration views without the security-first requirement.
Forget that the question (as cited) was simply for her views, not McCain's. Forget also that immigration has been a topic for decades, and that it was a big topic in 2006 when she was already running for Governor of Alaska. It doesn't seem to occur to the NRO author Mark Krikorian that maybe these are Palin's personal views, shaped by her Alaskan attitudes.
Alaska is a state, first, founded by a bunch of people who come from somewhere else, with a huge proportion of people born in another state (perhaps the highest of any state, but I don't have that data on hand). It's also a state with a strong libertarian impulse to be left alone, to get away from others, to follow your own prerogatives. The kind of state where massive roundups of suspects might be viewed very suspiciously by locals. It's also a very large state with a lot of space left, so it might make sense that immigrants would be welcomed. (I don't know Alaskan attitudes to immigrants, but I assume they're hands-off on the issue).
Being libertarian on immigration also fits nicely with Palin's (and Alaska's) opinions on marijuana and gay partnership benefits - not to mention guns. She's of course not a full-on libertarian, but she does have some nice trends in the right direction.
Posted by neolibertarian on
October 24, 2008 at 9:07am