New at Reason

January 25, 2007

Dave Weigel looks at the uninspiring performance of anti-immigration candidates last November.

Comments

|1.25.07 @ 7:57PM|#

It's been over an hour and yet The Lone Wacko hasn't seen fit to comment?

I'm disappointed.

|1.25.07 @ 7:58PM|#

Ha! I saw that there was only one comment and I, too, checked to see if it was Lonewacko.

Ray G|1.25.07 @ 8:59PM|#

It wasn't immigration that sunk Hayworth. In the same election, state wide, there were "anti-immigration" measures that passed by a country mile. Hayworth's district is Tempe, home of AZ State U, and very liberal.

That, and AZ has absolutely no compass. They vote in Janet Napolitano and Jon Kyl in the same election. They send out Hayworth, and refuse the gay marriage ban, and vote for English as the official language.

If AZ were a girlfriend, you'd be cheating on her for sure.

|1.25.07 @ 9:23PM|#

vote for English as the official language.

Voting for English as the official language isn't nessicarily being anti-immigrant. It might just be a way to save money on having to accomidate every other language anytime someone complains.

Single Issue Voter|1.25.07 @ 9:23PM|#

Speaking of anti-illegal-immigration politicians, I have found in my candidate research that Tom Tancredo was instrumental in passing Federal anti-cockfighting legislation.

He is now on the "no support" list of 2008 POTUS candidates with anti-cockfighting politicians John McCain and Bill Richardson.
Although I do not know Sam Brownback's position-if any-on cockfighting the animal rights PACs give him a zero rating. No other Presidential candidate-to my knowlege-has a zero rating from those wackos. I was not too thrilled to find that I might be supporting Brownback for President as a result of my single libertarian issue pledge.
The Federal anti-cockfighting legislation was inserted into the last Farm Bill so if Brownback (from a Big Agribusiness State) voted FOR it he may have disqualified himself. I need to do further research.

|1.25.07 @ 9:26PM|#

The important lesson here is that issues of border security/law and order/assimilation are distinct from the issue of whether immigrants are good for the country. People want secure borders and orderly immigration. They don't like large numbers of law-breakers running around, and are concerned that not able to control who crosses our borders is a security issue.

But are large majority of the public feels that immigration is good for the country, and is part of our national character. I used to walk around hanging my head about how xenophobic my fellow citizens were, until I saw some polling data. Honest to God, libertarians are on the right side of the public on this. I think this issue is a great opportunity for you not only in its own right, but as a way to introduce people to the anti-prohibitionist/anti-black-market philosophy in general.

methodman|1.25.07 @ 9:36PM|#

"New at Reason" is a little redundant now that H&R has those new big ugly "Latest Articles on Reason Online" blocks. Just sayin'.

William R|1.26.07 @ 12:07AM|#

rubbish. JDs opponent ran to the right of him on immigration

|1.26.07 @ 1:19AM|#

Hayworth's opponent tried to run to the right of him on immigration in local TV ads, and there were a lot of them.

Hayworth lost basically because they/he thought he was untouchable and therefore allowed a non-stop barrage of TV ads by his opponent to go unchecked. By the time he realized he was in trouble, it was too late.

The Republicans will charge _hard_ for this seat in two years and the Dmes may have trouble holding it.

Larry A|1.26.07 @ 12:43PM|#

What we need to figure out is that there are two major security problems along the Texas>California/Mexico border, and neither one is "immigration."

Most people sneaking through the desert want to come to the U.S. for employment. They need jobs; employers in the U.S. need workers. The workers don't want to immigrate, they want to work for a few months, earn a little money, then go back home to Mexico. Since the U.S. government effectively prohibits that sort of temporary employment, a black market sprang up to serve the demand.

The other problem is also a black market, produced by the war on drugs. This pharmaceutical smuggling component provokes most of the violence experienced along the border.

Pro or anti immigration based solutions are at best largely irrelevant.

The GrafHayworth Canard|1.27.07 @ 2:17PM|#

In addition to William R and Again, RandyGraf's opponent (GabbyGiffords) pretends to this day to be tough on IllegalImmigration, and various smears from those who support IllegalImmigration didn't help RandyGraf much either.

The canard that a GrafHayworth loss equals support for a MassiveAmnesty started on election night and continues to this day. Follow the chain backwards at my link.

I've outsourced the other comments to FreeRepublic.