Election Hiatus

Sorry everyone. I am busy electing reasonable people this election season, so I have had to take some time off from blogging. Check back after the election as I intend to resume then.

Vote Reasonable!

Hispanic votes propell McCain to victory

CAUSA reported that John McCain believes harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric has hurt the party: “I know that there have been some races, like here in Pennsylvania, where Senator Santorum emphasized that issue [immigration] and lost by a large number,” he said. “We just had a loss of Denny Hastert's seat out in Illinois." McCain said. "The Republican candidate out there, I am told, had very strong anti-immigrant rhetoric also, so I would hope that many of our Republican candidates would understand the political practicalities of this issue.”

In fact, the evidence suggests McCain’s ability to appeal to Hispanics voters is what won him the nomination. Florida is where everything turned and McCain became the front runner. He beat Romney by just 5 percent of the vote. Hispanics made up 12 percent of the electorate with more than half voting for McCain and just 14 percent for Romney. That means more than 6 percent of McCain’s Florida supporters were Hispanic and he only had a margin of victory of 5 percent. It seems very likely McCain’s reasonable approach to immigration compared to Romney’s harsh rhetoric is why McCain is the nominee today.

No more Telephone games please

My attention today has been focused on a major immigration reform bill under consideration in the Utah Senate. Initially, it was intended to be modeled after Oklahoma’s severely anti-immigrant law but the Utah version was stripped of some of some of its harshest measures. Nevertheless, it remains very draconian. The bill is a major, expansive piece of immigration reform that has gone from concept to committee to the floor almost over night. The frightening thing is, no one, not even the bill’s sponsor Senator Bill Hickman seems to have any idea what is in it and what its impact will be. There are serious questions about it’s adverse impact on landlords, business owners and law enforcement. Senators asked Hickman question after question about these concerns that he could not answer. After each question the senator would turn to the body’s legal counsel for help. Counsel would then whisper something into Hickman’s ear as if it were a game of telephone with frightening legislative consequences.

The bill passed its second reading and must be voted on one more time before moving to the house. If the lawmakers are wise, they will wait and study this more before acting on it. The sponsor doesn’t even know what it says. The rest of the body doesn’t understand it’s implications. It would be foolish to make it law. I was shocked how many senators who didn’t get there concerns resolved still voted for it to be read a third time. When that moment comes, we will see how many Senators have the courage not to act rashly at the detriment of sound policy.