Was this Chris Royse as a child?
The attempt to get votes is turning into a messy, vulger brawl in Virginia. An editorial in the Washington Post tells us:
"Chris A. Royse, a candidate for supervisor in Prince William, who suggests that county residents would beat up any Mexican officials who might come to inquire about the well-being of immigrants in the county"
The WP suggests that voters pressure the federal govt. into passing comprehensive immigration reform. Unfortunately, as long as lawmakers cave in to the people who send those 1,000 emails and faxes per day - they really are not representing the voters. Maybe those who sent the 1,000 are only 10 people working for the Minute Men?
The GOP is going to need a lot more than a Hail Mary once American society realizes what the Republicans are doing. Hate doesn't bring anything positive.
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Virginia Votes
And the GOP throws a Hail Mary on illegal immigration.
Washington Post
Sunday, November 4, 2007; B06
ANXIOUS ABOUT an unpopular president and an electorate trending Democratic, Northern Virginia Republicans devised a Hail Mary strategy in the summer in hopes of averting an electoral rout. In races for state and local offices this fall, they would focus relentlessly on illegal immigration, a festering problem that the federal government has failed to address. And they would do so with little regard for the real-world constraints of state and local officials to address a problem of national scope.
The result has been an unsightly, dispiriting campaign in which GOP candidates, with a few exceptions, have competed -- with Democrats and with each other -- to appear tougher, rougher, meaner and more testosterone-fueled on the subject of illegal immigrants.
The rhetorical excess has gone beyond the now commonplace demand that state universities be purged of illegal immigrants -- this, despite a paucity of evidence that many or any are enrolled. Now there is state Del. Jeffrey Frederick of Prince William County, who proposes to deny all state aid to any locality that would provide services to undocumented aliens. There is Chris A. Royse, a candidate for supervisor in Prince William, who suggests that county residents would beat up any Mexican officials who might come to inquire about the well-being of immigrants in the county. And there is Faisal M. Gill, a candidate for delegate in Prince William, who would embrace a zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants; never mind that the law firm in which he is a name partner solicits business from clients facing deportation.
These candidates and others who are talking about the problem more responsibly are not inventing an issue from whole cloth. Many of them seek to represent constituents legitimately worried that boardinghouses, unkempt lawns, impromptu day-labor gatherings and crime pose a threat to their neighborhoods, schools and property values. Many of them are understandably offended by lawbreaking and the federal government's failure to enforce its laws. But on a local level, the right way -- and the effective way -- to tackle those problems is by tightening laws and beefing up code enforcement. It is not by preening and posturing and by pretending that local government has the wherewithal to initiate the deportation of every illegal immigrant arrested for littering; it doesn't.
In the course of this ugly crusade, many Republicans have tended to downplay the tough issues that they might really be able to do something about over time, including the shape and pace of growth; improvements for the region's sclerotic transportation network; and a deteriorating fiscal situation that calls for workable ideas. The campaign based on illegal immigration is the kind of trick that works, if it works at all, just once. Voters who don't already know will find out soon enough that there is a limit to what state and local officials can do about illegal immigration and that the best and only way to deal with the problem in a serious way is to force federal officials to tackle it comprehensively. Once that dawns on the electorate, and particularly on Northern Virginia Republicans, then perhaps they will get back to talking about problems within their power to resolve.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110300889_pf.html
cartoon: http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/directory/b/bully.asp
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