Disgust

Newsweek has a nice article about life After Bush in the June 11 issue. The writer, Fareed Zakaria, may have some misperceptions however. For one, he suggests that anti-immigration sentiment among Americans represents a fear of Mexico. I'm anti-illegal immigrant and anti-Mexico not because of fear, but because I've seen those forces deteriorate communities. I spent three decades in Los Angeles and can say this without hesitation: show me a place inhabited predominantly by Mexicans, and I'll show you a place where no one else wants to live. Bush wants to see the U.S. be more like Mexico. He'd love to be Carlos Slim. Who knows what benefit Ted Kennedy sees in flooding the U.S. with legal Mexicans. More Catholics maybe, but he won't live to see any of them vote, and the history of Mexican voting is not one on the side of Democrats necessarily. Harry Reid thinks the mess is just an opportunity to shape words and images for political ads. He stood on the senate floor and proclaimed victory because the people would hear that Republicans were responsible for ending the last immigration debate. It's more important to manage messages than lead, or represent these days. There's probably a new wave of people in the U.S. who wouldn't mind a disaster in DC one day, right in the middle of The Capitol and right at the time the President is addressing a joint session of Congress.