The health care debate was pretty easy and clear cut. If you were a Republican you did everything you could to derail any kind of reform. I want mine, and just screw all the folks who die needlessly because they are excluded from receiving basic health care. Is health care an inherent human right that all people should receive, or is it a privilege that only the harder working and more successful social classes should have access to?
Immigration reform is far more complex. Should we totally seal the southern border with tall fences and the military? Or should we be prepared to grant amnesty and American citizenship to millions of people who in some cases can't speak or read English, who ignored our laws, and snuck into America on an undocumented basis?
We should make every effort to be humane; not breaking families apart, etc. We should also treat those people who adhere to the rule-of-law better than those who scoff at America's laws. The breakdown we are seeing in Mexico is largely due to massive corruption and ignoring the idea of rule-of-law. These immigration questions invite strong emotional responses.
This is a recent newspaper article about the subject. I do not fully endorse this article, nor do I fully disagree with it. But I can certainly sympathize with both the people who live along the southern border and the people who are desperate to come north to America in order to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
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LINK: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-01/a-border-killing-becomes-political/full/
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