Is Bush A Moral Elitist?

Peggy Noonan addresses the President's immigration speech today. I think she nails it on one count, but possibly misses it on another.

What was missing in the president's approach the other night was the expression, or suggestion, of context....

Without an established context the speech seemed free-floating: a statement issued into the ether, unanchored to any particular principle and eager to use, as opposed to appreciate, whatever human sentiment flows around the issue of immigration. It was a speech driven by an air of crisis, but not a public crisis, only a personal and political one.

I think the lack of context angle is a good insight I hadn't considered. But when she comes to Bush's motivations around dealing with immigration, I'm not so sure.

... Is it possible our flinty president is so committed to protecting the Republican Party from losing, forever, the Hispanic vote, that he's decided to take a blurred and unsatisfying stand on immigration, and sacrifice all personal popularity, in order to keep the party of the future electorally competitive with a growing ethnic group?

I've tried to understand Bush on immigration myself and have been kicking around a theory of my own. On the one hand, I think his moral nature may have much to do with it, his privileged upbringing, rounds it off.

I wonder if Bush doesn't see the illegal immigrants through a mostly Christian lens, as individuals trapped in a terrible situation, fleeing North always and only to better themselves and not much more. That isn't really such a wrong-headed idea. But then I also wonder if the President's upbringing and position doesn't also keep him removed from the consequences of illegal immigration at ground level.

After all, how many of our current professional political class will ever need to worry about dozens of illegal immigrants milling about a corner near their home to pick up some day work? How many of them will be truly exposed to the sort of crime a disconnected and poor un-assimilated neighborhood can bring to an entire town or larger community.

I think Bush is a good man. Unfortunately, I wonder if, on immigration, perhaps the President isn't just a little too good for the good of America on this issue in the end.

Comments

[kate]

i think you are close to figuring out where bush is coming from on this issue. he may have been somewhat removed from the consequences of illegal immigration at ground level. however, he had to have seen illegals while growing up in the midland-odessa area of west texas. probably the hard working ones in an era when there were few consequences. there is also the family factor of his half mexican nieces and nephews. i have no doubts, from watching him when he was governor, that bush had grand visions of us actually benefiting from mexico. of course, that was before 9/11 and the mexican president's betrayal. i also think he thought it would be natural for mexican immigrants to become republicans. why not, the cubans in florida did.

[annie]

I have been thinking that as well, when I see the poor Mexicans, you can't help feeling sorry that they are so poor.

However, you can't be responsible for all the people in the world, and there are many poorer people than them.

I don't think you can afford to run a country like that. You should primarily be thinking about the people who are citizens of your own country, and you don't need to be a genius to realise that in the long run, it is going to be to the detriment of the people of the US.

I was thinking this before I found out about the oil situation, and the need to keep the trade in oil in dollars, and not euros, so now am not so sure if President Bush is really being soft hearted on this one, or whether he is merely a great big pragmatist.