RNC draft platform includes sham anti-"amnesty" provision; English not official language

The Republican National Committee is working on the draft of their platform, and might have it done tonight in order to be ready to be put up for a vote on Monday. As of yesterday afternoon, it included a sham provision saying "We oppose amnesty". No one supports "amnesty", they just support "legalization", "comprehensive immigration reform", or a host of other euphemisms for amnesty.

Delegates from North Carolina and Colorado tried to have a provision opposing CIR put in, but were shot down:

This sparked a heated discussion between members with a delegate from Washington DC who said that the Republican Party is a "not a xenophobic party, not an intolerant party. We are a compassionate party that follows the rule of law and endorses federal law," said Bud McFarlane. Kendal Unruh from Colorado, who wanted to include "opposition to comprehensive immigration reform" to the draft, seemed to take offense to that statement citing her missionary work and saying that she would "never have the label" of xenophobic "slapped on me." She continued to press that the committee add the tougher language to stop "behind the door tactics" to prevent "amnesty" of illegal aliens.

McFarlane was joined by several other members including from borders states such as New Mexico that said if the amendment was added it would give the impression that the Republican Party was not interested in fixing the immigration problems facing the country and the Republicans had "historically welcomed immigrants."

What Unruh should have done is worked to discredit McFarlane by engaging him in a Socratic dialogue designed to show how he's wrong. Obviously, she didn't do that.

Fox reporter Shushannah Walshe also incorrectly implies that McCain doesn't support CIR:

Unruh cited McCain's departure from his original immigration legislation as a reason for adding the opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, "Our nominee has tried to use this language and he has now backed away, Unruh said. "If he has backed away from it then I think it is OK to put it in writing." Unruh was referring to McCain's original immigration legislation last year that called for reforming the immigration system by tightening the U.S. borders, while providing a path to citizenship for twelve million illegal immigratns. The legislation did not not pass and McCain now rejects that stance. After much debate the amendment was not adopted and the language will remain as, "We oppose amnesty" without a mention of comprehensive immigration reform.

McCain has made it clear that he still supports CIR, he just has a slightly different tactic to achieve his objective.

Also, an attempt to specify English as the "official" language of the U.S. failed; supposedly there was compromise language included but that's not provided.

Politics · Wed, 08/27/2008 - 08:24 · · Importance: 4