{"id":3218,"date":"2016-06-16T20:09:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T03:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3218"},"modified":"2016-06-17T13:07:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T20:07:50","slug":"setting-up-the-straw-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3218","title":{"rendered":"Setting up the straw man"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a week after the Libertarian Party convention in Orlando rebuffed the candidacies of John McAfee and a few other freedom radicals over the Memorial Day weekend — instead deciding to try again with \u201cmoderate\u201d former New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson and the even less libertarian gun-grabbing Republican Bill Weld of Massachusetts — party headquarters in Northern Virginia e-mailed me the following June 8 press release:<\/p>\n

(Headline:) \u201cBernie Sanders supporters have a choice: Libertarian Johnson advocates civil liberties, peace, ending cronyism<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cALEXANDRIA — Bernie Sanders supporters who reject the offensive, dangerous rhetoric of Republican Donald Trump and the militarism and corporate ties of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, have another choice.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-term New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is the Libertarian nominee for president, who, along with Trump and Clinton, is expected to be on the ballot this November in all 50 states.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnson is a staunch advocate for marriage equality, and a passionate defender of hard-working immigrants, whom he notes commit fewer crimes per capita than do U.S. citizens. He calls Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant rhetoric incendiary and racist, and describes his proposal to deport 11 million immigrates (sic?) as ‘just crazy.’<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnson opposes corporate bailouts, wants to end mass surveillance, and calls for downsizing U.S. military spending by 20 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s a nice guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSincerity, honesty, and integrity mark his character and his career as a successful businessman and as a former Republican governor who was enormously popular, in his predominantly Democratic state. . . . <\/p>\n

\u201cAs governor, Johnson was the highest-ranking U.S. official to call for legalizing marijuana. He unapologetically states that he has consumed marijuana himself, a substance he says is far safer than alcohol, with numerous medicinal benefits. . . .”<\/p>\n

A purposeful misstatement<\/strong><\/p>\n

It went on for a bit, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n

How weird. While it may be that “immigrants” commit fewer crimes per capita than “U.S. citizens” (though how would we know, since surely a fair number of U.S. citizens are immigrants, creating a category overlap?), I strongly doubt that U.S. citizens commit more crimes than illegal<\/strong> immigrants, who commit a whole series of new crimes every day they wake up here and don’t go home, continuing their ongoing frauds to obtain and use fake or improperly obtained drivers licenses, auto insurance, Social Security cards, employment, etc.<\/p>\n

(Yes, I’m familiar with the saying that “There are so many laws today that a guy can’t wake up in the morning and drive to work without breaking a handful.” I don’t think that’s what they’re talking about. Though I suppose illegals don’t cheat much on their income taxes . . . given that they don’t file.)<\/p>\n

\"Trump-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is Donald Trump “anti-immigrant” . . . or is he actually “anti-illegal-immigrant”? Does he really want to deport 11 million “immigrants,” meaning he’d expel a whole bunch of legal<\/strong> immigrants (foreign-born U.S. citizen along with legal residents with \u201cgreen cards\u201d) along with the illegals, not caring which kind got caught up in the net and loaded onto the freighters?<\/p>\n

I don’t think so. I still have my substantial worries about Mr. Trump, who strikes me as a protectionist, a statist, not a terribly thoughtful statesman. But it sounds to me more like Gary Johnson and (here) The Libertarian Party have purposely embraced the same rhetorical trick the leftist \u201cAztlan activists\u201d who want NO ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING IMMIGRATION LAWS have been using — purposely confusing “legal immigrants” with “illegals” (by lumping them all together in the sanitized category “immigrants”) while branding those who want the laws enforced — including Hispanic Americans who want the immigration laws enforced, to reduce illegal competition for jobs and wages, as did the late Cesar Chavez — “racists.”<\/p>\n

This is obviously meant to imply they (we?) must hate Hispanics, because all “immigrants” are Hispanic. <\/p>\n

Actually, I used to live in New England, back when there was some modest effort to enforce the immigration laws. From time to time INS would bust a workplace, often in New Britain or some such old factory town, rounding up a dozen illegals. I distinctly remember the two groups who turned up most frequently seemed to be Poles and Irish, followed by French Canadians, what have you. Does the fact I think these laws should be enforced mean I hate Micks and Polaks? That’s just silly.<\/p>\n

I believe Ted Kennedy responded by getting busy and passing special-interest legislation to beef up the Irish immigration quotas, which made me aware there WERE different quotas for different nationalities, which never seemed right to me. So I’m hardly saying current laws couldn’t be improved. (Bring back the Bracero program for seasonal agricultural workers, for one thing. And why not base admission in part on a graded test of knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights — though it might prove embarrassing to see how much better a lot of would-be immigrants would score than the average graduate of today’s American government schools.)<\/p>\n

I’ve written columns faulting our U.S. consular officials in India for turning away Indian chefs with legitimate work visas and jobs waiting for them here, said embassy officials arguing “You can’t prove you won’t overstay your visa.” Well, how can anyone prove a negative? Do those columns mean I’m some strange kind of racist who hates my friends of Mexican descent, but has some perverse and contradictory fondness for darker-skinned people from India? Couldn’t it just be that I want a level playing field for everyone, including those with no convenient land bridge? <\/p>\n

Meantime, how does this purposeful “immigrant” double-talk reflect Gov. Johnson’s (or the LP’s) “sincerity, honesty, and integrity”?<\/p>\n

Are there times to break the law, or not enforce the law? Sure. Those who want to engage in civil disobedience against the drug laws, the tax laws — whatever — in hopes of overloading the system and getting those laws changed, are demonstrating some courage. Though they should be aware of the current consequences. (Note it was precisely to defeat such a legitimate strategy that our current, corrupt, Police-State Supreme Court recently ruled they no longer have to give you a time-consuming jury trial if prosecutors promise to seek a sentence of no more than 364 days. Imagine how many \u201cmalum prohibitum<\/em>\u201d charges would otherwise have to be dismissed under \u201cspeedy trial\u201d requirements, if everyone<\/strong> demanded a jury trial!)<\/p>\n

Cops and judges and prosecutors and jurors who declare “I swore an oath to defend the Constitution, which grants the government no power to ban any drugs or any kind of firearms, so I’m no longer going to enforce those unconstitutional gun and drug laws” should also be cheered.<\/p>\n

Selective advertising<\/strong><\/p>\n

I note, however, that the press release above studiously avoids pointing out that the Libertarian Party platform calls for getting rid of all<\/strong> drug laws — not just the marijuana laws. And the LP’s candidate wants to decrease military expenditures by 20 percent? That’s his goal<\/strong>? So what would he settle for and call “good progress” — a 4 percent reduction? A reduction in the rate of growth<\/strong> to 4 percent? We’re not in any declared war, right? I also see no mention of even reducing<\/strong> taxes, let alone repealing any. Wouldn\u2019t want to freak out any of those Sanders Socialists we now hope to welcome aboard, I suppose.<\/p>\n

\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

(As for the new LP ticket “wanting to end mass surveillance,” see VP nominee Bill Weld’s latest brainchild, a big “Muslim Snitch Line,” at http:\/\/www.thelibertyconservative.com\/libertarian-party-goes-gestapo-supports-mass-surveillance-federal-snitching\/<\/a> .)<\/p>\n

Should we repeal all the immigration laws<\/strong> — getting rid of passports, customs checks, the Coast Guard, issuing an open invitation for tens of millions of foreigners with no knowledge of or adherence to capitalism or our Constitution and Bill of Rights or even the English language to come here and stay indefinitely, camping out in the parks and on the sidewalks, creating widespread sanitation emergencies?<\/p>\n

Hey, we can discuss it. The Constitution empowers Congress to regulate “naturalization,” while there were no immigration barriers in 1789. But anyone who seeks this should be honest enough to say so, and then explain how they’ll deal with the swamping — the rapid bankrupting — of our current, de facto “free” public schools & hospitals, etc.<\/p>\n

Get rid of all those trappings of collectivism? OK. But tell it straight to the voters. And by the way, then explain how “democracy” would no longer work, since the new polyglot majority would promptly vote to seize and redistribute all our stuff — how we’d have to go back to allowing only land-owners and\/or “net tax payers” to vote.<\/p>\n

Give me a break. Instead, what we have here is a repeat of the same scam these characters pulled 30 years ago, during the Reagan administration, when they demanded and got an amnesty for illegals, promising in return they\u2019d \u201csecure the borders\u201d so it could never happen again.<\/p>\n

Fool me once . . .<\/p>\n

They say they want \u201creform.\u201d But \u201creforming\u201d a law doesn\u2019t retroactively rehabilitate a lawbreaker. What they want is another amnesty -\u2013 an endless chain of amnesties.<\/p>\n

We only amnestied about 3 million illegals, then. Now we\u2019ve got 11 or 13 million. If it\u2019s \u201ccrazy\u201d to enforce the law and expel them, it\u2019s a \u201ccraziness\u201d made necessary by the amnesty gang the last time around! And how much \u201ccrazier\u201d will it be to try to enforce the law in another decade or two, when there will be 40 million, many living in all-Muslim towns and neighborhoods (as is now the case in France), with mosques that preach war against “The Great Satan,” including death to gays, Christians, women who decline to completely cover their heads and bodies . . . ?<\/p>\n

The most important voters whose loyalty the LP should try to retain are long-term registered Libertarians who embrace all or nearly all of the radical but philosophically consistent platform — like me. To me, the purposeful mis-stating of Donald Trump’s position on enforcing the current immigration laws falls somewhere between sad and shocking. All this in hopes of winning the temporary, lukewarm support of a few \u201cSanders Democrats\u201d who are going to run screaming for the hills when they find out the LP stands for eliminating the income tax and re-legalizing heroin, cocaine, and machine guns, anyway?<\/p>\n

Or have all those platform planks been quietly deleted, while we weren\u2019t looking?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a week after the Libertarian Party convention in Orlando rebuffed the candidacies of John McAfee and a few other freedom radicals over the Memorial Day weekend — instead deciding to try again with \u201cmoderate\u201d former New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson and the even less libertarian gun-grabbing Republican Bill Weld of Massachusetts — party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,52,5,38,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-election","category-crime","category-elections","category-groundhog-day","category-immigration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-PU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3218"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3230,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions\/3230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}