O'Reilly and John McCain wants to defend the White Male Power Structure

[lycheng]

You know, I'm pretty much a centrist when it comes to the illegal immigration debate. As an immigrant myself, I certainly understand the difficulties of trying to make a living in the United States. On the other hand, every country has a right to control its boarders and to provide legal means for people to work and immigrate.

But, the Right wing'ers really piss me off when they make it about race. Case and point -- last night's exchange between Bill O'Reilly and Presidential Candidate John McCain.

Here's an excerpt (from crooksandliars.com (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/31/bill-oreilly-the-white-christian-male-power-structure-is-in-jeopardy/)):Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you've got to cap with a number.

John McCain: In America today we've got a very strong economy and low unemployment, so we need addition farm workers, including by the way agriculture, but there may come a time where we have an economic downturn, and we don't need so many.

O'Reilly: But in this bill, you guys have got to cap it. Because estimation is 12 million, there may be 20 [million]. You don't know, I don't know. We've got to cap it.
McCain: We do, we do. I agree with you
I've bolded the statements for emphasis.

The question I have for O'Reilly and McCain is, Who's the extremist here? Those who believe power should reside among White Christian Males, or those who believe it should be open to everyone, regardless of gender, religion or race?

lycheng

[Vahz]

The immigration debate has ALWAYS been about race. Always.

[lycheng]

The immigration debate has ALWAYS been about race. Always.

No need to convince me that race doesn't play a role. I won't deny there are right wingers who just hate the fact that whites are becoming a minority and use whatever means necessary to keep non-whites out of the country.

However, there is a moderate or centrist view too. And that view, in my humble opinion, is about the rule of law and the right of all countries to control its boarders.

The thing that gets me about the O'Reilly exchange with McCain is they way they characterize the "extreme left wing", which only serves to make their own views extreme.

lycheng

[cattygurl]

I agree that the US has the right to control its borders.

THAT SAID...

In regards to central/south american immigration, they MAKE the construction and agricultural industries what they are. We also screwed them over hardcore with NAFTA. We have a system of dumping with trade in Mexico, where farmers are actually going out of business in Mexico due to cheap US corn, for example. US Factories still don't pay a living wage for workers in Mexico, and pollute the fuck out of the land. You can't try to fuck the shit out of their country, exploit their people, then complain when they try to make a life here.

What angers me are the O'Reillys of the world that want to stomp on the backs of illegal labor, and profit from the bleeding out, which is what this amounts to. They want the cheap labor, the cheap produce, the increased profits- and honestly, they will try in any way to get it- if not from illegal immgrant labor, than some other form of unethical and exploitative means. Why do they care?

[ZhuBaJie]

McCain is usually one of the more sane and centrist Republicans out there. ok, i'd like to kick his nuts for his "gook" comment, but even after the incident, he still has a lot of support from the Vietnamese community for his war record, probably because Vietnamese immigrants hate the Viet Cong more than McCain does. anyway, he's one of the more centrist ones. he was a vocal opponent of the Republicans trying to do away with filibusters when the Democrats were filibustering Congress left and right. because he realised - are you motherfuckers crazy? Republicans have used filibusters in the past also and we'd probably need to use them again in the future!

but anyway, fuck the Republican party. it's overran with neo-cons right now and they're the worst.

[Lum]

Maybe this should go in site administration, but are you guys seeing these McCain banners here? I thought maybe they would go away, but now I'm seeing a new one. Sometimes on the side of the page as well as the top. I've been thinking about this for a while and it is kind of annoying actually. I mean this is the guy who sang "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys song.

[Ike]

I see a banner that says "Outraged by pork? Take the survey." At first I thought it was a survey to see how many Muslims there are in the voter base. =P

[LowFrequency]

You've got to give it to O'reilly. He may be a nutjob, but he is brutally honest.

[cattygurl]

O'Reilly does't sugar coat for shit-that's true.