Jon Christian Ryter -- Surprising Plank in GOP Platform

SURPRISING PLANK IN GOP PLATFORM

By Jon Christian Ryter

September 4, 2004

NewsWithViews.com

When President George W. Bush announced that his administration was contemplating legislation that would welcome "guest workers" from other countries into the United States (which means Mexico and the impoverished third world nations), his proposal was greeted with more than a little trepidation from working class Americans in those border States most afflicted with illegal aliens, and those States which have growing immigrant Latino populations�both legal and illegal.

Americans who are watching the job drain affect their lifestyle as one factory after another boards up and thousands of good paying jobs disappear across the Rio Grande or fade into the Canadian sunset, or worse�hop a slow boat to communist China, India or Pakistan�are now witnessing what they feel is a horrible, frightening new conundrum�a steady, never-ending influx off "low income expectation" migrant workers fanning out like a cancer across the American landscape in search of those jobs which have not yet moved to Mexico. Bush's "guest worker" initiative, like the USA Patriot Act, has already cost the President over a million votes as disaffected Republicans look to third party candidates like Michael A. Peroutka of the Constitution Party or Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party as a throwaway protest vote to let the president know they disapprove of his agenda.

When California governor and former action hero movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger invited immigrants to join the Republican cause, most Americans watching the GOP convention thought the invitation was simply superficial rhetoric scripted by the governator because he was a "rags to riches" immigrant himself. Most people watching believed that the former body builder was invited to speak at the convention because he was a rising star in the GOP and not because he came to the land of opportunity through his own Ellis Island experience. Whatever the reason, Schwarzenegger was the perfect pitchman for the "guest worker" proposal because his family emigrated from Austria from he was a boy.

The GOP platform�which contained some 48,000 words�covered ed everything from Internet spam to disabled hunters and from shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean to Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. (Don't ask me what Wi-Fi and Wi-Max are. I haven't got a clue.) But buried deep in those 48,000 words was the plank no one spoke about on-camera at the convention. It was a plank that could grant 8 million illegal immigrants amnesty by providing them with a green card�a worker's visa for three years�and a chance to apply for citizenship at the end of that time.

The plank was adroitly nailed into the platform on Monday when the boring mundane out-of-the-public-eye Party tasks are completed. Many of the delegates�both in States that have exported the most jobs, and by delegates in border States with the largest percentages of Latino populations�grumbled about it, but the hammering of the plank into the platform drown out the protest. One delegate told Washington Times reporter Joe Curl that he didn't "...like it..." because, he said, "I don't think it should be in there." Other delegates, although upset, refused to say anything negative about the program because the Bush people pushed hard to include it in the platform.

On Wednesday, Curl asked the Bush Campaign about the amnesty deal and why something with major news appeal was not center-pieced. Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman said "...[you] obviously need to focus on those issues that you think most voters care about." Downplaying it, he admitted, was a conscious effort. Inserting it into the platform caused a rift between the moderates and the conservatives. Unfortunately providing what amounts to amnesty for 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens is something that most working class voters care about since legalizing millions of new workers with the job market shrinking will penalize American wage-earners either by being forced to work for less pay, or discovering that new union construction jobs are going to unskilled, non-union labor with a brand new green card.

When Bush first announced the amnesty idea in January, it met with a considerable amount of resistance from his core constituents. It was criticized then as a blanket amnesty for people who could probably not pass the scrutiny given to legal immigrants. What irked conservatives most was that the proposed program, while providing temporary jobs to temporary people, would also provide those green card holders with due process rights, Social Security benefits and, it appears, free medical care�something that low income working Americans don't receive.

However Bush and the GOP knows that the Republican Party is walking a virtual gangplank with a noose around its neck unless it can attract minorities into its ranks. Since 1960 the Democrats have been construed as the party that cares about minorities in America, and during the years of the Great Society, the Democrats hammered more planks into the public feeding trough to accommodate a rapidly expanding generational welfare class that disenfranchised itself through entitlements. But the Democrats made certain the welfare class knew who was doling out the entitlements. Nationwide, minority voters represent 24.8% of the population and about 18% of the registered voters. And that number is growing rapidly. The GOP knows if it does not increase its minority constituent base�particularly Latinos�it will be hard-pressed to win any national elections within a decade.

Today, White Americans account for 211,460,626 of the 281,421,906 citizens in the United States. That is 75.1% of the total population. African Americans account for 34,991,753 people, or 12.3% of the population. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the population, and will likely represent 20% of the total population by the time the 2010 census is taken. Today they represent 12.5% of the population with 35,305,818 legal Latinos recorded in the 2000 census.

But, the Census Bureau estimates that an additional 8 and 12 million Latinos are here illegally. If we add them to the census totals, we can see that there are actually between 43 to 47 million Latinos in this country at this time. In reality, Latinos represent 14.9% of the population, with African Americans accounting for 12%. By 2010, the Latino population will likely reach 50 to 65 million�almost double the official census number today. Bush knows that to slow down the job drain and to save Social Security it is imperative to create millions of new citizens, new workers�and new taxpayers�quickly. Thirty-one years of unbridled use of abortion has eliminated approximately 47 million people (not counting the children those millions of people would have had, had they been allowed to live, grow up, get jobs, get married, buy consumer goods and pay taxes). Those 47 million people (or 23.5 million couples) would have sired about 3,534,400 children, bringing the total lost population to about 47,353,400 taxpayers who could have kept the Social Security fund solvent�not to mention the products that could have been sold and the jobs that could have been saved in America. We can't have our cake and eat it, too. The population Bush is attempting to replace may not make us happy, but it will begin to make up some of that 30 year population shortfall. Here's the bare facts whether you like them or not: without new taxpayers and without new consumers to buy the products and services created here, more jobs and more factories are going to leave this country. Sometime very soon we need to bite the bullet, take the hit and let the economy absorb these workers and rebound. If we don't, the American economy will continue to shrink and even more jobs will vanish over the balance of this decade. Furthermore, if we don't abolish abortion, the "people shortage" problem will not go away. More jobs will leave the United States, and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's worst fears will be realized�Social Security will fail, inflation will skyrocket, and the American dollar will have about as much monetary value as the brown stuff on a roll of Charmin.

Oh, and by the way�the next time someone mentions women's rights as a minority issue you might want to point out to them that according to the 2000 census, there are 143,368,343 women in the country and only 138,053,563 men. Even more, there are only 118,847,752 white men�or 41.9% of the population. Women outnumber all men 50.9% to 49.1%. So, where are all the middle class white male activists? Where are our "preferences?" Where are our quotas? Where are our special rights?

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Jon Christian Ryter is the pseudonym of a former newspaper reporter with the Parkersburg, WV Sentinel. He authored a syndicated newspaper column, Answers From The Bible, from the mid-1970s until 1985. Answers From The Bible was read weekly in many suburban markets in the United States.

Today, Jon is an advertising executive with the Washington Times. His website, www.jonchristianryter.com has helped him establish a network of mid-to senior-level Washington insiders who now provide him with a steady stream of material for use both in his books and in the investigative reports that are found on his website. E-Mail: BAFFauthor@aol.com

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