The Ugly Americans

Hopes for a humane immigration reform bill took an ugly hit yesterday at an Arizona town hall.

Immigration, and outreach to Hispanic America, used to be signature issues for John McCain, before his presidential run and the Senate primary challenge he faced in 2010. With those intra-party contests behind him, and four years left on what could be his last term, McCain looked ready to once again lend his special level of credibility to the current efforts to fix a broken system.

But the Republican base ain't buying it:

“There are 11 million people living here illegally,” McCain said during a heated town hall gathering in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lakes. “We are not going to get enough buses to deport them.”
Some audience members shouted out their disapproval.

Confirming again my theory that mass deportation is exactly what the Know-Nothing wing of the GOP wants, only this time more explicitly than ever. Watch the ugly yourself.

One man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.

Leaving aside, of course, that literacy exists in languages other than English.

McCain urged compassion. “We are a Judeo-Christian nation,” he said.

Leaving aside that compassion exists in other faiths or in people of no faith at all.

But while McCain misses a little on PC inclusiveness, at least he's trying to make our country and his party a welcoming place. Wish the same could be said of his constituents... or of our own Steve King.