I Won't Support Hillary in the Primary Anymore.
Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 06:15:08 PM PDT
For about a year now I've been leaning towards Hillary as my "If the election were today, who would you vote for?" candidate. And lately I was feeling that Hillary was being attacked too much here. A little while ago I was at another diary defending Hillary as having the most liberal congressional voting record. Another comment pointed out that the National Journal has Hillary as not being most liberal (in 2006).
I'm not withdrawing my support because she is less liberal in the National Journal in 2006. I was looking for her voting record with other liberal organizations. I know she had a 95% rating with ADA (Americans for Democratic Action) in 2006.
But then I came across this "Hillary's Now against Licenses for Illegal Immigrants." If she had said it was for the states to decide and Spitzer backed down and she supports Spitzer's decision, I would understand.
But what a total sell-out to the immigrant community. She may win votes for her decision, but she's probably lost mine (in the primary).
A lot of the criticism I've seen here of Hillary was, I thought, by partisans of other candidates. I thought the STOP Hillary comments and diaries were over the edge, for a progressive site. I don't think I'm on the STOP Hillary bandwagon yet, but I'm beginning to understand how some people feel that way.
Just now I feel like jumping on the Obama bandwagon. I hope he doesn't back down from his support of drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. If he does then I'll have to possibly reconsider again. I hope they ask about licenses in the Democratic Debate tomorrow and Obama stays strong.
I'm still down on Edwards for his attacks of Hillary on the license issue and then him backing down. What's wrong with the Democrats?
Not only is drivers licenses for the undocumented a safety issue, it's an economic issue as well. When millions of workers can't get to work, that hurts the economy. They don't pay their mortgages, their rent, don't pay taxes, don't buy goods. They stop picking crops, cleaning businesses, preparing food and doing all the other jobs that immigrants (undocumented too) do. When the economy goes down it hurts us all. And that doesn't even consider the criminalization and dehumanization of more than 5% of workers in America. And what is the long effect of the psychological trauma on the 5 million U.S. citizen children who have at least 1 undocumented parent. Isn't is enough to make you sick?
And don't think the anti immigrant hysteria doesn't hurt all immigrants and even U.S. citizens. Remember how 70 % of those affected by the Social Security no match letter would have been citizens.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer found that "the government’s proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than eight million workers will, under the mandated time line, result in the termination of lawfully employed workers..." The judge also found that "if allowed to proceed, the mailing of no-match letters, accompanied by DHS’s guidance letter, would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers."
"This is a significant step towards overturning this unlawful rule, which would give employers an even stronger way to keep workers from freely forming unions," said John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO. "More than 70% of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens."
Almost all economists agree that immigrants are beneficial to the growth of our economy. By continuing to hurt the immigrants, we are hurting ourselves. If we go into a recession, those that were so anti immigrant can blame themselves. And those that sat back and did nothing won't feel much better.
Hillary and Edwards should know better. They know that immigrants (undocumented included) are vital to our national interests. Support immigrant rights and ask your candidate to do the same.
