Dear Conservative,
I have spent the last few days at the Conservative Political Action Conference, just outside of the Nation's Capitol. One thing I noticed, more than anything else, is the complete disconnect between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party conservatives in attendance.
The speeches at CPAC were excellent. Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal all delivered excellent speeches. Even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was able to win over a hostile audience to receive a standing ovation at the end of his speech.
The addresses and speeches from the politicians are always excellent or, at the very least, they contain the talking points that real conservatives want to hear. Sen. Mitch McConnell knew the audience hates him, so he walked out on stage carrying a rifle in an attempt to win them over. The fact is that the GOP establishment can't control these speeches. The American Conservative Union (the sponsor of CPAC) doesn't get to tell these speakers what to say. CPAC is, in many respects, a launching point for presidential primary campaigns, so the high profile speakers know they are under a magnifying glass.
The Speakers know that they have to say what the audience wants to hear, not only because they don't want to be booed off stage, but because the audience is, in more ways than not, representative of Conservative America.
When the speeches end, however, the panel discussions and "workshops" begin. This is where the GOP establishment can control the discussion topics and, no surprise, that's exactly what they did!
Over the course of the weekend, one panel discussion specifically stood out, and the panelists tried to guilt conservatives in attendance into supporting amnesty!
It makes you wonder why a "Conservative" organization would plan an immigration panel and stack it with people who support the Democrats' agenda...
Helen Kriebel, a billionaire heiress and president of the Vernon K. Kriebel Foundation, was one of the three amnesty supporters on the panel. Her proposed "red card" plan would allow for illegal immigrants to be legalized in a vast guest worker program. Her desire for this is clear. She owns a rural Horse Park and has repeatedly said that she cannot find enough American citizens the do the work. Like so many other establishment Republicans, she is driven by the economics of amnesty. She told the crowd that the country only had two options: either legalize the country's illegal immigrants or suffer the status quo.
Helen Kriebel seems to have forgotten the third, completely viable option: actually enforce our immigration laws already on the books!
Mimicking Kriebel's argument, the other amnesty supporters on the panel argued that illegal immigrants were necessary to do jobs that Americans don't want.
Alfonso Aguilar, a former staffer for George W. Bush, promised attendees that if Republicans deal with immigration, it's not going to be like Obamacare. Why he thinks one 1,000-page bill is going to be treated differently than any other by the Obama administration is beyond me...
This panel was so disconnected with reality that Aguilar actually argued that the Tea Party would support amnesty. Yeah, right...
Panel speakers argued that immigration law should be enforced AFTER amnesty, not before it. They also stated that it is "factually incorrect" to believe that the United States will have another flow of illegal immigration after legalization.
That's a complete lie. Ronald Reagan legalized millions of illegal aliens in 1986, and within four years, the Left was up in arms calling for more legalization. Why? Because of the huge influx of illegal immigrants that followed!
I walked out of the panel discussion, and I wasn't the only one... I originally couldn't believe the fact that CPAC would stack a panel with amnesty supporters. It made me angry... It made a lot of people angry.
The truth is that this is happening throughout the Conservative movement. Widespread, conservative beliefs are being stamped out by establishment Republicans who refuse to follow the will of their constituents!
In a recent Gallup poll, just 4% of respondents said that immigration reform was a top priority during this election year. That explains why immigration was largely a hush topic at CPAC this year. Yet, for the second year in a row, CPAC hosted pro-amnesty discussion panel. For the second time, establishment Republicans chose RINOs to try to convince attendees to abandon their principles. During the discussion, amnesty panelists actually argued that all religious denominations support granting amnesty to these criminals and that if you are against amnesty, you hate immigrants!
The establishment conservatives gave these "experts" a podium to preach from. They signed off on an event that vilified conservatives for believing in the sanctity of our immigration laws.
Our representatives say one thing, but always do another! They come to events like CPAC and preach a conservative message, but behind the scenes, they continue to advance immigration reform to give amnesty to people who broke our laws!
I don't trust our politicians, no matter how conservative they appear to be, and you shouldn't trust them either! The only reason that Amnesty legislation is off the table is because, for now, they have listened to us. But the RINOs and Liberals are hard at work trying to lobby Conservatives to have them support amnesty.
We must remain vigilant and convey to Congress that support for amnesty, in any form, is political suicide!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
No comments yet - make the first one!