Article by Michael Gerson that takes a good look at what Karl Rove attempted for the GOP.  I think Rove really had many good insights on how to expand the GOP’s electoral reach.  I was not and am not a big fan of the Medicare prescription drug bill because I think it is hugely expensive at a time when the entitlement programs are already creaking underneath the weight of increased spending (and will only increase as the boomers retire).  However, the immigration plan was partially on target.  I firmly think an enforcement first position is wise.  We can’t expect anyone to be positive about embracing folks that break the law to get into America .  However, the GOP does risk a decline into irrelevance if it cannot reach out to minorities and the Hispanic population is a natural constituency for social conservatives.  We should embrace legal immigration, increase the numbers allowed into the country, and require all immigrants to embrace America first.  The flaw of Rove’s plan wasn’t the destination it sought, but the belief that people would just embrace the concept without demanding a reasonable level of border security and embracing of America first by those who come.  My views completely align with this quote from Theodore Roosevelt in 1919:

“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Call this the new again, yet old vision of “America First.”   An open society that embraces all who seek opportunity, but also a society that expects everyone to embrace the very political ideals that allow them to come in the first place.  I think all of those who are against illegal immigration understand that the real problem is that for far too long the holy altar of “multiculturalism”  has allowed and even celebrated differences without any recognition or appreciation of the ties that bind.  A nation cannot last in a unified way, if we don’t all believe in the same fundamentals, this is the grand mistake of multiculturalism and the paeans to “diversity.”  Equality can only be guaranteed when we all join forces to believe in the basic premises of our culture and society.  Without that, equality can only be enforced through diktat and will not be held in the hearts of many.  I surmise that it is politically incorrect to say these things, but it is fear of being “insensitive” that leads to closed lips and bitten tongues.  This is not serving any of us well, least of all those who do come here illegally and are forced into the shadows or the killing fields of an Arizona desert.