OPINION:
Sorry, Mr. Lincoln, but “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” has just perished, made amply clear by the secret dealings of the collusive “Gang of Eight” that is about to force an amnesty plan down the unwilling people’s throats (“Immigration agreement ’very close’ in Congress; guest workers still a hurdle,” Web, Wednesday).
It is bad enough that this like-minded group of senators will have their way, along with an imperial president on an existential issue like amnesty and “immigration reform” — but even worse is the consistently one-sided reporting by The Washington Times’ chief reporter on the issue, Seth McLaughlin, on the front page, above the fold.
In this most recent piece, Mr. McLaughlin quotes only voices from the pro-amnesty groups. He also claims that it was a fight between business and labor leaders that scuttled the last go in 2007. Wrong, Mr. McLaughlin; it was a massive grass-roots protest “by the people” that melted the congressional switchboards and overwhelmed their servers and left Congress cowering in their offices and voting down the measure. Secrecy will preclude a repeat of that.The prospect of amnesty and the gimmickry of sequestration cuts for border enforcement will trigger a new wave of illegal invaders through Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano’s “secure borders.” They will soon join the presumed 11 million illegals (though there are likely many more) waiting to be registered by the Democratic apparatchiks and led to the spoils of the welfare state.Sorry, Honest Abe, but our forefathers misjudged their political progeny. Your contemporary, Lord Tennyson, better described our current and vanishing “government of the people” when he said, “Theirs not to make reply; Theirs not to reason why … .” Today, it’s “Theirs but to” pay the bills and suffer the burdens imposed by a secretive government of elites.
WILLIAM CAMPENNI
Herndon, Va.
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