I'm not in the Tea Party or Green Peace... What is the Tea Party anyway?

Most Americans are neither foaming at the mouth conservatives or hippy liberals. Most Americans have never read a bill passed by Congress or know the name of anyone who works in the West Wing. The vast majority of US citizens are politically moderate and modestly to completely uninformed. The average person, if he/she cares at all about politics, consumes news sound-bites; Yahoo articles, SNL skits and the occasional news broadcast. (This excludes those over 50. They watch a lot of news apparently.) We are a few of those average, moderate, uninformed Americans. We, as contributers to this blog, are completely confused by most of what goes on in Washington and we have a feeling we're not alone.


This blog will document our uniformed, self-proclaimed moderate (what is moderate anyway?) opinions toward the happenings in Washington and around the world. When addressing partisan issues, we will keep score between Dems and the GOP based on who we think makes the most sense. Being uninformed, however, our opinions should in no way sway anyone's opinion. We are not attempting to convince anyone of anything. We simply want our uninformed opinions to serve as a snapshot of the average American's sentiments toward world and national events. Hopefully we can relate to other moderate uninformed people out there and create some kind of normal discussion about what's going on in America.


Monday, April 26, 2010

Arizona Immigration Bill

I haven't read the recent Arizona Immigration Law, as a matter of fact, my primary source in regards to the law is Facebook with a little NPR thrown in. I think this qualifies my opinion as uninformed.

Illegal immigration is a problem. I think most Americans would agree with that. Where the issue lies is how to fix the problem. How do you bring together the contrasting opinions of "someone needs to do the jobs most Americans don't want anymore" and those who want to start building concrete fortresses around the borders? Arizona seems to think they found the solution.

According to my undoubtedly reliable source, the new Facebook group "1 million strong against Arizona Immigration Law SB1070," the law makes it a crime to be in the country illegally. Immigrants unable to produce documents proving their legal status could be arrested and jailed for up to six months. It also makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them. The big fear is that this will encourage racial profiling.

I find several flaws looking at this interpretation of the law. First, are all people who hire day labor really going to be required to check legal documents confirming legal residence? How will this be enforced, and should it be enforced? Second, isn't this entire concept discriminatory? If you look like you might be an illegal resident you had better have your papers or you will be arrested? Does anyone else see a parallel with Nazi Germany?

My moderate and uninformed opinion is this: Arizona you have probably gone too far. While no one else has been willing to take a firm position on illegal immigration there is a difference between taking a firm position and taking a crazy one.
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2 comments:

  1. Kimball ParkerApril 26, 2010 at 11:16 AM

    This bill seems ridiculous to me. Who wants to bet this will end up in front of the US Supreme Court?

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  2. CaraApril 28, 2010 at 12:55 PM

    I think it is almost a guarantee. On a somewhat related note one of Alabama's gubernatorial candidates promised if he is elected he is changing the drivers license test to English only because "This is Alabama; we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it." An interesting approach to immigration.

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