.
"We need to confront AFP and Freedomworks about their stance on
immigration. We need to talk about the ways their “neutrality” claim
undermines our anti-amnesty message and honestly address their
collaboration with open-borders agitators."
6/20/14, "Amnesty and the Tea Party's Libertarian Friends," American Thinker, Tina Trent
"After Eric Cantor’s defeat by newcomer Dave Brat, the New York Times
ran a dozen articles and blog posts about the election. This flood of
words tried to conceal the primary concern of voters in Cantor’s
district: amnesty for illegal immigrants. One story did address amnesty
and the election, but Times reporters mused at far greater length about anything and everything else.
Such papering-over is to be expected of the Times,
which does not wish to draw attention to the fact that most American
citizens disagree with open-borders politics. Amnesty’s other
cheerleaders also prioritize suppressing the public’s real views on
legal and illegal immigration: this motley crew includes the Chamber of
Commerce, La Raza, Grover Norquist, Barack Obama, the RNC, the DNC, and
even powerful elements within the American Conservative Union.
The
Tea Party stands virtually alone in loudly opposing amnesty, and for
doing so they are targeted with slurs like “nativist” and “racist.”
While their views represent those of many, if not most Americans, the
toxic label “racist” intimidates their potential allies from speaking
out. This is why election results like the defeat of Cantor come as a
surprise to the political establishment. It is also why silencing the
Tea Party on immigration is a key ambition of pro-amnesty forces.
Unfortunately,
it is not the Chamber of Commerce or even RINOs that threaten to
undermine the Tea Party’s courageous stance on immigration. That danger
lies closer to home, in national libertarian groups. In particular,
Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks have been misleading the
grassroots on amnesty. With a vote on immigration a strong possibility
in coming weeks, as Erick Erickson warns in RedState, it is time to confront this deception, however unpleasant the confrontation may prove to be.
The
official line offered by AFP and Freedomworks is that they are “sitting
out” the immigration debate. But there is no such thing as sitting out
such a crucial issue. Worse, they aren’t really sitting it out.
Behind the scenes and through other organizations, the primary donors to
AFP and the primary thinkers at Freedomworks actually advocate for
increased immigration and amnesty. When they say they are “sitting
immigration out,” they are being dishonest.
The
Kochs, for example, are not just the founders of AFP: they are the
founders of the most prominent right-of-center pro-amnesty think tank,
CATO Institute. Through CATO, they subsidize the work of Alex Nowrasteh
and others who argue that “unauthorized immigrants” do not strain the
welfare system, social safety nets, or the job market. By speaking from
the right, CATO plays a vital role in legitimating the bipartisan
nature of the elitists’ push for ever-increasing immigration and
amnesty.
Within
the beltway, the Kochs are not shy about using their money to support
mass amnesty and open borders, not only by subsidizing CATO but also the
open borders, pro-amnesty, libertarian magazine Reason. So
why do they refuse to be consistent with AFP or at least make their real
opinion clear to the hundreds of thousands of Tea Party activists who
have volunteered with or donated money to AFP?
The
answer is obvious: many citizen activists would hesitate to work with
AFP if they knew that the organization’s leaders are delivering one set
of marching orders to the grassroots outside the beltway while
underwriting pro-amnesty campaigns inside the beltway. And we wouldn’t
work with AFP at all if it endorsed CATO’s immigration stance. So AFP
plays us for fools and hopes we swallow the duplicitous claim that
they’re just “sitting out” amnesty. But the duplicity goes deeper that
that.
I
worked as an independent contractor with AFP in Florida during the 2012
election (I received approximately $1550 for honorariums and donated
many more volunteer hours to AFP). AFP’s Florida key staff included
several figures tied to Jeb Bush. Away from microphones, their attitude
towards grassroots Tea Party activists, especially social
conservatives, reflected the attitude of Bush and other RINOs,
particularly on amnesty.
Tea
Party activists felt pressured to sit down and shut up about amnesty
lest they be seen as racists. And at the crucial moment when Marco
Rubio betrayed his promise to voters to oppose amnesty, AFP gave Rubio a
prominent platform at their Defending the American Dream Summit.
It was a slap in the face to every Florida activist who had
volunteered his or her time for Rubio’s election based on his
tape-recorded promise to not back amnesty.
I
know many Florida Tea Party activists who are deeply fed up with AFP’s
immigration deception (not to mention their incessant fundraising and
their insistence that they speak for grassroots groups who have no
reciprocal voice in AFP’s platform – but those are issues for another
day). But with jobs and families to support, few citizen activists feel
they can stand up to AFP. Some also feel pressure to stay quiet lest
they attract attention from AFP’s belligerent legal team.
The
consequence of AFP’s meddling is a weakened Tea Party voice against
illegal immigration. Freedomworks is more responsive and respectful
towards the grassroots, but they too are using the excuse of “sitting
amnesty out.” Why
do we put up with this? With few friends and many enemies, it is
understandable that Tea Party activists wish to trust their political
allies. But amnesty and border control aren’t like other political
issues. They represent an existential crisis that threatens to
overwhelm every other cause, from repealing Obamacare to protecting gun
rights to returning local control to the school curriculum and reducing
national debt.
It
will take years of legislative negotiation to end Obamacare and rein in
the federal Departments of Education and Justice. But if we don’t
secure the border first and prevent amnesty, Florida will soon become a
permanent blue state with Georgia close behind. Even Texas will follow
in fewer years than anyone wants to contemplate. After that, there is
zero demographic chance of Republicans ever gaining the House, Senate,
or Presidency again.
If
we don’t put all our current energy into closing the border and
defeating amnesty legislation, none of our other fights will matter. We
cannot allow even our best political friends to exert control over our
position on immigration and amnesty. We can’t let them whisper
“racism,” for their sake as much as ours: the border crisis is only
emboldening radicals’ demands that Americans censor any opposition to
untrammelled illegal immigration. Soon, even voicing any desire for
border control will be unacceptable political speech.
What
to do? We need to confront AFP and Freedomworks about their stance on
immigration. We need to talk about the ways their “neutrality” claim
undermines our anti-amnesty message and honestly address their
collaboration with open-borders agitators.
Essentially,
we need to hold the libertarian nationals to the same standard to which
we would hold any elected official. If a friend back home goes to
Washington and double-crosses our platform, we impose consequences. The
same must go for any national organization that partner with us. They
are powerful groups, but we gave them that power. We can also take it
away. The future of America literally depends on it."
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