Recall an "Insult"; and California's Real Problem

Man, I shouldn't read such funny stuff first thing in the morning. Apparently, Davis is saying that the recall election is "an insult" to the people who voted for him last year. Here's another insult for them: you're all suckers. Here are some insults for Davis: you're an incompetent administrator, a visionless leader, and a criminal.

"I don't like this but I am trying to suppress those negative feelings and channel my energies into doing something positive for the people I work for [myself], the people of this great state [who work for the government, are in unions, or are here illegally]," Davis said in an interview broadcast Monday.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Bustamante -- who is running in the recall but still wants you to vote to keep Davis -- says that "the immigrant community would resent the 'very cynical strategy' of blaming state problems on immigrants." How about the strategy of blaming the state's problems on illegal immigrants? I don't know many people who blame our state's or nation's problems on legal immigrants, but when you fail to make the distinction it makes you look deceptive and manipulative. Do the Democrats not see the difference between legal and illegal immigration? Do they really think that the people they're talking to don't know that the crux of the issue isn't immigration per se, but illegal immigration? It's amazingly condescending, and if I were a legal immigrant I'd be pretty insulted that the Democrats would be free-riding on my legitimacy and hard work to trick others into voting for them.

Naturally, the Democrats would rather lie and scare people than simply tell the truth, because the truth doesn't look so good for them. According to the US Census Bureau. from 1995 to 2000 California lost a net of 700,000 residents, although the overall population of the state rose from 32.7 million in 1998 to 35.1 million in 2002. (I know the years are off, sorry about that, just use them for illustrative purposes. 1998 through 2002 were worse years economically than 1995 through 2000 were.) It doesn't take a genius to understand those numbers: American citizens are leaving the state, and illegal immigrants are moving in.

What's the problem with illegal immigration? It's not a simple issue. As the Angry Economist points out, the best thing for the world economy is unrestricted immigration. That's a fact. However, unless we're willing to dissolve all the national borders, we have to work within the framework of the groups (nations) we're already in. That means that we can't allow our goal to be to maximize the world's economic benefit, we have to content ourselves with maximizing our own benefit.

As it currently stands, illegal immigrants come to California, take advantage of the services our economy provides (schools, roads, healthcare, jobs, &c.), and then send a lot of the money they earn back to Mexico. They do pay some taxes (sales tax), but they're often paid under-the-table in cash for their work. The end result is that although we get some cheap labor, there is a significant amount of hidden cost that is imposed on our government and public sector, which is then essentially sent to Mexico. This is a great deal for Mexico, but not so great for California.

Of course, the economic angle isn't the only consideration. Illegal immigrants commit more crimes than legal residents, promote gang and drug cultures, overcrowd public schools and highways(!), and generally degrade the standard of living for everyone else in ways that aren't easy to quantify with dollar amounts.

Finally, illegal immigrants show a profound disrespect for our nation and its laws by their very presence.

If our nation really wants to help Mexico, California and other border states should not be made to bear the full burden. Mexico needs serious structural reforms, not under-the-table handouts like illegal immigration provides.

If the next governor really wants to help the people of California, he needs to be willing to tackle this extremely difficult issue. He will need to pressure the federal government to get involved, and will need to be able to resist the accusations of "racism" that will inevitably result. Personally, I think that the best solution would be to declare an amnesty for the illegal immigrants that are already here, and to then use the military to shut down the border. An amnesty isn't fair to the millions of people who have been waiting to enter the country legally, but it simply wouldn't be practical or politlcally possible to deport millions of illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigration is the political third rail in California. Any politician who touches it, dies. I don't expect any of the major candidates take a strong position during the campaign, but I still harbor hope that the new governor will address it once he's elected.

(That sure was a rambling post, wasn't it?)

Update:
Justene over at Calblog has more on the illegal immigration thing, with some links. She's also gotten a few links from Glenn recently, which just goes to show he doesn't hate all us Bear Flaggers, only me.