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you know, honestly immigration isn’t a huge issue for me, and i’ll tell you why…
when i vote for a presidential candidate i vote on 2 things:
1 – abortion. i personally can’t vote for a candidate that isn’t vocally ANTI-abortion. i understand when critics say that a president will never be able to fully turn back abortion, but it’s a conviction i have, so that is 1/2 of my voting.
2 – character. i firmly believe that we should vote leaders into office based on their character, not on their campaign promises or platforms. the thing is, about 98% of all campaign platforms and promises disappear within 10 minutes after inauguration. so, to me it is important to vote for the man, not for the soundbyte.
yes, the issues are important, but our governmental system is so tangled and ingrown that if you ONLY vote based on issues, you’re going to be disappointed every time. but, if you vote for character, you’re voting for something real, something lasting.
It does. Thanks Gene. Of course…. don’t the issue help us decide on character? Doesn’t the issue of immigration provide the question of, “should we be helping people… or not?”
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issues DO matter and to a certain extent they DO tell us a bit about the character.
but voters need to remember that most of the issues are already determined based on whether the candidate is a republican or a democrat. meaning, no serious republican contender can ever stand up and say “i’m against gun rights” and hope to win the nomination, even if that’s his personal position.
so yes, issues are important, but to me what is more important is how people conduct themselves before and during the campaign.
as for the ‘helping people’ issue…this is a fundamental difference between some of the major political groups.
i for one don’t believe that enforcing immigration laws is counter-productive to ‘helping people.’ in fact, i think it’s easier to help a larger group of people when the law (in the grand scheme) is working efficiently.
i like that huckabee wants to enforce the law, but cut out some of the red tape and really help people come to our country legally, like many, MANY immigrants do every year.
I definitely agree with your second point about the candidate needing to side with their party’s issues. However, I know I really appreciate and respect it when a candidate is honest with how he really feels… even if I disagree with his opinion. Though this is not the point.
I think that the immigrants need to obey the laws set here.. I think they should be paying taxes like everyone else.. but it doesn’t appear that Huckabee is really aiming to “help” any of these people except for allowing them in the country the proper way.
I also think the current immigrants should be thrown a “small bone” their way to help them get started the right way. Maybe even moving them ahead of the line when it comes to getting their visa’s. It seems like they are willing to work for a better life (as already proven) so it would be great to lend a helping hand. And I would hope as a Christian man he would be willing and motivated to help the less fortunate.
Once again, I know the “perfect” candidate does not exist. I like Huckabee, I’d say he’s my pick right now. I guess his immigration and 2nd amendment issues bother me. Then again, if the 2nd amendment was really intending on allowing us to own assault riffles for our own protection… then I would disagree with that as well.
Sorry for being so sparatic… I wrote this little by little over the course of 3 hours.
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actually, i think huckabee is remarkably fair and helpful to immigrants, and has been for some time. for example…
while he was governor he allowed for children of illegal immigrants to apply for the same college scholarships as citizens…which is pretty rad. his quote is “in our country, we don’t punish children for their parents’ crimes.”
i like that. it’s really fair; giving the same opportunity to any student. however there is a key word in there: ‘crimes.’
like it or not, illegal immigration is a crime in our country. thus, we either have to enforce the laws or remove the laws.
now…i have to say that personally i think it is a terrible idea to give illegals that are “already here” the first place in line. doing that just encourages more illegal immigration and punishes the MANY, MANY immigrants who came to our country legally. when we catch a kid stealing cookies out of a jar we don’t teach him NOT to do that by giving him the cookie and showing him how to reach the shelf easier.
the thing is, we either have to enforce the law or we shouldn’t have the law. we should either HAVE legal immigration (simplified and attainable) or we should just take down all the border stops and hang up signs that say “come on in!”
yes, illegals are coming here, many of them are working very hard. and you know what? lots and lots of LEGAL immigrants are doing the same thing. so why could SOME people come legally from a country while others ‘can’t'?
obviously the issue isn’t simple, but there must be law and order. i don’t believe for a second that if we started throwing more ‘bones’ to illegal immigrants that the issue would resolve itself. we’ve BEEN doing that for quite some time, especially in california, and the problem is as ‘bad’ as ever. we’ve been giving special grants, work opportunities, even DRIVER’S LICENSES! yet illegal immigration isn’t going down, it’s going up.
i think huckabee is incredibly compassionate and i really do think he wants to help the people of this country, and the people who want to join our country. however, i agree with him on this aspect: the law needs to be enforced. simplified? yes! less red tape? yes!! but we shouldn’t reward people for breaking our laws. that includes people who EXTORT illegal immigrants by paying them low, unfair wages. that is a huge part of the problem and it effects our entire economy and the value of our currency when unscrupulous companies/individuals take part in it.
everyone deserves a fair shot. our government can help people come here legally, but there must be a system, there must be a track, there must be order to immigration.
in order to help more people come here legally there has to be a tightening up of immigration. then, once things are a bit more ‘sealed’ we can do all kinds of things to help people get here legally.
So whats your take on Huckabee’s immigration stance?
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you know, honestly immigration isn’t a huge issue for me, and i’ll tell you why…
when i vote for a presidential candidate i vote on 2 things:
1 – abortion. i personally can’t vote for a candidate that isn’t vocally ANTI-abortion. i understand when critics say that a president will never be able to fully turn back abortion, but it’s a conviction i have, so that is 1/2 of my voting.
2 – character. i firmly believe that we should vote leaders into office based on their character, not on their campaign promises or platforms. the thing is, about 98% of all campaign platforms and promises disappear within 10 minutes after inauguration. so, to me it is important to vote for the man, not for the soundbyte.
yes, the issues are important, but our governmental system is so tangled and ingrown that if you ONLY vote based on issues, you’re going to be disappointed every time. but, if you vote for character, you’re voting for something real, something lasting.
hope that clarifies my stance a bit.
It does. Thanks Gene. Of course…. don’t the issue help us decide on character? Doesn’t the issue of immigration provide the question of, “should we be helping people… or not?”
–
issues DO matter and to a certain extent they DO tell us a bit about the character.
but voters need to remember that most of the issues are already determined based on whether the candidate is a republican or a democrat. meaning, no serious republican contender can ever stand up and say “i’m against gun rights” and hope to win the nomination, even if that’s his personal position.
so yes, issues are important, but to me what is more important is how people conduct themselves before and during the campaign.
as for the ‘helping people’ issue…this is a fundamental difference between some of the major political groups.
i for one don’t believe that enforcing immigration laws is counter-productive to ‘helping people.’ in fact, i think it’s easier to help a larger group of people when the law (in the grand scheme) is working efficiently.
i like that huckabee wants to enforce the law, but cut out some of the red tape and really help people come to our country legally, like many, MANY immigrants do every year.
what do you think?
I definitely agree with your second point about the candidate needing to side with their party’s issues. However, I know I really appreciate and respect it when a candidate is honest with how he really feels… even if I disagree with his opinion. Though this is not the point.
I think that the immigrants need to obey the laws set here.. I think they should be paying taxes like everyone else.. but it doesn’t appear that Huckabee is really aiming to “help” any of these people except for allowing them in the country the proper way.
I also think the current immigrants should be thrown a “small bone” their way to help them get started the right way. Maybe even moving them ahead of the line when it comes to getting their visa’s. It seems like they are willing to work for a better life (as already proven) so it would be great to lend a helping hand. And I would hope as a Christian man he would be willing and motivated to help the less fortunate.
Once again, I know the “perfect” candidate does not exist. I like Huckabee, I’d say he’s my pick right now. I guess his immigration and 2nd amendment issues bother me. Then again, if the 2nd amendment was really intending on allowing us to own assault riffles for our own protection… then I would disagree with that as well.
Sorry for being so sparatic… I wrote this little by little over the course of 3 hours.
–
actually, i think huckabee is remarkably fair and helpful to immigrants, and has been for some time. for example…
while he was governor he allowed for children of illegal immigrants to apply for the same college scholarships as citizens…which is pretty rad. his quote is “in our country, we don’t punish children for their parents’ crimes.”
i like that. it’s really fair; giving the same opportunity to any student. however there is a key word in there: ‘crimes.’
like it or not, illegal immigration is a crime in our country. thus, we either have to enforce the laws or remove the laws.
now…i have to say that personally i think it is a terrible idea to give illegals that are “already here” the first place in line. doing that just encourages more illegal immigration and punishes the MANY, MANY immigrants who came to our country legally. when we catch a kid stealing cookies out of a jar we don’t teach him NOT to do that by giving him the cookie and showing him how to reach the shelf easier.
the thing is, we either have to enforce the law or we shouldn’t have the law. we should either HAVE legal immigration (simplified and attainable) or we should just take down all the border stops and hang up signs that say “come on in!”
yes, illegals are coming here, many of them are working very hard. and you know what? lots and lots of LEGAL immigrants are doing the same thing. so why could SOME people come legally from a country while others ‘can’t'?
obviously the issue isn’t simple, but there must be law and order. i don’t believe for a second that if we started throwing more ‘bones’ to illegal immigrants that the issue would resolve itself. we’ve BEEN doing that for quite some time, especially in california, and the problem is as ‘bad’ as ever. we’ve been giving special grants, work opportunities, even DRIVER’S LICENSES! yet illegal immigration isn’t going down, it’s going up.
i think huckabee is incredibly compassionate and i really do think he wants to help the people of this country, and the people who want to join our country. however, i agree with him on this aspect: the law needs to be enforced. simplified? yes! less red tape? yes!! but we shouldn’t reward people for breaking our laws. that includes people who EXTORT illegal immigrants by paying them low, unfair wages. that is a huge part of the problem and it effects our entire economy and the value of our currency when unscrupulous companies/individuals take part in it.
everyone deserves a fair shot. our government can help people come here legally, but there must be a system, there must be a track, there must be order to immigration.
in order to help more people come here legally there has to be a tightening up of immigration. then, once things are a bit more ‘sealed’ we can do all kinds of things to help people get here legally.
thoughts?