Traitor-in-Chief

George W. Bush should be impeached, but not for any of the reasons cited by liberals.

On Friday August 11, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff announced a new initiative to enforce US immigration law and secure the US border with Mexico.  In a statement, President Bush called the measures “important” and promised “to take every possible step” to strengthen the nation’s “broken immigration system.”  At first glance it seems that President Bush is the new champion of border security and immigration enforcement, but in reality he takes these steps with great reluctance and under duress.  Indeed, at the announcement Chertoff was almost apologetic; “There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this,” he said in an interview with the L.A. Times.  Indeed it seems that the administration sees enforcement, not as a way to stop the foreign invasion of the US workforce but as yet another part of the ongoing campaign to get amnesty for illegal aliens.  Bush hopes that deporting illegal workers will cause such a disruption in the economy that Congress will be forced to take up the amnesty issue again.  Decreases in corporate profits, he hopes, will cause big businesses to increase pressure on Congress.

The new enforcement efforts seem to be the result of pressure from congressional Republicans, who oppose Bush’s amnesty demands.  Without their support Bush would have no friends left on Capitol Hill and would have so little influence on legislation as to be totally irrelevant during his final seventeen months in office.  To salvage what he can on the Iraq war, budget matters, and federal appointments, Bush reluctantly agreed to begin enforcing immigration law.  For now the concession has improved Bush’s popularity with Republicans slightly.  Conservatives hope that Bush delivers on his promises this time.  Before the 2006 election Bush made a big show of signing legislation to build a fence on the border, but ten months later, almost no progress has been made on the construction.  Up until now, Bush’s position has been to enforce existing law only after amnesty was granted.  In other words, Bush has held border security hostage to his demands for “comprehensive reform”.

Bush’s failure to secure the border isn’t a matter of resources.  Indeed when it comes to the war in Iraq his willingness to spend money is limitless.  To date the US has spent over half-a- trillion dollars ($500,000,000,000.) on the war in Iraq despite the tenuous connection between the situation in Iraq and US national security.  That’s about $2500. per US taxpayer for Iraq.  By contrast the border fence would cost about $10 per taxpayer.  Yet the fence remains unbuilt and the National Guard is being withdrawn from the border.  In a particularly perverted twist, US Border Patrol agents have actually been recruited by a State Department contractor to guard the Iraq/Iran border.  

Border enforcement isn’t just about economics; it’s about national security.  Last Thursday The Washington Times reported that Rep. John Culberson, (R-Texas) said that a recent DEA document revealed startling evidence that Islamic radicals are camouflaging themselves as Hispanics while conducting business with violent drug-trafficking organizations. ‘I have been ringing the bell about this serious threat of Islamic individuals changing their surnames to Hispanic surnames for three to four years,’ Mr. Culberson said. “Unfortunately, Homeland Security’s highest priority is to hide the truth from Congress and the public. I just hope we’re not closing the barn door after terrorists have already made their way in.”

Bush has made victory in the war on terror (including Iraq) and amnesty for illegal aliens the two top priorities of his presidency.  The pursuit of both goals has cost him a tremendous amount of support and credibility to the point where he is on pace to be the most unpopular US president ever.  His advocacy for amnesty has badly split the Republican Party heading into an election year.  The question of just why Bush is such an advocate of amnesty for illegal aliens has vexed politicians and editorial writers for years now.

Although one could never know the full reasons why anybody does something, there are some clues that can be gleaned.  The split in the Republican Party between business advocacy and populism (between Rockefeller Republicans and Reagan Republicans) goes back for generations.  In this case, big business has become addicted to illegal alien labor and they don’t want their slave workforce deported.  Terms like “sovereignty”, “political culture” or “economic justice” are meaningless to multinational businessmen who define themselves purely in terms of profit.  As America’s first MBA president, these terms seem lost on Bush too.  Further there is Bush’s commitment to globalism and his personal affection for Latinos.  Bush seems to prefer the religious Latino culture to the more secular culture of the US.  In addition, recently retired Karl Rove developed a political strategy that included advocating amnesty as a way of attracting Hispanic votes, assuming that other voters wouldn’t care.  The failure of amnesty in the Senate in June proved Rove wrong.  Bush’s reliance on Rove may explain why Bush seemed genuinely surprised at the failure of the Senate bill.  Bush’s surprise also illustrates how out-of-touch with reality the man really is.

All of the above reasons have been well documented but they still don’t explain fully why Bush is so committed, almost desperate, to secure amnesty for illegal aliens.  Some bloggers simply call Bush’s mysterious motivation the “X factor”.  An article from Reuters about domestic Mexican politics from June 10, 2007 may shed some light on the mystery.  The article entitled “Bush immigration failure hurts Mexico’s Calderon” explains how Mexico’s president is weakened politically because of developments concerning Mexico’s two biggest exports: poverty and oil.  Government in Mexico is corrupt, ineffective and increasingly unpopular.  US foreign policy advisors are terrified that a leftist revolution in Mexico could bring another Hugo Chavez to power on the US border. The foreign policy implications, as well as the effect on US corporate profits, would be disastrous.  Bush is willing to allow the USA to be a safety valve for Mexican unrest.  The effect on US workers does not concern him.  Indeed Bush is the most hostile US president the American worker has ever known.  That’s not to say that Bush doesn’t expect concessions from the Mexican government for propping them up.  Amnesty for Mexicans illegally in the US would make it easier for Mexican leaders to allow US business interests to get their hands on Mexican oil.  As Peter Hakim, head of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington, said “Those people who want to adjust oil policy in ways that might be helpful to the United States are operating from a far weaker position when the United States is being uncooperative on an issue like immigration.”

Bush has sold out his country and violated his oath of office to prop up a corrupt foreign government and let his buddies get their hands on Mexican oil.  He is a traitor to his country and should be impeached for refusing to enforce the laws that he has sworn to uphold.  Impeachment won’t happen of course because Republicans don’t want the head of their party on trial heading into an election year; Democrats won’t impeach him because they have advocated amnesty just as forcefully as Bush has, albeit for different reasons.  Both parties are content to leave Bush in office as an ineffective lame duck figurehead that they can contrast themselves with as they campaign to succeed him.  Bush has only two accomplishments left to boast about: economic prosperity and prevention of another terrorist attack.  The debt crisis and bursting housing bubble (a bubble fueled, in part, by illegal alien workers) are, at this moment, wiping out the economic gains of the past two years.  Another terrorist attack would render his second term a complete failure.  Despite Bush’s promises of better enforcement, those terrorists could be sneaking across the US border tonight.

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