Out of the Republican retreat on Maryland’s Eastern shore comes word that the House leadership is raising the white flag of surrender on immigration.<\/p>\n
The GOP will agree to halt the deportation of 12 million illegal aliens, and sign on to a blanket amnesty. It only asks that the 12 million not be put on a path to citizenship.<\/p>\n
Sorry, but losers do not dictate terms. Rich Trumka of the AFL-CIO says amnesty is no longer enough. Illegal aliens must be put on a path to citizenship and given green cards to work \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and join unions.<\/p>\n
Rep. Paul Ryan and the Wall Street Journal are for throwing in the towel. Legalize them all and start them on the path to citizenship.<\/p>\n
A full and final capitulation. Let’s get it over with.<\/p>\n
To understand why and how the Republican Party lost Middle America, and faces demographic death, we need to go back to Bush I.<\/p>\n
At the Cold War’s end, the GOP reached a fork in the road. The determination of Middle Americans to preserve the country they grew up in, suddenly collided with the profit motive of Corporate America.<\/p>\n
The Fortune 500 wanted to close factories in the USA and ship production abroad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where unions did not exist, regulations were light, taxes were low, and wages were a fraction of what they were here in America.<\/p>\n
Corporate America was going global and wanted to be rid of its American work force, the best paid on earth, and replace it with cheap foreign labor.<\/p>\n
While manufacturing sought to move production abroad, hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, farms and construction companies that could not move abroad also wanted to replace their expensive American workers.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the Republican Party, Corporate America got it all.<\/p>\n
U.S. factories in the scores of thousands were shut down, shedding their American workers. Foreign-made goods poured in, filling U.S. stores and killing the manufacturers who had stayed behind, loyal to their U.S. workers.<\/p>\n