The Yellowstone County Republican Party wouldn’t let him speak at their Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner, and the Montana Tea Party disavows any association with him, but congressional candidate Drew Turiano may be the most honest conservative in the country. He has proposed something called “Operation Wetback,” which would be a program designed to deport every undocumented immigrant in the country and their children, too, even if their children are U.S. citizens. The 40 year-old real estate investor doesn’t make any pretense about these deportations being about the rule of law. He’s completely up front about the real reason he wants to throw millions of people out of the country. It’s strictly political.
“I believe in a moratorium on all immigration to America,” he said. “The reason I believe in that, it will be the end of conservatism in this country. The majority of immigrants who come to America are big government people. They’re going to mostly support the party of big government, the Democrat Party. They will not support the party of small government, the Republican Party.
“Because this is a fact of life, it will mean that the Republican Party will never win another national election again in about 10-15 years time. … I’m hoping that we can do something to immigration and put a stop to it, so the Republican Party doesn’t go the way of the Whigs.”
In his political assessment, I basically agree with him. Our only real difference is that I don’t see the Republican Party as inextricably linked to conservatism. The Republican Party will probably win national elections again, but they won’t do it as a party absolutely dominated by conservatives. Conservatism is doomed. The Republican Party will have to make a decision whether to go down the drain with the ideology or to reinvent itself.
I think it is refreshing to hear a conservative admit that they want to deport immigrants not because they don’t like them but because they don’t expect them to vote for Republicans. It’s probably a natural thing for people to try to manipulate their environment in ways that will allow them to avoid changing their views on things. So, conservatives come up with schemes that they hope will allow them to win elections without changing their beliefs. They invent an in-person voter fraud epidemic and then go about limiting early voting, absentee voting, voting on Sundays, in addition to trying to implement onerous voter identification requirements designed to disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic voters.
The result? Black voters turn out at a higher rate than white voters and Mitt Romney gets trounced. On top of that, most of their proposed laws were thrown out by the courts. In soccer, they call this an “own goal.” They scored on themselves.
Immigration reform is shaping up to be another “own goal” for conservatives. They don’t want to do it because it would eventually lead to more voters in the electorate who don’t have conservative values on most issues. But, opposing reform is turning the Latino vote against the Republican Party in the here and now. The GOP will do the reform to preserve itself as a viable party, but that leaves conservatives left out, without a party to represent them.
For the Republican Party, it’s an easy decision, but for conservatives it is political death. That’s why Turiano has arrived at a very logical decision. The only policy that will allow the GOP to remain a conservative-dominated party is to round-up all the undesirables and remove them from the country. Then, they can stop all further immigration of any type, and they’ll be able to maintain themselves in their current positions of power.
But, then, if Mr. Turiano’s prescription is so eminently sensible, why are Montanan Republicans and even Tea Partiers running away from him?
Is the problem that Mr. Turiano, like Nevadan rancher Cliven Bundy, is inarticulate? Or is there a substantive problem with Operation Wetback? Increasingly, it seems that conservatives don’t have the courage of their convictions. Like weasels trapped in a burlap sack, they lash out looking for an escape from a fate that cannot be averted.
The modern GOP: an unholy agglomerate of bunker mentality and cabin fever.
I think it is a tacit admission that their policies aren’t attractive to anyone but whites. I’m happy to revel in their discomfort.
Tacit or explicit, or somewhere in between?
But, then, if Mr. Turiano’s prescription is so eminently sensible, why are Montanan Republicans and even Tea Partiers running away from him?
Because, even though they agree with him, he’s way too blunt about it. He gives away the game Lee Atwater perfect.
As MtCowgirl says:
But get a load of this teabagger/carpetbagger: emigrated from NY to MT in 2006. A twisted, racist asshole that headed for BigSky Country expecting a welcome wagon for folks like him. They’d probably prefer to deport his sniveling little ass. (And with a name like Turiano, his ancestors were likely fairly recent US arrivals. Were they all legal immigrants?)
I agree, except what the hell does “conservatism” even mean anymore? It’s starting to sound more and more like a euphemism for racism and xenophobia.
Or, in this case, good old-fashioned know-nothingism, an American tradition. But yes, I do appreciate his candor, although he could go a step further and use the right name for his proposal: ethnic cleansing.
I think you have it backwards . If the GOP continues to pander to and harbor racist know nothing nut jobs who wrong call themselves conservatives, they WILL go the way of the Whigs.
True conservatives has a place in government because sometimes it has a POV worth considering. And it has not tolerance for blind welfare boobs like Bundy. In fact they would be lobbying against ANY subsidies.
The problem with the GOP is it has pushed out the most or only useful aspect of conservativism in a wave of fearful, selfish , hateful know nothingness.
I think you have it backwards . If the GOP continues to pander to and harbor racist know nothing nut jobs who wrongly call themselves conservatives, they WILL go the way of the Whigs.
True conservatives have a place in government because sometimes it has a POV worth considering. And it has no tolerance for blind welfare boobs like Bundy. In fact they would be lobbying against ANY subsidies.
The problem with the GOP is it has pushed out the most or only useful aspects of conservativism in a wave of fearful, selfish , hateful know nothingness.
” I freely confess that I am not as courageous or decent a person as Ms. Hughes.”
THANK YOU Booman! Everybody likes to think they are Superman, but how many walk the walk?
I too would like to “think” I would, but where my life
is put on the line by an angry( forget angry) mob, I Know I couldn’t walk the walk, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.
What is to be ashamed of are Politicians who “talk the talk” regarding other people’s children doing the “WALKING” the politicians are afraid of doing themselves.
Again, has anyone ever heard a NEOCON( Kristol,Rummy,
DICK Cheney, Jonah Baby, etc) ever admit he Couldn’t do what he wants others to DO!
Go on DKos and try this…
“I believe in a moratorium on all immigration to America,” he said. “The reason is that without this, or some similar measure, immigration will be the end of the working class in this country.”
They’ll cheer you to the echo. One man’s protectionism is another man’s xenophobia. One man’s progressive proposal is another man’s conservative brainwave.