Wherein I Address a Progressive's Rant on the Arizona Illegal Immigrant Law

I have not taken on a progressive blogger in a while. The last time I did was over a progressive’s support for the reinstating of the Honduran dictator. That post prompted a whiny, insulting personal correspondence which I will be more than happy to reproduce should he show up now to say differently and his voting down my rating at blog Catalogue. I generally loathe to engage in internet drama, but every now and then you have to fight a battle to keep from getting rusty. We shall see if the maturity level of progressive counter argument can improve with Electric Cerebrectomy.

He posted a rant earlier today called Fascist Arizona. Let us have a look, shall we?

What else do you call it but fascism?

Enforcing immigration policy would be a more accurate description. Arresting and deporting illegal immigrants is a valid law enforcement concern. It goes without saying illegals have to be identified first, no?

A new law in Arizona requires resident aliens to hand over documentation to police officers who demand them. The police are required to demand documentation of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally for any reason. In other words: breathing while Latino.

i am afraid you are wrong. the Arizona law requires a justifiable stop and detention before an officer can request to see papers. the procedure is no different than a police officers taking your driver's license to check for outstanding warrants after he pulls you over for a speeding ticket. The individual has to be in detention of law enforcement because of some legitimate crime.

I guarantee this law has been drafted to survive judicial scrutiny. "Reasonable suspicion" has been well defined by case law, as are other statutory terms like "lawful contact." This is a carefully drafted law.

On a related note, the US Code requires legal immigrants to carry documentation proving they are citizens. failure to do so can bring a fine of up to $100, thirty days in jail, or both.

SamuraiFrog goes on for a couple paragraphs based on his lack of understanding about the law. gung ho, racist cops harassing brown people for no reason, Nazi police state..all that rot. he finally gets to more substance in a bit:

My question is, how can any Americans support this? If a law was enacted that all Americans would have to show their papers on the request of any official, or when leaving any state for another, how would the majority of Americans react?

Apples and oranges. The Arizona law is targeting people are not Americans. Yet the law requires another legal reason to detain an individual before authorities can ask to see citizenship papers. Simply traveling from one state does not qualify as a valid reason.

SamuraiFrog then rants a bit more about polls showing public support for the law at 60% nationwide and 79% (!!) in his enlightened, native Chicago proving Americans are hopelessly racist. Then he inexplicably pulls the Tea Party into it:

And where are the Teabaggers during all this? They love the Constitution and small government, or so they say. They're for the rights of the individual and fear the overreach of big federal government, right?

the law has yet to be ruled unconstitutional and Arizona is not the federal government. it has been a state since 1912.

Hell, even John McCain was asking the President to order 3,000 National Guard troops to Arizona--with an additional 3,000 Border Patrol--to ease the workload on the police. So there's your 2008 Republican candidate for US President, hero of the Teabaggers, begging the supposedly socialist president for federal troops to help keep brown people in their place. Yes, I can see his hatred of big government, can't you.

SauraiFrog lost me somewhere between declaring the Tea Party loves John McCain and McCain loves small government.

The following couple paragraphs is just a rat about how racist the tea party is. No evidence offered. just an attack:

Oh and, of course, Teabaggers are racists. Have to take that into account.

Because as long as it's not white people getting harassed by the law, they support it. They support it because they believe everything they've read in a chain email about the supposed cost of illegal immigrants, and they're stupid enough to let their leaders turn them on each other.

And the topper:

As long as the poor continue to fight against the poor, nothing in this country will ever change.

Imagined racism deserves a 500 word rant on its evils, but class warfare? That is just good policy. I am still kind of fuzzy where the whole Tea Party thig came in to immigration law, but okay. perhaps he believes conservatives like McCain's pandering to them.

I have to assume SamuraiFrog here believes the Tea Party is racist because it is protesting Barack Obama’s vast expansion of government. It is an assumption that speaks volumes about the progressive obsession with race. Apparently, you cannot criticize a black president for his policies solely because he is a black man. I doubt there will be any progressive criticism regarding Obama’s announced strategy for the 2010 election to play the race card in order to solidify the black and Latino vote.

A president stirring up racial tensions in a cheap ploy for votes versus enforcing a legitimate law to arrest illegal immigrants? Come on.

That was fun. I would like to have found a progressive rat about the new law with more substance, but this one struck me as crying out for response even though it lacks in facts or reason. Every now and then, you need to interrupt the progressive circle jerk with some facts and reality. Not to mention sometimes you just have to marvel some people think this way.