Webloggin » Neil Steinberg, Demagogue

Chicago Sun-Times curmudgeon Neil Steinberg has taken demagoguery to new heights with today’s column. He starts by praising the neo-nazis, klansman and gang banger types for being honest about their racist views and then ties foes of illegal immigration to them by inferring racism is at the root of their opposition to the illegal alien issue. He then dives right into one of the worst analogies I’ve seen yet.

For instance: I’ve been writing about immigration. So I hear a lot from the anti-immigration crowd, who insist they don’t, don’t, don’t have anything against Hispanics. Oh, no no no! What upsets them is ILLEGAL immigration. It’s ILLEGALITY that sends them rushing to defend the borders with their night-vision goggles and custom jackets.

Fine, I ask them, if ILLEGALITY is the issue, then what other lawbreakers besides Latino immigrants upset you? Tax cheats? Jaywalkers? White-collar criminals? It isn’t as if illegal immigration is the only lawbreaking that goes on in this country.

Silence. They don’t answer. They never answer, because they don’t really care about illegality, they care about keeping Mexicans the heck out of their country.

His middle paragraph is the canard that shows the holes in his boat and sinks his entire point. I’ve seen it used before and it is was just as tiring, inaccurate and intellectually lazy then as it is now. Many lawbreakers upset us collectively as a society and assault our sense of decency as individuals but there is one main difference here. Illegal aliens break the law intially to enter the country and then follow it up by violating our laws day in and day out by their continued illegal presence. They use forged documents to gain fake identities, many drive without licenses, work for cash under the table and avoid taxes, or various other violations. The obvious cases are Mexican because they are on our southern border and can walk in but many are Irish, Asian, Arab and various other nationalities.

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