[I took down my previous post on this topic because it was a little too ranty, but now that I’ve had a few minutes…]
When the House reconsiders the bailout for billionaires, Tom Tancredo will be happily voting yes.
It’s impossible to say how many times he has railed against socialism for the poor. But when it’s socialism that benefits his friends, Tommy thinks socialism is just fine.
It astounds me that anyone who claims to be a proponent of small-government has ever supported this man. This incoherent demagogue is pretty much your standard neoconservative. He suppoorts endless war, massive expansion of government (as long as the expansion benefits his preferred special interests), the police state, and an apocalyptic foreign policy in the mideast.
He is a bona fide evangelical member of the religious right who obsesses about “islamo-fascism” and thinks no amount of government spending is too much as long as it’s spent to eradicate Muslims. He supports “taking out” women and toddlers who have committed the crime of living near Muslim holy sites.
He’s also done everything in his power to stoke conflict with China and whoop it up for a land war in Asia with a billion Chinese people. This man is a real intellectual giant.
He has primarily made a career out of opposing immigration. (Ron Paul opposes illegal immigration. But that is where the similarities end.)As you might expect, Tancredo’s solution to the problem (assuming it is a problem) is to maximize the size and power of government. Empower the government to round up millions of people and deport them. Use the power of the state to threaten and intimidate foreign nations like Mexico that have no interest in limiting the flow of emigrants. Use the police state to watch, police, patrol, and intrude in the lives of citizens who don’t comply with federal immigration laws.
This ultra nationalist, big-government approach has made Tancredo an absolute hero for many big-government conservatives. At one paleoconservative site that obsesses over immigration, (which I won’t even waste my time linking to) writers absolutely gush over Tancredo at every turn. Article after article of fawning, worshipful prose effuses about what a magnificent specimen Tancredo is because he likes to insult Mexicans or call Miami a third-world country or call for massive government crack downs on anyone who dares challenge the power of the state to control what private individuals do.
Thank goodness he’ll be gone soon.
11:03 pm on October 1, 2008
