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Rick Perry Says I Have No Heart

By: kevinaw2 (Diary)  |  September 23rd, 2011 at 12:39 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I have desperately been waiting for a true conservative to step up to the plate and win me over. I had thought Rick Perry was the guy. On the issues as a whole I’m in Perry’s corner. I would prefer his position on the issues to go forward as our standard, but then there was his defense of  Texas’ “Dream Act”.

I respect Rick Perry defending his position on illegal immigration. He stuck to his guns despite its being a liability in Republican primaries. Most voters disagree with him, but he defended it. Ok. That’s why we have debates after all.

It was his concluding statement that has infuriated me. He defended his position by stating that those who oppose his position “have no heart”. Really? No heart? Rick Santorum jumped on this to his credit.

Rick Perry is free to defend his position as he sees it on the merits, but to suggest his critics are heartless is right out of the liberal textbook. As conservatives it is bad enough that we must endure such assaults from liberals and their acolytes in the mainstream media, but we’ve come to expect that and have effectively rebutted this view. But from Rick Perry? A conservative Republican Governor of Texas to criticize a dissenting view to label his conservative critics “heartless”?  I would expect that from Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or Michael Moore, but from the front runner in a contest for President?

When it comes to politics, I can be as jaded and as cynical as they come in spite of an overall sense that we can overcome every obstacle. What Rick Perry said was an affront, an insult to every conservative who has ever had the indignity of being called “heartless”. I don’t agree with Rick Perry on the policy in question, so in his world I have no heart. That’s not politics, that’s personal to me. If Governor Perry insists upon employing liberal talking points to further his agenda, then maybe he should’ve remained a registered Democrat and stopped wasting my time in a Republican primary.

COMMENTS

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  • acat

    Just curious.

    You know, like every other cat.

    Mew

  • Darin_H

    I agree with Perry on the Dream Act, and that line turned me off.

    He can’t do better than “if you oppose me, you don’t have a heart”? That’s pure Lindsey Graham territory. He needs to be able to articulate his position without demonizing.

  • Common_Cents

    Let’s apply equal standards to candidates, requiring them to articulate the positives of their positions, rather than engaging in stupid name calling.

    Cmon Perry, you are better than that. He needs to step up his game because I do think he’d make a great President. But he has to get the nomination and to win, he’ll need to hone his debating skills.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    at Texas universities who would be just as taxable under state sales taxes would be economically discrimnated against vs children of illegal aliens.

  • perry4prez

    But whatever you think about George Bush (and he was a mixed bag) his line about “compassionate conservatives” did resonate both among Republicans and in the general election.

  • Darin_H

    That makes about as much sense as my title.

    He can make an appeal to emotion without demonizing conservatives who oppose the TX Dream Act by saying something like (and he’s come close to it) “I know that these kids are illegals, but by and large, it wasn’t their choice to come here, they were brought by their parents. I’m not going to punish the kids because of something their parents did, and all they did was to want a better life for themselves and especially for their kids.” Add something about the Feds not letting TX deport, and forcing them to attend schools (how much do they pay to attend k-12 anyways, it’s not free), and about them becoming citizens.

    I’ll admit that he’s done some of it, just not all and he needs to say it all though, his defense is lacking and ends up just a slogan of “college vs govt dole.” He needs to do better on this point.

  • acat

    Texas sales taxes for the 3 years they’ve gone to high school.

    The Louisiana or Oklahoma or Montana students .. not so much.

    Mew

  • acat

    I asked what the objections to the program are, not the objections to Perry’s admittedly terrible defense of it.

    So far, only RMJ has managed to stay on topic.

    Mew

  • Common_Cents

    not about the pros/cons of his immigration policy.

  • acat

    What specifics in the Texas Dream Act are objectionable?

    Mew

  • gt80

    and it’s rewarding and incentivizing criminal behavior. It’s really that simple. Redstate can try and spin and cover for Perry but this policy sets a horrible precedent.

    But hey, I’m just a heartless, nativist, hobbit.

  • gt80

    So they get a free highschool education, and their family pays maybe, 7K in sales taxes over three years, and gets 10 to 15 times that amount back in reduced tuition.

    There is value in American citizenship. I’m sure if Mitt Romney was touting this instead of Perry you’d be on here defending Mitt.

    It’s unbelievable that after last night’s performance Redstate has two pro Perry front page articles.

    Compromised.

  • gekster

    how going to school is criminal.
    What do you propose to do with them all.

  • gt80

    came here? You don’t reward law breaking. You don’t encourage it. This has nothing to do with what we do with them, it has everything to do with giving ILLLEGAL immigrants preference over AMERICAN citizens.

  • gekster

    what do you do with them.

  • Doc Holliday

    what angers me and some other people is that I don’t think people are being intellectually rigorous here. Every claim and justification for this act can be, and has been refuted, what can’t be refuted can be not taken at face value.

    I will name a few until I get bored, I realize no one is really listening to others arguments.

    1) Perry claimed the point of the act was to keep illegals “off the dole”. Yet no one mentions that illegal aliens can not get safety net benefits. They can’t get “off the dole”, because they can’t be on the dole.

    2) Perry says the in state tuition if for illegals who have lived in Texas for three years and are “pursuing citizenship” How can they know who has been here for three years? Sure they can check school records, but what about those who say they were here but not in school for three years? How about false addresses, soc security numbers etc? Does anyone really believe Texas will create a new bureaucracy to chase down people’s history?

    3) I am not convinced illegals do not already attend Texas universities. If someone is filling out a form, and they give a Texas address, they count as a resident. The point is illegals already know how to get services in Texas, and I don’t see how they would be stopped at the University door. So when people ask what Perry was supposed to do, I say doing nothing was an option. What made this issue so vital this year?

    People say this law is paid for by sales taxes and their is no economic cost., But did you guys know Texas even has a law that gives Mexican residents with “financial need” in state tution? http://www.collegefortexans.com/apps/financialaid/tofa2.cfm?ID=530

    So basically this is an Amnesty, no different than the sanctuary cities of San Francisco, Porland, and, ahem, Dallas, Austin, and Houston. The state is “normalizing” illegals, and likely flouting federal law.

    I know I have said some things I regret on this subject out of intense frustration. I love debate, but I find it pointless and maddening when the rules of logic and argument do not apply.

    I think in this case, people are choosing their own facts, and when that happens, actual argument and enlightenment can not occur. Understanding won’t have much change either. Having said that, I am done with this issue, nothing can be gained by further argument, certainly not with many I call friends here.

  • Doc Holliday

    for the same behavior. I think people want a winner so bad, that they are willing to look the other way.

    # and some agree with him, so no one should take “personal offense” when I write my political opinion of the situation.

  • acat

    I disagree with the use fo the term “amnesty”, I think that’s more accurately what the ICE is doing in Texas, i.e. not enforcing the law.

    To point 1, I’m under the impression that many illegals receive “the dole”. I recall seeing an investigation of a border town overrun with post office boxes because different addresses allowed people to create multiple ficticious identities and apply for various city, county, state, and federal benefits.

    To point 2, the university requires a transcript, so school records and graduation requirement seem reliable enough points to check. The bureaucracy to run all this down already exists in the colleges themselves. For example, the students can’t send in their own transcript, they have to come from the high school directly. This cuts down on fraud a bit. It’s still possible, no system is fraud-proof, but .. it’s not as open as it initially appears.

    To point 3, I agree with your assertion that there are probably illegals in Texas universities. If you’re able to hide well enough to get through high school, it can’t be *that* much harder to hide in college. Why, though? What’s the motivation to scrape together the money to go to college, as an illegal?

    That, to me, is the key to what Perry was trying to do – incentivize coming out of the shadows.

    The un-talked-about problem with the illegal immigrant communities is that there’s a tendency to not report crimes, not report abuses, not report fraud because reporting means being found out.

    In the absence of a Federal will to kick the ICE in the {avocados} and start mass deportations, we’re left with an underclass that serves to both protect criminals and provide easy victims for the same criminals.

    As I’ve said before, it’s not a simple situation.

    Mew

  • aesthete

    It seems to me that an illegal with a college education would have a difficult time finding “respectable” employment in the US, with laws being as they are. Does this immigrant then go back to Mexico, or some other country, to use his/her skills there? If so, is that not a net loss for the country which paid for his/her education? The only way Texas’ DREAM Act makes sense is if there’s some sort of generalized amnesty for illegals (especially young ones) in the near future.

  • Doc Holliday

    We can differ on whether the right term is amnesty of “non enforcement” but I bet we both agree this is much bigger that a college tuition bill. Certainly Texas is not going to catch and prosecute people they just gave Texas citizenship to.

    You had me a bit on that dole thing. I agree, illegals do use benefits. I alluded to it in point three. They are not supposed to use them, but they do.

    Let me add something about the costs associated with illegal immigration. I know a hospital administrator. She told me that the State gives this top of the line hospital massive tax breaks with a string attached. The hospital is legally NOT ALLOWED to pursue any patient for payment if that patient filed a false billing information.

    So, Illegals go to this hospital, they use the services, and they give false billing information, KNOWING the hospital can not do a thing about it. This administrator said 70 percent of those who come to the ER give false info. And people wonder why insurance premiums keep rising.

    Again, I agree with you Acat this is a complex issue. I am not as hard core as I might sound. I figure there will be an amnesty and a promise to “fix the border” at some point. I support immigration, but I want it fair to people from all nations and I want it to benefit this country. I understand reality though, it will never be fair, it will just be what it is.

  • Doc Holliday

    almost every grad student in math was from China, and they were not planning on sticking around in Texas after graduation.

  • acat

    outside the Chicago and St. Louis suburbs in Illinois.

    No profit in working in Danville or Springfield or Metropolis, in part because all the surplus income goes to feed the emergency room.

    One hospital a friend used to work at recently completed an entire wing of new single-patient rooms that look like something out of a travel brochure for a high end hotel chain, not a hospital, just to attract more new mothers. There’s profit in babies. They funnel that profit to their E.R., which loses quite a lot.

    It’s insane, and one of the major drivers is that hospitals can’t pursue bad debt the way a gas station can pursue drive-offs.

    All that to make two points, Doc. First, I agree that this is a complex issue. It’s got roots and branches in every corner of our lives. Second, this is life-and-death. Hospitals are closing rather than keep feeding the E.R. and people are dying while D.C. {fiddles} around.

    Mew

  • Doc Holliday

    my fear is that both parties don’t want to waste a good polarizing issue until the election. I wonder how many dealing with life and death issues will take Obama seriously this time? Wasn’t he supposed to fix everyone’s problems by now?

  • Change Jar Conservative

    To all of my questions after the debate about “Who is out there besides Romney and Perry?”, the answer appears to be Herman Cain.

    Yes, Chris Christie is yet to “decide,” but Cain is making me wonder.

  • http://www.sunshinestatesarah.com SunshineStateSarah

    That “you have no heart” line really angered a lot of us in Orlando.

    If I can’t get in-state tuition in Texas as a Florida resident, someone from France shouldn’t be able to either!

  • lottoj

    Accusing opponents of objecting to the policy on the basis of people’s last names was inexcusable. Talk about taking a page out of the liberal playbook. Not the way to win supporters to your side but a good way to piss off relatively neutral observers.