In a move that will likely turn heads at the national level, a Rhode Island GOP official resigned after Republican Joe Wilson balked at the president’s health care policy toward illegal aliens.
by Michael Naragon
In a FOXNews.com story on September 21, a member of the Rhode Island Republican Hispanic Assembly, Ivan Marte, quit the party after Wilson called out the president. Wilson’s now-famous cry of “You lie!” was directed at the Barack Obama had claimed that his health plan would not give benefits to illegal aliens. While Wilson has been excoriated, very little journalistic research has been done on the Democrat bill, which makes no provision to prohibit benefits for illegals.
Marte, whose input and contributions to the GOP were valued, according to state chairman Giovanni Cicione, called Wilson’s comment “shameful” and “uncivilized.” The FOXNews.com story also stated that Marte had been upset with the party since his advice to the state’s Republican governor, Don Carcieri, about a proposed crackdown on illegal immigration was largely ignored.
Likely, the national GOP in its typical desperate fashion will view this story as a dangerous harbinger of things to come, that Republicans are losing the Hispanic vote because of some “neanderthals” like Wilson. GOP Chair Michael Steele may even make some public statement about the importance of the Hispanic community to the Republican cause, turning an ideological issue into a racial one and buying into the premise advanced by Marte.
Marte was upset with Wilson’s outcry. Why? Because it was “uncivilized”? Not likely. What Marte was in disagreement with was the timing of the outburst, coming immediately after the president claimed illegals would not be served by his plan. Why is it that even Hispanic “Republicans” are willing to compromise national security and support illegality by rewarding those who come into the country without documentation?
By now, many conservatives have decided that Obama may have, in fact, been telling the truth when he made his claim. His plan doesn’t cover illegals, but if he manages to ram an amnesty bill through Congress with the help of his party’s majority, they won’t be illegal when the plan takes effect.
Why would Marte be so antagonistic toward curbing illegal immigration and so apparently in favor of American taxpayers footing the bill for their medical costs? Is racial identity more important to men like Marte than the safety of the Republic? Is Mexican jingoism more forceful in his mind and heart than American patriotism?
The idea of an unhyphenated America has been preached by so many conservatives for so many years that I won’t rehash those arguments here. But what we do not need is a political party that claims to be conservative kowtowing to a vocal minority that seeks to put its own political interests over the national security and economic well-being of the nation.
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