Hackett: Trailblazing a New Democratic Paradigm

[ruggerson]

Paul Hackett is showing a whole new generation of Democrats how to exhibit leadership.

His motto is simple: TELL IT LIKE IT IS.

No caveats. No waffling. No long winded explanations.

He is pro working man, anti big corporations, anti outsourcing, pro affordable healthcare, pro military, anti Iraq War, pro choice, pro gun rights, pro gay equality, anti illegal immigration.

Talk about a breath of fresh air. He's actually got a coherent thesis that underlies all these positions: keep government efficient, small, useful, watchful and, above all, make sure government does not trample on our civil liberties and constitutional rights as Americans.

Other Democratic candidates should watch and learn.

[PeaceProgProsp]

1. His pro-Law and Order, anti-immigrant thing isn't helpful.

I think it would be a breath of fresh air for a Democrat to work out a coherent message around a more pro-people, compassionate position on immigration.

As for pro-healthcare, pro-miliary, anti-war, pro-choice, pro-gun rights, pro-gay equality, that's not new. I think that probably describes 95% of the Democrats in office. Even the super liberal Ann Arbor, MI congresswomen who lost to John Dingell in the primary when their districts were combined can be described according to those criteria (she went around saying she was pro-gun safety, not anti-gun before losing to NRA board member Dingell). As for anti-outsourcing, the recent CAFTA vote shows us that most democrats feel that way now. And any democrat who's anti-worker should be taken out to the woodshed and smacked.

Being anti-immigration -- anti-"other" -- is a really dangerous first step. Most political movements that start off looking like populist movements that then target someone to punish end up in tears for everyone.

[MercutioATC]

7. He's NOT "anti-immigrant".

He's "anti-ILLEGAL immigration". There's a big difference.

[AX10]

15. "pro-law and order"

Please elaborate on this.

[sendero]

19. Yes..

..... I hate to break the news to you, but with most of the electorate, law and order and anti-ILLEGAL-immigration is what folks believe.

Either change the laws or enforce them, anything else really is un-American.

[QC]

21. Simple-minded smears aren't very helpful, either.

Neither are straw man arguments.

[benEzra]

38. Hackett is pro-gun-rights for nonhunters as well as hunters...

pro-gun rights, pro-gay equality, that's not new. I think that probably describes 95% of the Democrats in office. Even the super liberal Ann Arbor, MI congresswomen who lost to John Dingell in the primary when their districts were combined can be described according to those criteria (she went around saying she was pro-gun safety, not anti-gun before losing to NRA board member Dingell).

Hackett is pro-gun-rights for nonhunters as well as hunters, which is what differentiates him from the Feinsteins and such. As a gun-owning nonhunter, I'd say the most important issue for gun owners at large is probably the "assault weapon" bait-and-switch, which Mr. Hackett opposes. That issue was the biggest gun-related albatross around the party's neck until it finally fell off the table (thankfully).

"Gun safety" is often a euphemism for outlawing modern-looking civilian rifles, banning every gun that holds more than 10 rounds, banning keeping a loaded gun for defensive purposes (even if kept and used responsibly), and so on. The anti-gun group Americans for Gun Safety pushed that strategy big time in 2000 and 2004--talking up hunting while demonizing those who own nonhunting-style guns, and calling it "gun safety"--and it was a total disaster.

[plusfiftyfive]

2. Who is Paul Hackett ??

Sorry for my ignorance. What state and what office? Could you post a link, too?

[MercutioATC]

6. Dem Candidate for U.S. Senate (Ohio)

http://www.hackettforohio.com/


...and here's the kind of stuff he says:

http://www.hackettforohio.com/newsroom/89/senate-candidate-unapologetic-for-saying-gop-hijacked-by-fanatics

[bigjohn16]

3. This country was built by immigrants.

That one anti-immigrants statement is really going to hurt him with the left. It may work in a state election but I'd never vote for someone with such a policy for national office. I like the "No caveats. No waffling. No long winded explanations" thing but he just lost a lot of support with that statement.

[jonnyblitz]

4. I feel the same. nt

[BR_Parkway]

5. The phrase in the article is anti ILLEGAL immigrant - I can't understand

why some on the left has a problem with that.

Here -

GWB is illegally spying on Americans. He broke the law, punish him. If he didn't like the law, he could have sought to have it changed, and Congress would have done so. But nobody is above the law.

translates to

XYZ is in this country illegally. He broke the law, punish or deport him. If Congress doesn't like the law, change it. But nobody is above the law.

Can anyone explain to me why they think a candidate for US Senate shouldn't support following the laws?

[MercutioATC]

8. Exactly!

Why is this considered to be "anti-immigrant"?

I think it's "anti-immigrant" to support those who enter this country illegally to the detriment of those who came here legally.

[bigjohn16]

11. Because they have as much a right to be here as you or I.

They're also the friends and family of millions of legal immigrants and being pro immigrants is good for the Dems. If we deport them that wont stop them from returning it will just put them in harms way one more time when they try to cross the border.

We need to help those already here get documentation so that we can stop the corporation from exploiting them. Shutting the borders wont stop illegal immigration it'll just make it more dangerous for the immigrants and more profitable for smugglers. I don't know all the answers but trying to round up millions of illegals and deport them will cost billions and we'll never be able to get them all. Most of them are hard working people and wont be stopped by a short bus trip across the border.

[skids]

16. Dems need to stop buying that line.

Face up: immigrants, legal or not, are a majority hispanic. While we may have better polling numbers among hispanics, the Republicans have learned how to contend in this field. They kick our ass among Cubans, for example. Hispanics are very diverse, and not nearly as progressive on the whole as the DLC seems to think. There are many uber-conservative, uber-religious subgroups among them.

And then, when it comes to the ones that are here illegally, well, they can't vote can they?

So, no, we really don't benefit from waffling on illegal immigration. It hurts us more than anything.

Because... if you bother to look:

One hotly-debated means to discourage unauthorized migration--laws that deny drivers licenses to people who are in the country illegally--draws support from a majority of the native born, according to a survey of the Latino population in the United States conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC).

(from a Pew poll)

That's right, the majority of native born hispanics are against drivers licenses for undocumented aliens. Native born and especially legally immigrated hispanics do not hold illegal immigration up on the pedestal of immunity that Dems seem to.

...and...

The opinions of Latinos on immigration are clearly differentiated between those who are registered voters and those who have not yet registered or who are not entitled to vote, among them permanent residents possessing so-called "Green Cards."

A majority of Latino voters - 52.4 percent - support initiatives that would not allow the naturalization of foreigners who enter the United States illegally.

Fifty percent of those surveyed support an increase in the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico frontier, as well as laws guaranteeing that employers may only hire foreigners who are living in the United States legally.

"An overwhelming majority of 82 percent support the creation of a new Temporary Worker Program. Also, a plurality - 41.2 percent to 39.9 percent - support imposing a fine of at least $2,000 for illegal immigrants in order to gain legal employment as a temporary worker in the U.S.," Deposada said.

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/news_print.asp?id=27453

...that means that the only slack the majority of hispanics that vote are willing to cut illegal immigrants is a guest worker program after paying a fine. And guess what party has already coopted the guest worker program meme?

This is poltical suicide, folks. You saw the intercepted Rove memo. Dems need to wake up and take a look at the goddamn polls or they will lose races over this single issue.

[bigjohn16]

18. Theres whats popular...

... and then theres whats right. A majority in the "goddamn polls" is not required, I'll never back a Dem that is for rounding up people by the millions and deporting them.

[msongs]

40. north america was a great place until the FIRST human showed up

and has been going downhill ever since :-)

Msongs
www.msongs.com/dean2008.htm

[MercutioATC]

17. No, they do NOT.

Communities have rules. They broke those rules to ILLEGALLY become part of this community. They absolutely do NOT have the same right to be here as you or I.

[bigjohn16]

20. Are you Native American?

Is genocide a requirement for legal immigration? What or who gives us the right to slice up the planet and wall ourselves off from the rest of the world? We should have open borders and help our neighbors build up their communities so that theres no need for mass illegal immigration. You'll never stop illegal immigration not with the highest wall or the biggest army.

[MercutioATC]

23. No, are you?

If you're not, we can dispense with this whole "we took their land" issue since we're both obviously enjoying the benefits of it. I'm not excusing what happened, but it really doesn't have any practical bearing on this issue.

The U.S. is essentially a household...a relatively wealthy household. What you're advocating is removing the doors and windows and letting people from other households amble through the house and take what they want in the name of "helping our neighbors". Do you really feel that this is 1) a good idea for our household or 2) the best way to help our neighbors?

[bigjohn16]

24. I think its a great idea

I'm not Native American, gay, or a minority but thats never stopped me from fighting for equal rights. What gives us the right to say you can or can't come here and who gave us that right? We wall ourselves off from the world to much already we have no inherent right to call this our house.

[MercutioATC]

25. A question...

Should these new residents be required to abide by our laws (forget immigration laws - we'll assume for the moment that they've been abolished)?

[bigjohn16]

27. If those laws are fair then yes.

Just because its a law doesn't automatically make it right, we as a society sometimes get it wrong.

[MercutioATC]

28. What gives us the right to impose our laws on them?

What if they feel it's o.k. to steal (on the premise that they're just neighbors that need to helped)? Since we don't have the right to really claim this land and artifically separate ourselves from other people, how do we have the right to impose rules within that artificial territory?

[bigjohn16]

29. We get it right sometimes. nt

[MercutioATC]

30. That's not an answer. Who decides when we've "got it right"?

[bigjohn16]

31. As a society we choose which laws are right and which are wrong...

... we've done it before.

[MercutioATC]

32. My point exactly.

We've chosen, as a society, to make a great many laws. Immigration laws are among them. I'm not suggesting that we seal the borders, merely that those who enter this country abide by the law.

[bigjohn16]

33. And if they broke that one law but followed all the rest would...

... you deport them?

[MercutioATC]

34. Absolutely.

Why should THEY get treatment better than those who obey the laws and work with the process?

[bigjohn16]

35. They're not asking for better treatment

Just a chance at a better life. We'll never agree on the issue, but again I'll never vote for any
politician that says they want to round up millions of hard working people and deport them.

[MercutioATC]

37. But they ARE asking for better treatment.

They're trying to gain access to this country without taking the necessary legal steps when thousands of their countrymen are obeying the law and going through proper channels.

I guess we just disagree about this issue.

[QC]

22. And I have as much right to be in France as Jacques Chirac does, right?

Geez, what a pluperfectly lame argument that is, yet people keep throwing it out there. If you support an open borders policy then that's fine, but you should be able to support your position with something better than a simplistic cliché that doesn't hold up to more than a second or two of examination.

[bigjohn16]

26. Yes you do but I don't live in France I live here

and I want to get my own country in order first.

[ruggerson]

9. He's anti ILLEGAL immigration

not anti immigrant.

[Cocoa]

10. he's not the first person to take a simplistic position on immigration

Hackett is the one that's going to be learning, and as he does, his statements on immigration will become more nuanced, fortunately.

[BR_Parkway]

12. I really hope he doesn't become more nuanced - one of the things

we have trouble with now are politicians (both sides) who don't take a stand and lead - they take a poll and lean, nuance and outright lie. Screw that. A person who wants to run the government of the people shouldn't be afraid to tell the people exactly where they stand.

For a billion plus reasons that I have not to like formaer Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) the one thing that I have alwasy respected him for was that he would say exactly what he thought about something. I might have been 180 degrees apart (usually was) but I never, ever had to question what he thought.

[ruggerson]

13. If he gets more "nuanced", he then becomes like other Democrats

and loses

[Catchawave]

14. Go Paul !

:loveya:

[1932]

36. When Woody Guthrie and a Democratic candidate have conflicting opinions

I'll always side with Woody.

Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves?

DEPORTEES
by Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are filed in their creosote dumps
They're flying 'em back to the Mexico border
To take all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita
Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees
My father's own father, he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
It's six hundred miles to the Mexico border
And they chased them like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves
The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
The great ball of fire it shook all our hills
Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves?
Radio said, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can raise our good crops?
To fall like dry leaves and rot on out topsoil
And be known by no names except "deportees"

[xchrom]

39. thanks.

i like paul but i'm against his position on ILLEGAL{since some want to beat that with a sledge hammer} immigrants.
they just don't bother me as an issue -- and that's it.