Bilbo takes on immigration reform!

Yesterday, with tens of thousands of well-meaning, but fundamentally foolish people loudly demonstrating for immigrant rights (i.e., unconditional amnesty for illegal immigrants) in the streets of Washington, I offered Congress a compromise plan for immigration reform. Well, not exactly. What I did was write a lengthy op-ed article outlining my plan, which I submitted to the Washington Post for possible publication. The Post sent back a pleasant form e-mail telling me they get lots of submissions and decide whether or not to use them within two to six days, and if I don't hear back from them in that time, it means they've decided not to use my article ("don't call us, we'll call you"). If the Post elects not to publish my article, I'll share my plan with you here in a week or so; if they do, I'll publish a link to it on the Post website.

It's a compromise concept, which means that it will irritate all sides of the issue equally...but that's the nature of a compromise: everyone gets something, but nobody gets everything. The ability to compromise, to give something to get something, is what we have lost in political discourse in this country in the last few years. No one is willing to give an inch for fear of being thought soft or offending someone. We are awash in spineless politicians driven by fear of offending potential voters, when what we need is principled statesmen willing to study the issues, make sound decisions, and stand up for the benefit of the nation. I think there are people like that in Congress.

But then, I believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too.

Watch this space for the debut of Bilbo's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (Draft) of 2006, coming to this space soon. I guarantee you'll see a reasonable plan in this space before you see anything rational coming out of Congress.

Have a good day. Practice compromising. You may like it.

Bilbo