The National Republican Congressional Committee has just mailed a survey to a select list of grassroots Republicans soliciting their opinions on "issues of greatest concern" so that the Party can be strengthened "by getting more Americans involved." Of course, it's really a fundraiser (send your "most generous contribution"), but it's artfully designed to look like authentic market research using buzz words such as "registered survey number" (identifying me and my district), "classified document," and "data entry control number for office use only."
Whoever made up the survey must have the cloistered worldview of Inside-the-Beltway policy wonks whose sensitivity to public opinion is bounded by the Washington Post in the morning and Dan Rather in the evening. They are clueless about what grassroots Americans are thinking.
Out of 54 detailed questions sorted into 13 different issues, there is only one question about border security and immigration, and that appears at the bottom of the page under Foreign Affairs. There is a section on Homeland Security, but it contains no mention of border security or immigration.
I'm going to help the Republican Congressional Committee by providing a list of additional questions whose answers would be helpful to Party leaders.
- Do you favor President Bush's plan to give amnesty to illegal aliens, putting people who violate our laws in line ahead of those who lawfully apply for entry?
- Do you favor repealing Ted Kennedy's Diversity Visa Lottery, which admits 50,000 aliens per year, mostly from non-Western countries including countries that sponsor terrorism?
- Should the State Department stop issuing visas in foreign countries that sponsor terrorism?
- Do you favor closing our borders to illegal aliens, illegal drugs and contagious diseases by whatever means necessary, including electronic fences and National Guard troops?
- Do you favor requiring visual inspection of the contents of at least 50 percent of trucks coming across our border (instead of the current one to two percent)?
- Do you favor prohibiting the State Department from negotiating a plan with Mexico to give Social Security benefits to illegal aliens?
- Do you favor repealing the federal requirement that hospitals must give free medical care, including scarce organ transplants, to illegal aliens (an unfunded mandate that is bankrupting many hospitals and increasing the price of medical care to Americans)?
- Do you favor cutting off federal funding to state universities that give lower in-state tuition to illegal aliens (in violation of current federal law), or that refuse to cooperate with the foreign student tracking system?
- Will you vote to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming "dual citizenship" with their native country?
- Do you favor stopping the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens (since many of the 9/11 hijackers boarded the fatal planes by showing their driver's licenses)?
- Do you favor penalties on local public officials who refuse to cooperate with immigration officials in identifying illegal aliens?
- Do you favor prohibiting government agencies from accepting foreign-issued cards (matricula consular) as acceptable I.D.s?
- Do you favor strict health screening of foreigners entering the U.S. in order to stop the extraordinary rise in cases of tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B, intestinal parasites, Chagas, West Nile virus, END (which now threatens the California poultry business), and SARS?
- Do you favor stopping the racket of smuggling very-pregnant aliens into the United States so they can give birth to their babies in the U.S. (thereby becoming immediately eligible for citizenship and welfare)?
- Do you favor a time-out on immigration and visas until Homeland Security has a functioning computer system to track all aliens (not U.S. citizens) through smart I.D. cards?
- Do you favor rescinding Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13166 requiring anyone who receives federal funds (such as doctors and hospitals) to provide their services in foreign languages?
- Do you favor abolishing federal requirements to provide foreign-language ballots, since the ability to speak, read and write basic English is a requirement to become a naturalized U.S. citizen and only citizens are eligible to vote?
- Do you favor a general policy of drawing a bright line of difference between U.S. citizens and aliens so that law-abiding American citizens are not treated like potential terrorists or hijackers?
- Do you favor a Party policy of rejecting political contributions from individuals and corporations that hire illegal aliens?
Is the reason why questions about border security and immigration were omitted from the Republican survey that our leaders don't want to know the answers?
