We interrupt your regularly scheduled Antarctic anecdotes for a political
rant.
I find it totally impossible to believe that Shrub's new "guest
worker" initiative isn't prompted by a need to get him more Hispanic and other
immigrant votes. On the other hand, I believe it's the right thing to do -- these
are jobs most Americans will not take -- though of course it's all going to
depend how to details are worked out. Apparently the similar bracero program in
the 1950s ended up being fairly abusive, so there need to be escape valves and
ways to change emplyers built into the system. But that can be done, with a bit of
awareness and common sense. A few years ago when it was impossible to hire enough
software engineers, we imported them from places like India and China. Companies
were required to prove they couldn't find enough at home, people who wanted to
move to the States could. I worked with quite a few of these people and they
seemed happy with the system, though it did occasionally have some red tape
hitches. one thing that has long bothered me about NAFTA is that it hasn't helped
the poor and desperate, those most in need of help.
If you had asked
me a week ago, I would not have believed that this president would do this thing.
Yeah, it will help companies looking for labor, but it will also help poor people
desperate to support their famlies. I really don't have much problem with an
initiative that gets him votes and does the right thing, however much I might wish
those motivations were in the opposite order. Where I have the problem is in the
nagging cynical hunch that this is a way for the President to look good with no
risk because he knows Congress will not pass this law. Not only that, it can make
his opponents look bad even if their reasons for not passing the law stem from
fear that the guest workers will be abused.
Fortunately, I think the
peepul are often smarter than politicians believe -- and that includes Latino
peepul. I think most people will not change their votes until they see what
promises actually materialize. If President Bush puts his considerable influence
behind passing an initiative and getting plenty of human rights safeguards built
in to it (as well as safeguards to mkae sure companies don't fire Americans to
hire chaper labor), then he will have earned some votes.
If this
week's intiative was a bid for Latino votes, then next week's is a bid for votes
from engineers and space buffs like me, not to mention Texans and Floridians who
know they would benefit from a revitalized space program. It's being widely
reported that next week the President will announce a new space initiative
including to the Moon, a possible permanent Lunar base, and a manned mission to
Mars. I can't adequately verbalize how badly I want that all to happen, but we've
been burnt before, not least by Bush Sr., who also promised a manned mission to
Mars. No mere promises are going to have any effect on my vote. In this matter,
I'm going to vicariously share in the St. Louis roots of a man who sparked a
passion for space travel in so many of us, Robert A. Heinlein. Mr. Bush, I speak
for myself and a lot of other engineers who would eagerly put other work aside if
we could make a manned space program something more than the painfully limited
orbital program we now have. Mr. Bush, in this matter we're all from Missouri, and
you'll have to show us.