Lessons from London

Yesterday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met a supporter at a campaign stop who asked him about immigration and some other issues. The supporter was concerned that immigrants to the UK would overwhelm the government assistance programs in that country. After speaking to the woman, Brown got into his limo and forgot that he had a live mike still pinned to his jacket. He called the woman, a Labor voter, a "disaster" and a "bigot".

What is it about political leaders on the left? Do they not understand that it is possible to discuss immigration issues without being a bigot? Apparently, the answer is a resounding no.

In the UK, the expectation is that Brown severely hurt himself by calling the woman a bigot for no more reason than that she was concerned about immigration. that should be a lesson to Obama and the Obamacrats who are so quick to call the new Arizona law and its supporters "racists". Most Americans who do not have an axe to grind understand that there is a crisis in border states lie Arizona as illegals from Mexico bring the Mexican drug wars into this country. Most Americans understand that there are laws governing immigration and that the law needs to be enforced or changed; it cannot just be ignored. Most Americans understand that it is possible to be against allowing illegals to stay here with no consequences without the basis for such a view being race or ethnicity. Indeed, it is only the hard left which sees nearly everything through a racial prism that gives a racist coloration to everything. Thus, the tea parties are "racist" because they oppose Obama's policies. why else could someone oppose excessive government spending, unmanageable deficits, and the destruction of the free market system? Similarly, opposition to healthcare had to mean that the protesters were bigots. That is why, when there was no proof of any sort that the protests had a racial basis, members of the Congressional Black Caucus took it upon themselves to manufacture a phony claim that protesters outside the Capitol had called them the N word.

Brown is rapidly losing any chance to regain his position as Prime Minister. The bigot remark is probably the final straw. Obama and the Obamacrats might well learn a lesson from that. Of course, they probably just think that Brown's defeat will be a triumph of bigotry. The truth is that the coming defeat of the Obamacrats has nothing to do with race and everything to do with sound public policy (or the lack of such a policy put forth by the Obamacrats.)