{"id":1740,"date":"2007-12-04T05:11:28","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T10:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2007-12-04T05:11:28","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T10:11:28","slug":"attention-fourth-district-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1740","title":{"rendered":"Attention, Fourth District GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty much a given that nobody appreciates this country like someone who left his\/her old life to come here.\u00a0 As a fourth-generation American, the grandson of people who were born here, I am deeply thankful for what we have in this nation – but not nearly so much as those who come here, sometimes leaving or risking all, do.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there is nothing that warms the heart, shivers the spine and quivers the lip quite like seeing a swearing-in ceremony, where dozens, hundreds or thousands of newly-naturalized citizens take the Pledge of Allegiance, and take up permanent residence in the Shining City on the Hill.<\/p>\n

And as a cherry on the sundae?\u00a0 They’re turning into Republicans:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Previously, new citizens could be relied upon to vote Democratic by a ratio of up to 10 to one. But in San Diego this week there were indications that this could be changing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“I\u2019ve had several people here, Hispanic people, say \u2018No, I\u2019m a Republican\u2019,\u201d said Bill De Risa, a Democratic worker eagerly registering voters outside Golden Hall.<\/p>\n

His colleague Mary Kennedy said that one woman had told her she wanted to be a Republican because of immigration policy.<\/p>\n

“She felt the Democrats were too soft. She wanted higher fences. It\u2019s a very polarising issue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The high fence – and wide, brightly-lit gate – draw comments:<\/p>\n

“For a long time, immigration was OK,\u201d said Sara Wright, 49, a seamstress from Mexico who arrived in the US legally in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now, no more. A lot of really bad people come from Mexico and commit crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are coming in and having two, three, four babies and going on welfare. Some are making money here and spending it back in Mexico.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s not right. They should go back to Mexico and get a permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Wright, whose American-born husband Ed served in the US Navy, was one of 1,591 people from 89 countries who became citizens at a ceremony in San Diego\u2019s Golden Hall on Tuesday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Immigration:\u00a0 Keep it safe, available and legal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty much a given that nobody appreciates this country like someone who left his\/her old life to come here.\u00a0 As a fourth-generation American, the grandson of people who were born here, I am deeply thankful for what we have in this nation – but not nearly so much as those who come here, sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}