On "Bigotry"

Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee discusses the backlash to the $500-for-every-baby plan proposed in California, and the related dismay that the children of illegal immigrants would qualify for the cash giveaway.

The bill's sponsor attributes Californians' vehement disapproval of the establishment of further taxpayer-funded entitlements for illegal immigrants to "bigotry."

Weintraub then goes on to report on a study which purports to show that illegal immigrants improve Californians' lives, and concludes with a nice swipe of his own at those who disagree with illegal immigration:

"It is easy -- and rational -- to argue that illegal immigration is wrong because it is illegal. But much of the emotion that the issue provokes goes beyond that, to perceptions about cultural and economic change. Many native Californians who are part of the state's shrinking white plurality see immigration, especially illegal immigration, as a threat to their way of life."

It's "easy" to argue illegal immigration is wrong because that's the truth.

And it is far too easy for those sympathetic to illegal immigration to cry "racism," "nativism," or "bigotry" when they don't have the law on their side. Rather reminds me of the old legal maxim that if the facts and the law aren't on your side, then pound on the table and yell.