@Foxfyre,
Quote:We don't live in a 'democracy' but rather a democratically elected representative republic.
Fine. The democratically elected representatives who have been getting democratically elected tend not to be the ones who share your views.
If people who shared your views were being democratically elected... then the policies you support would be implemented without problem-- except they are not.
Quote:Allowing persons to violate the immigration laws with impunity is as destructive as ignoring any other necessary laws.
This is a ridiculous thing to say.
Obviously someone who commits rape is far more destructive than someone who smokes a joint-- just as someone who commits murder is more destructive than someone who illegally serves you a hamburger.
Quote:... our representative republic does depend on the consent of the people for the laws that we enact and enforce.
And that is the point. The immigration law will be made by the representatives that we elected. If punishing illegal immigrants were that important to most voters, we would have different representatives. That's how democracy works.
The problem is that in our representative democracy, we allow a vocal minority to slow down the progress of the majority (I am not saying this is always a bad thing).
All real movement toward a moderate immigration compromise (at least nationally) has been blocked by the Republicans acting on behalf of the right wing.
Now politically the Republicans are paying for this in the ballot box. This is a slow process, but that's how Democracy works.
At some point we will arrive at a fairly progressive immigration solution.