by druidabruxux

Question by Rocky Mountain Patriot: Since libs are claiming Eisenhower as one of their own does that indicate support for his recovery plan in ’54?
Since YA! liberals want to claim Eisenhower as one of their own, does that indicate increasing support for what he addressed during 1953-54 and what he saw as the country’s most pressing issue during his first term?

Among the first orders of business for the General who responded to groundswell popular support for a run to the Presidency was putting the brave servicemen who served under his leadership back to work. That meant supporting American citizen workers first and honoring his conservative base by addressing the illegal immigration problem of that period more aggressively than earlier deportation/repatriation programs instituted under Presidents Hoover or Truman.

Together with former West Point classmate Joseph Swing, who was himself a decorated Army Air Corps General during WWII, the decisive leaders addressed illegal immigration in a proactive manner not seen since the mid-50’s. Eisenhower took the office of Commander In Chief in January, 1953, and policy initiatives were promptly formed to apply immigration laws according to the Constitution and Court rulings since the 14th Amendment was ratified. During 1953-1954, the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics published annually by the DHS indicated 1,975,170 illegal aliens were repatriated south of the border back into Mexico. With elevated immigration enforcement activity continuing into early 1955, another quarter of a million illegal aliens were returned to their native country. What’s sometimes overlooked with the verifiable numbers of illegals deported was the more sketchy voluntary exodus believed to have approached around 7 to 10 illegal aliens for each apprehended migrant who returned on their own to avoid forced removal. That appears to have been the basis for estimates that go far beyond the two-and-a-quarter million recorded removals by CBP under the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). President Eisenhower’s wildly successful Operation W_tback (with an “e”) campaign has been credited by some sources as having removed upwards of 10 million illegals, where movement south of the border included a mass exodus of Mexican aliens who fled to control their own destiny.

It’s become popular with many on the left to suggest Eisenhower would today be considered a liberal and their views and Eisenhower’s are aligned in ways some argue approach those of current liberals and progressives. I’ll share a linked question for the latest effort at positing claims from the left that rather enviously appear to believe the highly regarded General and 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, would today be a Democrat.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aiu1MSQrRwwByZKlLU6jUBrY7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20110801090537AAUbeMx

Since President Eisenhower and his Republican colleagues were responsible for forming civil rights legislation that they championed and worked to pass from 1957 onward, perhaps that’s where some confusion has come from. The vicious opposition from then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and the likes of former KKK member Senator Byrd effectively blocked passage of the former General’s prized civil rights legislation, which was considered among the most stinging defeats of Eisenhower’s Presidency. It was hardly coincidental that Martin Luther King was a staunch conservative and vocal supporter of the Republican Party throughout his otherwise apolitical ascendancy. Just a few years later, in true liberal fashion, Lyndon Johnson was President when the civil rights legislation he vigorously opposed in the Senate reappeared and was addressed once more under his Democratic Administration. When the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964, Johnson famously boasted “Now we’ll have them ni_gers voting Democrat for the next 200 years,” according to biographers who served with and worked for the liberal President from Texas following Kennedy’s assassination.

Since one of Eisenhower’s most successful initiatives on behalf of the American people was the successful repatriation program that became known as Operation W_tback, and we’re now regularly told the left believes his political leanings mirror their own, is this the first sign of shared, widespread agreement the American public has been seeking in regard to immigration adherence to Constitutional law? After 1955, the ensuing decade never again reached an annual removal rate of even 100,000 illegals, because analysis of records and the success of Eisenhower’s program protecting the American public reportedly slowed illegal migration by 95% for a period of unprecedented prosperity here in the U.S.

Can we get there again today? If the Q’s and A’s on YA! can be believed, it sounds like many on the left are coming on board to address this critical issue for restoring opportunities for American workers. Is this Eisenhower’s legacy for bold leadership on behalf of the American people and our crippled economy?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.html

http://bigtimeconservative.com/?p=2593

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01

http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/ice-agents-slam-obama-immigration-policy#ixzz1QdI9OXfn

http://bigtimeconservative.com/?p=2593

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01

http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/ice-agents-slam-obama-immigration-policy#ixzz1QdI9OXfn

Best answer:

Answer by justgetitright
The truth is that unless the democrats can claim Eisenhower as their own they do not have much wiggle room to argue their platform but they have to be careful when doing so because Eisenhower did start Operation W**back to get the illegals out of the country. Illegals that were brought into the county by Harry Truman because we needed the workers due to the impact of the wars.
It was Eisenhower that started (rather re-started) the Civil Rights Act that was passed in 1875 by the republicans and then declared unconstitutional by a then liberal Supreme Court. In some respects I agree with what the court said “You can not legislate the way people think”

As Eisenhower was trying to get this legislation passed there were Senators that were blocking the legislation, guys like Robert Byrd and Al Gore Sr as well as Lyndon B. Johnson.

Ironically when this act came up again Johnson was the president and he saw something that had blinded him previously and that was the knowledge that if he could get the Civil Rights Act passed he would secure the votes of the blacks. In fact LBJ was heard to say “If I can get this bill passed, I will have those ni***rs voting for democrats for the next two hundred years”

(damn, the more I read of your question, the more I seem to be parroting what you have said LOL)

Don’t take my statement regarding Truman bringing in the immigrants to harshly, at the time it was the right thing to do for the country. Eisenhower was equally right in rounding them up and shipping them back. They served the need and now we had American men coming back from the war in Korea and he wanted to make certain that there were jobs to be had.

It is very clear that without the liberals trying to latch on to Ike, they have very little to hang their hats on. They have tried to hang it on Bill Clinton and his successes. The problem with that is that the things that made the Clinton era a relatively good time is due to legislation signed into law by George H. W. Bush that freed up the part of the Internet known as DARPA that led to business opportunities on what is now the Internet. Yes libbies this is the Al Gore legislation but it happened on Bush Sr. watch.
All of the Clinton surpluses came when republicans controlled congress and while there was an increase to the national debt with republicans, it was about half as much as when democrats controlled congress, If Clinton had one thing going for him it was his willingness to work with the other side.

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