Obama Brings Non-White Americans Together

In the horrifyingly gruesome Robert Rodriguez movie "Machete," a white senator (Robert De Niro) guffaws as his vigilante sidekick (Don Johnson) shoots a pregnant illegal immigrant to death. Then the senator shoots a Mexican himself. "Welcome to America," he spits.

"Machete" does not reflect reality. It is a vicious attack on Americans who oppose illegal immigration, portraying them as racist Nazi-types who can't wait to break out their AK-47s for the next anti-Latino pogrom. Thankfully, nobody takes the politics from "Machete" seriously.

No one, that is, except President Obama.

Standing at the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, the U.S. president scoffed at Americans who want a border fence. "You know, they said 'we needed to triple the border patrol,'" he laughed. "Well, now they're going to say we need to quadruple the border patrol, or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."

Beyond the obvious buffoonery of attacking law-abiding Americans as incipient murderers — yes, if you build a moat filled with alligators around your house and somebody falls in and is eaten, you will be prosecuted for murder — Obama is lying about the efficacy of his anti-illegal immigration program. In his e-book "How Obama is Transforming America Through Immigration," Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says: "In fiscal year 2009, compared with 2008, administrative arrests of illegal workers fell 68 percent, criminal arrests fell 60 percent, criminal indictments fell 58 percent, and criminal convictions fell 63 percent."

Illegal immigration has dropped not because of better law enforcement efforts, but because the Obama economy is so poor that even people trying to escape drug-related beheadings aren't trying to jump the border anymore.

The Obama administration has crippled state law enforcement efforts at working in tandem with federal immigration authorities; it has attempted to shut down efforts to keep track of illegal immigrants who stay after their visas expire; it has attempted to cut the number of border patrol agents altogether (its original 2011 budget slotted a 1 percent reduction in patrol agents).

Obama is not interested in shutting down illegal immigration — he's interested in promoting it as far and fast as humanly possible.

Or perhaps he's more interested in pandering to the Latino community. After all, he made his speech in El Paso to push for that comprehensive immigration bill that he's wanted for so long. With his re-election campaign underway, Obama knows he will have to count on specific racial groups rather than that broad coalition of Americans who voted for him the first time. And he's got some work to do there. Obama's approval ratings among whites now lag in the high 30s, according to Gallup. And even more surprisingly, his approval ratings among Hispanics have dropped precipitously, from 73 percent in January 2009 to 54 percent in April 2011.

Hence Obama's renewed interest in targeting white Americans. It's his go-to move when he's in trouble. He knows that moderate liberal white Americans are too racially guilt-ridden to abandon Obama — that's why they voted for him in the first place. He knows that hard-core liberal white Americans love him. And he knows that independent and conservative white Americans have turned against him. There's no risk to bashing white Americans in order to pander to minority Americans.

That's why Obama now characterizes anti-illegal immigration voters, who are predominantly white, as kooks who want to feed Mexicans to alligators. That's why Obama has consistently enabled the Justice Department to discriminate on behalf of thugs like the New Black Panthers. That's why Obama sided with Henry Louis Gates over law enforcement and attempted to shut down the Arizona anti-illegal immigration efforts. And that's why he brought anti-white rapper Common to the White House this week. So much for unity.

Unity isn't Obama's strong suit, contrary to his campaign sloganeering. He's more interested in simple divide and conquer tactics. The only question now is whether minority Americans will recognize his obvious maneuvering, or whether they'll continue to buy into Obama's anti-white bigotry.

Ben Shapiro, attorney and writer, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is the author of the forthcoming book "Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV" from Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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