How can anyone not love this guy?

Submitted by Bill White on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:57am. Tags:

Politics

Sean Tevis -- Running for Office: It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner

Visit his website to read more . . .

Via John Cole
--

. . . and it looks as though they’ll punish the monkey and let the organ grinder go . . .

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Since he's a geek (#103993)

by catchy on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 9:38am

maybe it's unsurprising that he's a member of metafilter.

The candidate showed up in comments there and it was kind of interesting. How anyone could not love him is answered there as his views on immigration turned some of the commenters off.

http://www.metafilter.com/73366/Information-Design-Politics-WIN-Hopefull...

Basically he came across as a decent and naive moderate. Kansas could and certainly has done much worse.

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That pretty much shows the silliness of our political discourse (#103995)

by Chuchundra on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 9:56am

As a member of the state legislature, Sean's influence or input on immigration issues is pretty much zero. Immigration is a federal issue.

Guard, protect and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven.

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Reasonable response to that in the thread (#104007)

by catchy on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 10:58am

Do state representatives really have that much say over immigration?

Of course they do! Given balance of powers, no one has absolute "say," but state reps can do and are doing some pretty significant things in the area of immigration law. For instance, here's a guy who's proposed a bill which would make it illegal for "anchor babies," or children of illegal immigrants born in the US, to receive state benefits like mandated children's health insurance, public housing, Medicaid, or food stamps. Here's a bill that would allow the state to immediately shut down any business found to be employing illegals on the spot. State matters like who may get a driver's license, whether state contractors must verify all their employees, how much education funding will go to bilingual education, may be proposed and settled by reps. With federal policy shifting and unfocused, what's happening at the state level is pretty important -- states are testing grounds for potential national solutions, but also petri dishes for harmful legislation that could land in the Supreme Court, or provide the impetus for a clear Federal strategy that would supercede state law.

So it's pretty important at all levels.

metafilter is a pretty good site and I would spend more time there if it had more conservatives checking the assumptions of the liberal posters. E.g. they run wild on economic + security issues and there's just too much disinfo. that gets past the community.

But the community is large and generally bright and the amount of specific expertise that pops up in the comments section on any given topic can be impressive. A candidate or author of an article surfacing to respond to posts there happens fairly regularly.

It's just another example though of quality control being a function of site size, and the tradeoffs aren't worth it to depart from this boutique.

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A few points here (#104057)

by Chuchundra on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:10pm

None of the things listed have anything to do with setting immigration policy. They seem to fall into two broad categories, public services provided to illegal immigrants and local laws designed to discourage or otherwise sanction illegal immigration.

As to the first, sure that's a local issue. But things like translation services and bilingual education serve legal immigrants and American citizens too. It's about funding of services, not immigration.

As to the second, almost all of these are blatantly unconstitutional or violate various federal laws. I mean "anchor babies"? You know what you call an "anchor baby"? A US citizen.

Guard, protect and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven.

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Yes. . . (#104200)

by M Scott Eiland on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 6:22pm

. . .a baby born to illegal immigrant parents is a US citizen--but that doesn't necessarily grant any right to the baby's parents. The baby's citizenship is not in queston--the idea that that fact should be a way for others to get in is.

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Never said they did (#104058)

by catchy on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 1:31pm

But there are policies generally relevant to immigrants that state reps have some control over.

It's about funding of services, not immigration.

But if you're anti-immigrant, that might affect funding choices even if the services also apply to legal immigrants.

As for 'anchor babies' those laws might be unconstitutional etc. but state reps are nonetheless proposing them + wasting the resources of the state legislature to send negative messages to immigrants.

It's reasonable to expect someone running for state rep. to weigh in on such matters.

This particular candidate doesn't appear to be virulently anti-immigrant, but no harm in asking.

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What he said (see catchy's link) (#104016)

by Bill White on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 11:23am

About the Immigration issue - I really hadn't given it much thought before I started campaigning. I was really surprised when person after person told me it was one of their biggest concerns. I think my stance was just that we should enforce existing laws, so it's not all that extreme.

His current stance is far from ideal as in . . . "I really hadn't given it much thought" . . .

But that is a better stance than not having given it much thought but pretending he had.

. . . and it looks as though they’ll punish the monkey and let the organ grinder go . . .

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Not so. Education, emergency medical, (#103996)

by Jordan on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 9:59am

employment, workers' comp and little things like translation, bilingual gov't services, etc. all come out of state budgets.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH

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