![\"613px-Official_portrait_of_Vice_President_Joe_Biden[1]\"](\"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/613px-Official_portrait_of_Vice_President_Joe_Biden1-239x300.jpg\")
Vice President Joe Biden and White House Domestic Policy advisor Cecilia Mu\u00f1oz sat down Wednesday for what was billed as a dialogue with the American people about immigration reform. The discussion was streamed live on the White House\u2019s website and on Bing (the search engine site owned by Microsoft, which is investing some big bucks in the lobbying effort to pass amnesty and open immigration legislation).<\/p>\n
It was not exactly \u201cMust see TV.\u201d To the surprise of no one (expect those who actually believe the deposed Nigerian oil minister is really going to turn over $6 million to them) the whole event was carefully staged<\/a>. The questions were vetted and teed-up for canned answers by Biden and Mu\u00f1oz \u2013 most of which concluded with a demand that Speaker John Boehner allow the House to vote on the bill approved by the Senate (even though the Senate has never sent the bill to the House).<\/p>\n The vice president has a record of saying stuff that leaves people scratching their heads, even when his remarks have been carefully scripted. And, true to form, Wednesday\u2019s event did not disappoint. Responding to a question selected to make it look like the White House was engaging with critics, Biden declared<\/a>, \u201cMy great-great grandparents came escaping the famine and they didn\u2019t all come here legally.\u201d<\/p>\n We did not check the accuracy of that assertion, but we\u2019ll take the vice president\u2019s word for it. Discussing one\u2019s ancestors is a favorite tactic for apologists for illegal immigration and advocates of mass immigration \u2013 probably because it plays on emotion, nostalgia, and a bit of guilt, or because they really don\u2019t have any better arguments to support their case.<\/p>\n But when you really think about it, it also one of the lamest reasons for implementing the policies they advocate. The only rational answer to invoking one\u2019s grandparents, or great-grandparents is, \u201cSo what?\u201d What relevance does what took place in the mid-19th<\/sup> century have on public policy in the 21st<\/sup> century? Would Joe Biden suggest that we invest our defense dollars in a strong cavalry, because soldiers on horseback were a critical component of our military strategy 160 years ago? Would he suggest that we apply the education policies and curricula of the 1850s to the schools of today?<\/p>\n If the vice president, or any politician, tried to justify any other contemporary policy solely because that\u2019s the way we did thing a century or more ago, they would be laughed at (not that that ever happens to Biden). But when it comes to immigration, a surprising number of otherwise intelligent folks seem to think that nostalgia makes for good public policy.