Remember 2004? You know, the last election year. Remember how half the country was afraid gays getting married was on the verge of sending the country spiraling down a path of ruin? It was mentioned in every political speech. Legislation was enacted. People protested.

How often do you hear about it now? In Massachusetts, where gay marriage was legalized, a few conservative protestors are still fighting to ban it, but other than that, it has virtually disappeared off the radar. It was a hot button topic for one year, designed to get socially conservative voters to the poll to help Bush win the election.

And it worked brilliantly.

But is the current immigration debate the same kind of election-year hot button issue? Maybe. Just like gay marriage, the "immigration problem" is a scare tactic that feeds off masked discrimination and separatism. However, Bush et al probably won't have the same success with this issue as with the last. Aside from militarizing the border with 6,000 national guard troops, his plan was fairly moderate and reasonable, in part because of his stint as governor of a border state.

And as phronesisaical points out, Bush's immigration speech isn't going over well with hardline conservatives.