"Illegal aliens" are a pretty easy target in these times of economic insecurity that affects all Americans.

And the Democratic Leadership - never ones to stand up to demagoguery when a simple "bi-partisan" weak-at-the-knees surrender will do - recently caved to Joe Wilson's "You Lie" comment by making certain that not only would undocumented immigrants be denied any benefits under any health care proposal presented to Congress, but that they would not be able to even purchase health insurance.

For better or worse, the undocumented immigrants are here in large numbers and there is no reason to believe they will simply disappear overnight in the absence of available health insurance. So at a time when we deem it important to mandate everybody's participation in the health insurance pool, we have carved out undocumented immigrants as a special class of people who will not be allowed to participate at all.

It's a reasoned exception the Republicans make in this regard. The mandate recognizes that those without insurance too often postpone medical care until their illness or disease requires medical services in an emergency room. It therefore makes sense to mandate health insurance coverage to ensure everyone who participates in the system gets help when it is most efficiently provided, meaning early on at the onset of symptoms. It also ensures that these people cover their share of the cost for emergency room care and all other services.

The difference that allows for an "illegal alien exemption," however, is an implied agreement that they will not be allowed to participate in our health care system at all. They aren't supposed to be here in the first place. So why would we let them have access to the emergency room or any other services where they will waste our tax dollars on services provided?

If you are going to be chest-poundingly tough on this issue, it's really a pretty sound argument. And what are the Republicans if not chest pounders when it comes to their attitude toward brown-peopled hoards coming north to "steal our jobs" and commit other such crimes against the Republic? But let's try a little thought experiment to see just how such a "get tough" policy might be realized. Let's imagine a plausible case wherein two parents show up at the entrance to an emergency room with a ten year old boy. The boy suffers from appendicitis; from an illness that is presently causing him great physical agony and duress and will most certainly result in the death of the boy if left untreated. The boy is not covered by any insurance because his parents are undocumented immigrant workers.

Doctors and other health care workers are presently prohibited by oath and by law from denying this boy emergency medical care, which in this case would include an examination, medical tests, surgery and recovery at great cost to the taxpayer. Yet, under the GOP "get tough" plan the law would be changed to prohibit any intervention at all. A standoff would ensue between the health care workers and those who would enforce the GOP dictate. How might it be resolved? Let's imagine various political players on the scene, and see what happens:

Boehner, McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership would insist that they are interested in helping, but that there needs to be a bi-partisan solution to this problem and that we all need to just slow down a little and start over.

Rush Limbaugh would not show up, but would instead take to the airwaves to play "Barack, the Magic Negro," say it was all the fault of the Democrats and other Socialists. He would then speed-dial his contact to arrange delivery of his next bagful of oxycontin.

Lou Dobbs would smugly sneer and ask "What is the Government DOING about this problem?" He would then call upon citizen militias to establish a three-block perimeter around every emergency room to prevent such problems occurring in the future.

Glen Beck would organize a teabaggers rally at the site to gain the media advantage, drawing attention away from the family and the issue at hand while inciting his followers to paroxysms of rage against the guvmint and any other social conventions that stand in the way of "Freedom" and "Liberty" and whatever other patriotic words he can think of. Cameras will be at the ready should the mob choose to tear this family limb from limb, a plausible outcome for which Beck has already written the tele-script in which it will be explained that "The godless Dems have blood on their hands over their failure to close the border and get rid of these illegal aliens!"

Meanwhile, there would be two parents in an increasingly agonized state watching over their little boy who grows sicker and who is at extreme risk of dying on the doorstep of a state-of-the-art medical facility.

I think you get the point. I have little doubt that Beck and the others we've seen could easily demagogue such a scenario to achieve higher ratings or electoral success or political power or whatever personal "needs" might motivate them at the time. I also believe that this is what defines them as sociopaths.

I also fear that a mob such as we've seen assembled at these teabaggers rallies would be capable of committing savage acts of violence against the undocumented characters in question if offered the right incitement to riot.

But I also know that this isn't the America we all grew up with, and it isn't in our nature as individual human beings to be cruel to another human being in such a fashion. I therefore know that if any one of us - or even nearly any single person in Beck's mob - were confronted one-on-one by a mother and a father pleading to receive medical help for their dying child, we would move heaven and earth to make certain such help was given if available. And we wouldn't even ask if they were here in this country legally or not.

This "get tough" policy of absolutely no health care being made available for "illegal aliens" sounds pretty good to the politicians who are anxious to offer their bona fides to the chest-thumping mob that calls for such measures.

But, except for the opportunistic bullies and outright sociopaths among us, we might all benefit in taking a step back, drawing a deep breath, and truly consider the consequences of such punitive policies before insisting they be passed into law.

(NOTE: This was re-published from yesterday due to a problem with the posting date on the original.)