Quote: "Do you remember 100 years ago when we were saying, ‘Give us your tired, give us your poor?’ How come that doesn’t still stand?" David Wells, speaking to the L.A. Times.
Figure of Speech: anamnesis (an-am-NEE-sis), the reminder figure.
Two thirds of Americans support a guest worker program along with stricter border enforcement. The House of Representatives wants to send all illegal immigrants to Abu Ghraib — well, to declare them felons anyway. And the Senate wants… it doesn’t know what it wants, but it wants it badly.
In response, David Wells, a Republican golf course groundskeeper and mere voter in Plant City, Florida, executes a rhetorical Statue of Liberty play, the anamnesis ("remind"). The figure quotes an authority from memory. It’s excellent way to bring values into an argument and make people feel vaguely guilty.
Yes, he misquotes Emma Lazarus’s poem “Colossus,” whose 14 lines appear on the statue. But he does it with a nice anaphora, so we’ll excuse him just this once.
Snappy Answer: "Congress wants a minor edit. Just change ‘us’ to ‘up on.’"