The NYT describes it as a 'race to the bottom,' but it's the one beneficial effect of the Trump Show that the Republican primary race has been for a little while now. The American people have been taken for a ride on immigration: generations of leaders of both parties have simply defied the popular will, and presented ongoing massive waves of immigration as a fait accompli. Democrats since Teddy Kennedy have looked with glee upon the horizon when their imported coalition will come to dominate elections; conservatives long ago began adopting apologetic rhetoric in order to avoid giving offense to their new electoral masters.
So suddenly we're talking about birthright citizenship, whether it's the proper standard for the American Republic, and just how much immigration should be subordinated to the greater cause of maintaining a polity that supports the ongoing American project codified in the Constitution. That's exactly the conversation we should have been having all along, but people were too afraid to have it.
It isn't necessary to adopt unfair rhetoric to have the conversation, and we shouldn't speak unjustly of anyone. It is necessary to have the conversation. America is not a bloodline nation. Birthright citizenship doesn't make much sense here. We're a nation founded on a creed. Adherence to the creed should be what we are looking for in new immigrants, and numbers should be kept small enough over time that assimilation get to work. The creed should never be endangered by demographics. The creed is a vision of human liberty that is what this country was all about. Achieving and sustaining that vision is the whole point of the project.
These levels of immigration are not compatible with that, and therefore we need to address them. We must do this will all seriousness, because the survival of the project is at stake. We are not racing to the bottom, but we are in a race against time.
3 comments:
Bernie is the anti-immigration Democrat, and surprisingly popular.
We're a nation founded on a creed. Adherence to the creed should be what we are looking for in new immigrants,...
I'd be happy if the Supreme Court adhered to the creed, ya'know.
Don't want to be guilty of confirmation bias, but I read several blogs that are not USA centered. I think there is a resistance to illegal immigration that is under the radar of many politicians and media types.
Just to expand, the media just assumes that anti immigration rhetoric is driven by racism and xenophobia so they can sweep it under the rug. I think people are just fed up. The case of Kathryn Steinle is emblematic of our elites demanding we roll over and whizz in the air, while they, the pols, spread their legs for every special interest group, except the everyday working American.
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