This Republic is perhaps unique (OK, maybe Canada - maybe) in its demonstrated ability to assimilate immigrants from all over the globe. The "Melting Pot" has taken Irish, and Italian, and Polish, and Chinese, and all sorts of folks, and produced a hard but supple alloy called "American".
Some say that this process continues to this day. I'm not sure, because some new immigrants don't seem to want to become American.
Certainly there's an incentive structure in place, where professional race-baiters like La Raza get power and influence from immigrants not assimilating.
This strikes me an a unique experiment in our history, one that explicitly turns its back on the success factors that we've seen over the centuries. "Reckless" is one term for that. Progressives are pleased to roll out the "Precautionary Principle" to justify their policy preferences regarding energy policy, saying that a sufficiently bad outcome - no matter how unlikely - is a powerful justification to stop something.
OK, I'll play that card here. Maybe race-baiting multiculturalism is unlikely to cause widespread rioting and death. Still, that would be such a horrific outcome that the Precautionary Principle says we have to STOP. RIGHT. NOW.
Right, Progressives? I mean, your argument is entirely persuasive.
Silly, Borepatch! Their arguments don't apply to themselves!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid Canada is facing the same issues and having the same arguments. The city where my fiancee lives has a massive and growing immigrant population, mostly from India and other parts of southern Asia. Same story - many don't want to be Canadian, they just wan to live there and collect the benefits.
ReplyDeleteI've been saying that for years; we need immigrants who come here to be Americans, no matter what their country of origin. The problem with so many of those coming from Mexico is that they want to live in America, with an American's rights and privileges, but they want to stay separate and Mexican, and not be Americans.
ReplyDeleteA hundred years ago (almost...) my grandparents came in through Ellis Island. They wanted to be American so much, they forbade the children to speak the old language.
ReplyDeleteToday, immigrants come in and and do their best to not learn English. They don't want to be American, they just want the check.
Like I was telling Sabra the other night, Lord forgive me for quoting a radio morning show host, but John Walton (of the Walton & Johnson show out of Houston) had the right of it when he said, "If you don't have borders and a common language, you don't have a country."
ReplyDeleteI call it colonization rather than immigration.....
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