Here's a good essay from Victor Davis Hanson in National Review:
Illegal Immigration: Elite Illiberality
The elite charm of comprehensive immigration reform
By Victor Davis Hanson
The divide over immigration reform is not primarily a Left/Right or Democratic/Republican divide; instead, it cuts, and sharply so, across class lines.
Elites blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigration to ensure that the opponents of the latter appear to be against the former. They talk grandly of making legal immigration meritocratic, but fall silent when asked to what degree.
They talk darkly of racist subtexts in the arguments of their opponents, but skip over the overt ethnic chauvinism of proponents of amnesty; they decry conservative paranoia over a new demography, but never liberal euphoria over just such a planned reset. They talk deprecatingly of rubes who do not understand the new global realties, but never of their own parochialism ensconced in New York or Washington or San Francisco. They talk of reactionaries who do not fathom the ins and outs of the debate; never of their own willful ignorance of the realities on the ground in East L.A. or southwest Fresno.
The elites favor de facto amnesty for a variety of self-interested reasons.
Read the whole thing there.
I saw this one at NR too- VDH is a pretty good writer, and he too notices things that we aren't supposed to notice a little too often. I think its only a matter of time before he gets Derbyshired, at least at NR- he's tenured, though, so like MacDonald they're SOL when it comes to his day job.
ReplyDelete"Noticing Things"
ReplyDeleteI don't always agree with you, but *that's* why you're an important voice.
My experiences in SoCal, which span the last three decades, leave me sad. But there is still hope! Hoping that some of the privately-financed "space" industries will survive.
Ok here's the thing you can say that Hanson might get Sailered, but neither Sailer nor Hanson is dumb enough to write an article like the talk. I do love how transparent it made the people always whining about the low quality o Limbaugh and Coulter look when the praised that collection of crap. Part of the reason the talk was so odious was because Derbyshire has Asian fever and so basically only hates blacks. The funny little thing about humans is that while you think the fact his racism is selective would make him less odious in reality it makes him a special pleading hypocrite. Derbyshire is basically the Asian loving version of whiskey "C'mon guys advanced the interests of my pet minority. I promise I'm with you on the rest of the stuff.
ReplyDeleteVDH understands and personally lives the Fresno reality of mass illegal immigration. I'm sure he pisses off the local factory-farmers and their political lapdogs and considering VDH lives there he probably gets rough treatment from the local fat cats.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to fresh produce, I buy Mexican whenever possible. Reward the Mexican estancia at the expense of the Central Valley chamber of commerce types whose crops are always rotting in the fields. Who wants to eat rotten produce anyway?
VDH is a neocon, but unlike the beltway neocons, VDH is a fifth generation California farmer who has seen the Central Valley transformed by the immivasion. Too bad more of the politicos of this nation do not have the same first hand experience. It might make our fight easier.
ReplyDeleteThis video already exists. Post it everywhere you think it is needed:
ReplyDeletehttp://clashdaily.com/2013/06/video-ginni-thomas-actually-read-the-immigration-bill-and-it-sucks/
VDH makes a compelling argument then, like so many conservatives, totally surrenders at the end, suggesting we should amnesty the 'law-abiding' illegal aliens.
ReplyDeleteNo, and yes. If I had ironclad faith that Congress and the president would secure our borders from here on out, I would grudgingly accept an amnesty* for illegal aliens with no other crimes to their name. They've already had millions of children here who, rightly or wrongly, are recognized as citizens; and to some degree our industry has been built around the assumption of their continued presence.
But the post-American, neofeudalist, open borders extremists have proven to us time and again they have no intention of ever securing our borders. Every other sentence out of their mouths is a lie. We have no reason, now or ever, to trust their pretend claims to secure the border. Every vote they cast, including the one today against building the fence before legalization, is a lie.
What's so revealing about opposition to building a fence before amnesty is that it doesn't require any interior enforcement against the population you intend to legalize - all it does is (partially) secure our country against new illegal immigrants.
* What they're proposing to grant isn't amnesty, it is a reward for lawbreaking. Consider a cop who pulls you over for speeding:
1) He gives you a ticket: punishment.
2) He lets you off with a warning: amnesty.
3) He gives you $300 for having sped: reward.
In the bizarro world of immigration "enforcement," deportation is referred to as "punishment." It isn't punishment, it is reclaiming stolen goods, like a car or a wallet. Reclaiming stolen goods isn't punishment.
Sending illegals to jail *before* deporting them would be punishment. Deporting them without jail time is amnesty. Giving them citizenship for having broken our laws is rewarding them for their crime. Our politicians have gone batshit crazy. If we really want to end illegal immigration one thing we need to do is start imposing mandatory 2 year prison sentences for illegal aliens.
We do not fight any other crime the way we fight illegal immigration. If we fought all crimes this way we'd be little better than Somalia.
Jewish Involvement in Shaping American Immigration Policy, 1881-1965: A Historical Review is worth more than anything VDH has to say.
ReplyDeleteI would read the whole thing but I feel dirty every time I go to NR, and not just for their rough treatment of conservatives who aren't PC enough (they would've canned Steyn years ago if they thought that people would still show up to their circus) but also because everyone writes their articles like they're a bunch of terrified monkeys.
ReplyDeleteFor example, there's this comment here:
Jewish Involvement in Shaping American Immigration Policy, 1881-1965: A Historical Review is worth more than anything VDH has to say.
Try posting that comment on NR to the VDH article and see how long it lasts.
I know the word "elite" is a simple and easy to use word but it really doesn't describe the degenerated technocrats, cynical panderers and snickering freaks who occupy our important positions today. To say they're the elite is to recognize their claims to legitimacy, competence and authority. They're epigones, not our elites.
ReplyDeleteVDH presents a good liberal argument against the immigration flood, so his column would be a good one to pass along to liberals. He avoids saying anything taboo and pays piety to all their sacred cows.
ReplyDeleteNot that it will make any difference. The politicians who support this bill do not do so out of concern for what is in the best interest of the country. They either want to destroy the country or have been bought off by people who want to destroy the country. (I'd put Rubio in the latter category.)
Awesome!!!!
ReplyDeleteVDH and SES on the same page.
These are California's best writers
Best in the country actually.
When it comes to nonwhite immigration never make a distinction between illegal and legal immgration. As far as the racial interests of millions of Native Born White Americans go, it is a meaningless distinction:nonwhite legal immigrants get to vote for Native Born White American racial minority status every for years.
ReplyDeleteHansen is no doubt an enthusiast for Asian legal immigration. In other words, Hansen has no problem with Asians pursuing a highly racialized political agenda within the borders of the US...and this agenda includes rapidly voting Native Born White Americans very rapidly into permanent racial minority status...permanent because "Asian" Americans will make certain that Native Born White American racial minority status is a permanent state of affairs.
Bill Blizzard
As with Coulter, Hanson is attacking the rich. Something new for conservatives.
ReplyDeleteVDH cuts right through the fog of war with regards to immigration.
ReplyDeleteHe lives it every day on his farm and in his locality. Then he's tenured faculty at an elite university, so that coupled with his proximity to the California digital elite gives him a clear perspective.
About once a month VDH writes about his hometown. It is usually nothing short of heartbreaking. His descriptions of the effects of immigration are a prime source description of anarcho-tyranny.
"As with Coulter, Hanson is attacking the rich. Something new for conservatives."
ReplyDeleteThe populist right and left seem to be converging on many issues.
I doubt our elites are very happy about this.
I think real conservatives generally are suspicious of the rich, but that tends to change if they become rich themselves. Rush Limbaugh, for instance, was much harder on wealthy elites (including GOP leaders) when he was just breaking onto the national stage, than later when he became more mainstream.
ReplyDeleteWhich raises a thought: as the elites make it harder for anyone outside the beltway to become wealthy, conservative-minded people will be more likely to stay that way and resist them.
The populist right and left seem to be converging on many issues.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why the populace is being replaced.
As with Coulter, Hanson is attacking the rich. Something new for conservatives.
ReplyDeleteHardly. King Charles tried it 370 years ago.
And the plutocrats killed him.
I stopped reading NR after Buckley tried to destroy Pat Buchanan. Are the desperate pseudo-cons at NR paying you to link to their crappy magazine?
ReplyDeleteDecent on the character of the elite, and their nasty "anti-racist" illiberalism.
ReplyDeleteBut ridiculous at the end with the "they'd be Italians" crap. We've been through this hundred times, they are not Italians.
Generations of Exclusion
If they were, sheer numbers would still make this racial\ethnic\cultural invasion\cleaning. But it would at least be tolerable. Probably--given our sad experience with the Ellis Island fetishists--better than having a higher IQ group coming in.
But a lower IQ group means that America's future prosperity--which really depends on IQ--is imperiled. This is just going to be a much sloppier, more disfunctional place than it was. More like Latin America--with tinges of Africa--less like the United States.