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It’s the Immigration, Stupid
Many Americans get very mad when they see protesters waving Mexican flags in American streets. It calls to mind the people who have been flooding into their communities, their emergency rooms, their public parks and their schools for a generation – people with broken or non-existent English who are showing up in increasing numbers mowing lawns, installing carpets or flooring, working in liquor stores or bagel bakeries or garages or a myriad of other businesses or else who are standing out huddled together by the street at 6 AM waiting to be picked up by someone for day labor.
The flying Mexican flag reminds Americans that these people are breaking the law and living in a lawless underground which shuns the police. They are people who – either through poverty or because of a deficiency in character and upbringing – possess no concept of “respect for the law;” people for whom the law is merely a punishment entity that needs to be factored into their personal cost-benefit, risk-reward analysis. They are people whose fundamental amorality with regard to society’s explicit and implicit rules allows them to obtain welfare handouts wherever possible, to apply for child tax credits for children outside the country, to use emergency rooms rather than pay for medical services, to drive without a license and drive away recklessly from accidents and to gather at and often trash public parks and spaces.
These are people who, for whatever reason, have chosen an illegal life course and who, in order to maintain it, are forced into a cascade of other illegalities. That someone living illegally in a foreign country would be unburdened by an abstract respect for the law of that country is not surprising. The disposition you would expect from them is contempt. It is not hard to believe that such people would be prone to disrespect more serious laws involving property and personal safety.
Those Americans who get angry at seeing the Mexican flag on their televisions are quite different from the people who are flying it. They are brought up with an idea that the rules have a basic logic and that they are there for the common benefit. Some may break the laws, many may cheat on the rules, but the vast majority possess an instinct that the law is supposed to be followed irrespective of how it inconveniences me right now or how likely I am to be punished for disobeying it. They wear their seatbelts and they don’t run away from their bills. They wait their place in line instinctively.
The perceptions of these angry Americans toward the flag-wavers and their brethren is predicated on the skin color and accents or languages of the newcomers. They are better able to notice the influx of illegal aliens because many of the illegal aliens are Latino and speak Spanish. The angry Americans, however, get angrier still if you suggest that the source of their disapproval of illegal aliens is racism. The case is quite the reverse. The source of Americans’ growing contempt for Hispanics – and there is no point claiming that it doesn’t exist – is the knowledge that the people they see invading their country and taking their jobs happen to be predominantly (though not exclusively) Hispanic and the majority are in fact from Mexico.
Should the elite from the GOP and their Chamber of Commerce wing and the Democratic Party and the Masters of the Universe get their way and succeed in passing their vile amnesty, you can trust that the subsequent celebratory explosion will be marked by seas of green, white, and red Mexican flags. You can also trust that no single law will more piercingly rip the social fabric and fatally deepen the racism that already exists. There are Americans who will never accept the invaders and who will never forgive their enablers.
It is probably true that the Americans who are enraged by protesters waving the Mexican flag would not list solving illegal immigration – in comparison to providing jobs and building the economy or protecting them from the threat of terrorism – as their highest priority. While, in the words of Senator Jeff Sessions, they have been “begging and pleading their government to enforce the law” for a generation, still, they have grown accustomed to the dishwashers, the hotel staff, and the gardeners and they cannot afford to go around in a state of rage – at least until the flags come out.
It also makes sense to suppose that those Americans who are most enraged by the Mexican flags come preferentially from the lower rungs of society. Not only are poorer people more immediately impacted by illegal aliens (no illegal alien has threatened, so far, to take my nanophysics theory job), but there is something subtler and more spiritual about their anger. It is this:
If you are poor, it can be a struggle to respect the rules. It can be a struggle to obey them. Hell, just getting by may be a struggle. Perhaps you haven’t seen a pay raise in a decade. Perhaps you are working longer hours in harder jobs than you used to. Or you are facing a pile of medical bills or are postponing your retirement. Or if you are younger you might be having trouble putting decent clothes on your kids without thinking about where or whether they will ever go to college. It is more than a suspicion to you that life in the lower echelons of American society is not easy and for what seems like the longest while it’s been getting harder.
And yet with all the bills and the hardship and the sweat, you are able to find that vital, holy something that causes you, when you’re not totally exhausted, to sit your kids down and tell them about the importance of obeying the rules. God bless you.
That vital something you have found has a name. It is called civilization.
I’m telling you people: literally millions of Americans who are not distinguished by their dedication to political discourse are rushing to support a rather loutish and highly imperfect presidential candidate (who will go unnamed) who started his campaign by exhibiting a profound sympathy for those who have suffered the most — practically and morally — from watching the rules get trampled. And trampled.
He has suggested that the only solution to the illegal immigration problem is for those who have come here illegally to return home. However much that may end up being a blue-smoke “touchback” – and we owe it to ourselves to make it more and to make it real – it is nevertheless, morally, the only answer.
Those people who get most angry at the Mexican flag wavers guard a wisdom that is little more than a rumor to you or me. If, in your efforts to crush the vulgarian, you manage to crush them as well, you will leave us with an empty space on the inside.
If you appreciate this essay and you are not a member of Ricochet, I would appreciate it if you join the community and comment.
Published in Immigration
Neither is electing a series of amnesty-loving corrupt GOP shills.
You will discount any possible solution as not realistic. I mean, have you heard no realistic proposals before? Are you unwilling to presume good faith — to assume that one of the realistic proposals you must surely have heard by now is in fact what Stopa is talking about?
How is your comment not mere obstruction? I cannot believe that you have never heard a realistic proposal for reducing the illegal immigrant population. Do you think you converse only with racists and morons here?
I don’t claim to know what’s in your heart, and can only see your words. Your words imply unpleasant things. Hence my questions.
Stopa, this is a magnificent essay. You seem to have dashed the mother hive, and now the angry amnestitos are throwing low and vile arguments at you, and by extension, many of us. it is amazing to see what depths people will sink to because their expedient morals are governed by their implacable political preferences.
I’ll pick this up later, when I have more time — just wanted to give you a hearty shout of appreciation for this post.
For now, I gots ta go.
Amnesty loving, GOP Schills sound pretty good right now, by comparison.
Thanks BDB! Just trying to rattle a few cages in my bumbling way wherever I go. Maybe we thrive on the excitement, eh? (thanks again).
The heck of it is that I see this essay as a very even-handed, calm and cool explanation of a point of view rarely expressed with such consideration for the intended audience — those who don’t see the anger. I am fed up with the lying, failing, treacherous GOP, for the same antics demonstrated by no doubt well-intended fellow members of Ricochet, our “esteemed colleagues”, as it were. It’s just a shame that their low and degraded moral condition does not allow them to understand logic, see the truth and love America, etc. I pray for them.
Since Kasich has decided to go all in for amnesty he will never see my vote.
Why is that in any nway important to know? What does “how they got here” have to do with whether they “can or should simply go home”?
Whether you got here on a first class British Airways ticket and overstayed your visa, or crossed the Arizona border on foot in the heat of summer, you’re still here illegally and “can and should simply go home”.
If you don’t like seeing foreign flags, do yourself a favor and don’t go out on Thursday when you’re likely to see a lot of people waving the green, white, and orange of a foreign power, a flag that represents a nation that has sent so many people to the United States that their descendants outnumber the natives back in the home country, a flag for a nation’s people who thoroughly infiltrated not just manual labor jobs but came to dominate the police and the politicians of our fair land.
Also, you should probably avoid going on on Saturday, too. You might see some proud Italians, too.
Not sure what you mean by “they are here for a lark.” People who overstay visas are similar to those who cross the desert except that they at least have the means to pay for a visa and a plane ticket. If heard people who do this say they are going to “try their luck” in the U.S. because they face a dead end at home.
Exactly right. When the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day it is all fun but when a Spanish speaker wants to do the same, it’s a provocation. Got it.
I’d quibble that probably all immigrants come from failed cultures (or at least, cultures that failed them) and have to learn the American system. I’m not sure this would matter so much if the numbers were relatively small, the costs and benefits were spread more evenly throughout society, and there was a sense that the process was orderly and legal? (Also if there wasn’t a pervasive “white Americans are racist jerks” meme traveling around, making it difficult to talk rationally about the issue.) (Conveniently, I should think, for the Trumps of this world who want to keep the cheap labor coming…)
And the Irish equivalent of La Raza and other militant Hispanic organizations bloviating about taking back territory is . . . ?
To those of you who view this as a minor problem I suggest you read “Mexifornia” by VDH.
Spare me your shinola.
I have never seen any American of Irish descent do anything remotely similar to what that Mexican is doing in that picture above, in this very thread. I have never seen anyone else with a flag plate on their car scratch out the American flag. I have never heard of of any other group riot and attack an American because the American wore a t-shirt with the American flag. I have never seen any other group march in large numbers, intended to intimidate the rest of the population, as Mexicans have done, all while waving large numbers of Mexican flags despite being told not to by the march organizers.
The real problem is that Mexicans act as if they have conquered the United States, bestowing upon us an endless series of demands and threats, while far too often treating Americans and American law with contempt.
The American elite is happy to go along with this, which one of many reasons why the present elite needs to be displaced.
Thanks for saying that.
Please explain why you believe that was not a rational response, as I intended it quite seriously.
This, like several things, is not an “issue”, but a fight. Pick a side.
Anybody but the government, who feeds you my food with my name scratched out, and pats themselves on the back.
Yup. Either that or declare that “I’ve got some political capital to spend” and then expand a welfare program.
For one reason, I’m as anti-illegal-immigration and pro-America as anybody. I just can’t stand DT. He is a buffoon and I simply lose respect for anybody who honestly believes he should represent our country on the world stage. That does not make me a goper or a “globalist post-American”.
DT says “build a wall” and people swoon, and he promises touch-back amnesty, and his fans say “hey look, a shiny object over there.”
I don’t think DT can win the general, but if he did, he would embarrass the Republican Party and his supporters worse than if he lost. I think his supporters want him to lose so they can blame the GOPe for abandoning them.
Whatever happens in November, Trump will destroy the GOP and thereby handing control of the Government to the Democrats for a least a decade if not a generation, and then we will get a fill blown amnesty for anyone that has ever set foot on our soil that promises to vote Democrat.
I don’t want that, but it looks like Trump supporters do.
That was going to happen with an ‘establishment’ Republican candidate too. The “Gang of 8” WAS amnesty with little real future enforcement. The ‘establishment’ picks of Bush, Rubio and Kasich were all going to push just this type of amnesty. The Democrats and Republican ‘leadership’ were not too far apart on this issue – it is only the citizens who don’t want it!
And you’re mistaken about the GOP being ‘destroyed’ by Trump. The GOP was already on a downward path. I cannot figure out what they stand for these days except being ‘managers of big government’. Trump isn’t the answer, but the GOP doesn’t appear to be either anymore.
Trump and his supporters are only a symptom. But they’ll be a convenient scapegoat for a lot of people to blame. (apparently, including you, based on your comments above). But I will remember.
Please do. I know I certainly will.
Actually, this is not true. What the polls show is, first, people want the ‘madness’ of uncontrolled immigration to stop. They approve of a controlled immigration system where we know who and how many are entering our country. They are willing to allow normalization of status for ‘people who’ve been here a long time and not committed other crimes’ provided there are real penalties, they learn our language, and work to assimilate into our country.
However, this is not what the “Gang of 8” legislation was going to accomplish. The ‘penalties’ were negligible. The people ‘eligible’ for legalization included just about everyone here illegally – all but the ‘worst of the worst’ criminals and just about all the newly arrived, because, despite what the politicians said about the bill, the language was (purposeful) vague enough to allow just about everyone to stay. And the enforcement was optional too – also based on the “flexible” language of the bill. This bill was NOT compromise – it was deal to fool the American people.
Why are the “GOPe” angry at us for being angry about this bill, but not angry at the “GOPe” politicians for trying to push this very bad bill on its voters when they clearly did not want it – and at such a critical time!
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I am very angry at the gang of eight bill and Rubio’s involvement, but I didn’t vote for Rubio.
But I’m opposed to Trump’s touch-back amnesty too.
Again, you have to work pretty hard to get this sort of outrage from what either Stopa or I have said. I’m not going to rebut this. It wouldn’t do any good.
I’m not a Trump supporter – I think the man would be a serious miscalculation. But what about all the Rubio supporters who keep yelling at people like me asking why I can’t get over Gang of 8, because its not as big a problem as the debt! Well, the debt didn’t used to be as big a problem either. But we ignored it and let it grow. And a lot of people grew comfortable with the spending, and began to rely on the spending – and now its a mammoth problem and we cannot get rid of it ! And immigration is on the same ruinous path.
Better to solve a problem while its still solvable. But it maybe too late for immigration too. If today, we’re unable to pack-up and send home even a petty criminal here illegally, we’re NEVER sending anyone home, are we?
I’m trying to figure out how you’ve come to the conclusion that I have sympathy for illegal immigrants. Why, because I told you the truth?
It’s as though you don’t think there’s a sizable contingent of legal Americans working off the books already.
Continued*
From #119
Walk onto a college campus on a 90 degree day and ask some students if they’d be interested in making $15 an hour roofing a house. I think you would be shocked by how many who claim to need the money would refuse your offer, if not because of the difficulty of the work, then because they feel it’s below them.
Mandatory eVerify doesn’t solve the issue of employees paid under the table. So instead of waxing poetic about law-abiding Americans, figure out a way to fix it. Because the guy paying the people under the table is a law breaking American….and I’m guessing you know a few of these guys yourself.