“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
~Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
But what about when intentions are not even good? Then we have to turn to AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”
In my view, it is with less than good intent that America’s liberal Left pursues its broad immigration agenda.
If liberalism had solved one, just one, of America’s immigration problems over the last hundred-plus years, I might have a different view. But they have not. In more practical times, immigrants were needed to fill jobs created by the Industrial Revolution and Westward expansion. They were not invited because of liberal sentimentality. Some came because of their own desperation, others came with starry eyes, filled with hope, with gratitude and with ambition.
Young America was a nation of unbounded possibilities with a rapidly expanding geography. A nation in great need of workers to fuel the expansion. Over time, immigrants from many European countries succeeded in alloying themselves in America’s crucible of cultures. But the period of sensible, needs-based immigration ended almost a century ago. Today, it’s different. America’s demographics are at a tipping point.
Today, opening the nation’s doors to Emma Lazarus’ “wretched refuse of every teeming shore” is less out of the necessity of America’s Industrial Age; more about the politics of the Left. It’s that simple. The Left operates with the tools of Marxist intellectual tyranny. Tool number one: political correctness. Denigrate, embarrass and intimidate those who attempt to end or even slow the growing importation of immigrants, regardless of who they are or where they come from, regardless of whether or not they have anything to contribute to America’s well-being, growth or culture. The poorer they are, the more likely they will add to the growing base of life-long dependents, supported by America’s tax-payer, but indentured to the liberal Democratic Party. The price? Their vote.
Republican President Abraham Lincoln, in his efforts to keep the nation from breaking apart, used the freeing of America’s slaves as his hammer. While the Left rarely if ever acknowledges that there were many white slaves or indentured servers from European countries, it is quick to push the narrative that all slaves were black, and that all slave owners were white. This is false on its face. Black slaves were “unwilling immigrants” primarily purchased from African slave traders. Freed slaves of white Irish and other caucasian origins managed, over time, to integrate themselves into American society.
Unfortunately, after freeing America’s black slaves, Lincoln’s government could come up with no effective way to integrate them into American society. Some said send them back to Africa. Others wanted to establish new communities of black freemen, built with funds taken with questionable legality from white citizens of the Southern States. And so the seeds of modern liberalism, the Robin Hood Party, were sown.
Somewhere along the way, wealthy, well-educated liberals managed to convince poor African-Americans that the wealthy, well-educated Democratic Party was the right party for the down-trodden. Over a hundred and fifty years later, the Robin Hood Party’s liberal promises have done little to change the circumstances of the majority of African-Americans, while liberal Democrats in Congress do everything in their power to resist efforts by Republicans to change the way government views the black community. Perhaps the new Republican leadership will be able to change that. But I don’t recommend holding your breath waiting for that to happen. It could take decades, if ever.
Meanwhile, today’s brand of immigrant often arrives by surreptitious methods, helped by the International Left and its legion of “social justice” lawyers. Some are willing to work, others come looking for Robin Hood, still others are here to do harm. The Obama administration often moves them “under the radar,” inserting them into unsuspecting American communities, establishing a crazy quilt of small foreign neighborhoods, ghetto nations within our nation. In a stunning display of ingratitude, the new brand of immigrant clamors for its own set of laws and special benefits, burdening the courts, the welfare and healthcare systems. This seems to be driven by the Left’s Alinskyite agenda... trying to over-burden America’s social network to the point where it collapses, taking traditional America with it.
If such intentions are not evil, what do you call them? If we do not reform our immigration laws, we will soon be cutting the opening ceremonial ribbon on the highway to hell.
