It’s a technique which the Left has been using since they became the Left; manipulating the emotions of those in the Center, and to a great extent, of those on the Right. Good-natured Americans are particularly vulnerable to this rhetoric.
The technique; “poor” (say it with a sob) immigrants are illegally sneaking into the US in order to feed their starving families.
Don’t
be fooled by rhetoric such as “we’re all immigrants.” Don’t be lied to about immigration groups from the past.
The period of major European immigration to America took place from 1890 to 1920, a
time of exploding industrialization and urbanization – meaning many unfilled jobs available in America. In those thirty
years, America received just 20 million immigrants. They came from
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The peak year was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million Europeans entered the United States legally.
Most came by ship to Ellis Island where they were processed, checked for diseases, and registered. Some were refused entry for specific reasons. Once they were released onto America’s streets, there was no government assistance, no free healthcare, no support beyond their own relatives.
Compare
that to what’s been happening today at our southern border. An
estimated 11.5 million immigrants sneaked across the southern border in just ten years from 2000 to 2010,
with no attempts or
pressures to integrate their culture into the dominant American culture. Just as long as they look
favorably on liberal politics, they are given a pass by our government.
On the other hand, for those European immigrants, the “melting pot” theory pretty much worked. Their children, born here in the States were eager to learn how to speak, read and write English. And while the
best elements of their background cultures were retained, their
children willingly integrated into America’s dominant culture.
But now we hear more sob stories about the “poor children” sneaking across our border. “These poor kids deserve a chance.” And the adults
who continue to sneak into the U.S. are all good hard-working people. How can anyone be so mean-spirited as
to not welcome them? If you agree, their mouthpieces smile and call you “my
friend.” If you disagree, the well-funded immigration lobbyists label
you a hater and a racist.
Did they “all” sneak into the US in order to feed their poor starving families? Or to get away from the hellish environments they live in? Or was it to cut in front of the line of those waiting to enter legally? Do our neighbor nations to the south look the other way, encouraging many of their criminals, or unemployed, to flee to the U.S. because their prisons are full, and it costs too much to keep them? Let the stupid soft-hearted gringos deal with them.
So, do “all” illegal immigrants deserve our compassion? We humans are not simple one-trick-ponies. We are capable of a wide range of emotions which come into play on issues. What about skepticism? What about fear? What about anger?
Should we feel compassionate for “all” those who sneak into our country? What about those who only come here because of the freebies? What about those who break law after law? Who organize gangs. Who traffic drugs? Who attack our border patrol? Who pack an inhuman number of their own countrymen in oven-hot vans or containers to sneak their living cargo across the border by land, tunnel and sea? Those who then hold them hostage? Who kidnap American citizens for ransom? Who dig tunnels and build ramps and make trails, and do anything they can to sneak drugs into the US, and money and guns out? Can anybody look at a name and really tell the difference between the good and the bad? Does the Left only see votes, turning a blind eye to the rest?
But there is another aspect of this immigration problem which is overlooked. Because it is subtle. Because it deals with something no one has been able to articulate in a way everyone can appreciate. Set aside, for a moment, your ideas about what is legal. And what is compassionate. Think about what is right. The immigrants who create negative stereotypes are those, from any country, who come to the U.S. with no desire to blend in, but who do everything they can to turn the U.S. into, to borrow from the title of Ann Coulter’s book, whatever third world hell-hole they came from. They resist speaking, writing or learning our language or adopting our customs. They tear down Old Glory and fly their flag. They demand special rights which the rest of us don’t have. They want to be citizens of the U.S. not because they revere the U.S. but for its benefits. They want to recreate their foreign homelands inside our borders. And Democrats want them to be able to vote.
Because Americans are so tolerant, and because our politicians want to use these groups as voting blocks and cheap labor, the U.S. has become balkanized. Little nations within the U.S., each with its own de facto foreign government, laws and customs. Indiatown. Pakistaniville. Koreatown, Chinatown, ghettos, barrios, enclaves of muslims, Armenians, Cubans, Viet Namese, Puerto Ricans, Africans, groups from every part of the world which have several things in common. They do not speak English very well or not at all. Their first allegiance is not to the U.S., and if they are allowed, will vote for anyone of their own kind, or for Democrat politicians who promise them good things but never deliver anything good. The melting pot has morphed into a divided dish.
The Left demands our compassion for immigrant drunk drivers who kill innocent people in other vehicles. The Left sneaks provisions into the law which give a pass to these law-breakers who clog our courts and fill our prisons to bursting.
Should we feel compassion for those who trample our flag? Who boo our teams at sporting events? Who are draining our national treasure by gaming Social Security and Income Tax systems? Who collect welfare, who march in protest against any common sense approach to dealing with immigration?
Do liberal politicians expect our compassion about these and the many other abuses we read about in the news every day? Shouldn’t we feel a sense of righteous indignation at those who won’t speak our language and refuse to assimilate, so that we now have to post signs and instructions in many different languages?
There is something unseemly, actually disgusting, about political parties tripping over one another in their attempts to pander to immigrant groups who arrive or are invited here illegally. Those on both sides of the aisle see immigrants as nothing more than votes and pools of low-wage workers. We hear about deceitful details of Bills submitted in Congress; we see the daily interviews of politicians and political hacks to whom compassion is nothing more than a rhetorical tool. They tell us they will pass laws mandating the building of border fences, and fail to mention that they sneak language into the same Bill, allowing Homeland Security and others to disregard the law. Let’s not even get into the travesty of sanctuary cities across our land.
Perhaps it is not the illegal immigrants who are the worst problem, but the politicians and their media partners who created this problem decades ago, and have since done nothing but use it as a football to get votes and donations. And so we are fools if we listen to them tell us that we should reward those toward whom we should feel righteous indignation. Does this trigger compassion? Or does it raise hackles?
The truth is, no one – not even the NSA! – really knows how many illegals are here, and from how many different countries, including countries which harbor terrorists sworn to destroy America.
Secure our nation’s borders! Our government throws away truckloads of money on so much useless nonsense. If security reduces the problem measurably, then, and only then, politicians can ask how we feel about the millions of people who are already here illegally, and what should be done about them. Then, and only then, feelings of compassion may legitimately come into play.
And you pandering politicians? Stop playing games with people’s emotions and our overburdened national treasure. If you have the mental capacity, think your positions through. How can anyone posit the idea that “most illegal immigrants are good hard-working people...”? It’s a contradiction in terms. A non sequitur. If you are doing something illegal, obviously you are not good.
So, speaking of good... pandering politicians, do something good for the country which has done so much good for you. You might be surprised how voters of all stripes will respond to a Senator or Representative – or a businessman from New York – who fights not merely for what is good for his bank account and personal glory, but what is good for Old Glory.
