PrintJune 4, 2007
'Su Casa es Mi Casa'
The traditional gracious Mexican host would welcome honored guests by telling them, "Mi casa es su casa" --- my house is your house. It was a warm offer of hospitality. But of course a grateful guest would never take advantage of the literal words. Everybody understood that "Mi casa es su casa" was a polite fiction.
Mexico today has flipped that polite phrase by exporting tens of millions of its poor people to the United States, and insisting they be treated as honored guests --- in our house. Today, the slogan of Mexico is "Su casa es mi casa" --- your house is mine. That is a slogan for home invaders.
As usual in such cases, a host of rationalizations has grown up around the new entitlement to US residency and likely citizenship for anybody who hoofs it over the border. The multicultural crowd claims there is no distinctive American culture at all, which would have surprised Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR. The Left is obsessed with guilt and rage for America's defense of itself during the Cold War, and even from its very birth. And Mexican nationalists are engaged in a reconquista, a reconquest of New Mexico, California and Texas, Americanized but150 years ago. This is a far cry from the gracious tradition of "Mi casa es su casa."
The Left, which has brought its burning hatred for America to an historical boiling point, views the illegal flow of immigrants as yet another deadly spear aimed at the heart of the Republic. It is following European socialist parties in that respect. The British socialists (Labour) imported millions of back-country Pakistanis into London and other British towns, which are now out of control, and increasingly governed by the shari'a law of the lawless Pakistani Northwest Territories. Honor killings of women have multiplied, and are generally covered up.
As Tony Blair points out in his valedictory statement, the British Left (including his own wife Cherie, a "human rights lawyer") has made it impossible to deport fraudulent asylum seekers. There is a direct causal connection between asylum-seeking radical imams and the 7/7 underground suicide bombing last year, performed by brainwashed British Muslims. Suicidal immigration of pre-medieval peoples continues into Britain, undermining its fast-fading tradition of civilized tolerance day by day. Anti-Semitism is now a barely disguised theme of London's Labour Party, run by Mayor "Red Ken" Livingstone. The ship of state is listing, and will soon capsize into the Europe Union, which is even more liberal in its attitude toward immigration. London is now Londonistan. And there is no end in sight to the suicidal course of the Left.
The Islamist radicalization of Europe has been a self-inflicted wound, courtesy of the multicultural delusions of the Left. Spain has just declared another North African immigrant amnesty under its current socialist government. France is trying desperately to claw back from the suicidal abyss, by electing Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who became famous for calling the nightly car-burning mobs "racaille," or "rascals." He thereby voiced what decent French people had said in their hearts a thousand times. The France-hating immigrant population was imported with malice aforethought by the socialists, and whipped up by the Leftist media; those voters are bought by welfare. Today, Islamic muggers on the Paris subway are dressed in new clothing bought by welfare. But they still hate France, which is facing a rising tide of Islamofascist rebellion. And the socialists are still bound and determined on the same policy course. They will never change.
The Democrats are simply following other socialist parties by undermining US immigration policies. There is a reason why we have lost control over immigration. It was a matter of deliberate policy by those looking for cheap votes to buy. This was no accident.
Once we are caught in a powerful immigration undertow, things only get worse. We are now at the point where even Republicans are giving in on genuine immigration reform, and competing for the votes of illegals --- to be legalized the moment the current bill passes. Ted Kennedy has been working toward this goal since 1965, with the aid of Republican Senators like McCain and Kyl. A few percentage points shift in the voting population toward the Left, and it becomes increasingly impossible to change the trend. You just sink in deeper and deeper.
So President Bush and Karl Rove have opted for a desperate gamble. They are betting that immigrants can be assimilated, and that the GOP will get its share of their votes. But with the attitude of "Su casa es mi casa," impoverished people from Mexico and elsewhere, indoctrinated in an entitlement mentality, are not likely to become self-sustaining American citizens in large numbers. Why should they, when the welfare state beckons with goodies as long as they vote Democrat?
Conservatives have belatedly realized what's happening. They are now in a last-ditch battle to preserve American sovereignty. As usual, conservatives have been out-strategized by the Left, with its control over the dominant media, the educational establishment, and of course the teachers' unions, which stand to gain from endless flows of unassimilated immigrants. Big Business simply sees which way its bread is buttered, and opts for cheap labor by supporting the Left. The logical result of that is a European syndicalism, where establishment business is in constant back-scratching arrangements with the Left, and markets are less and less free.
So this is a fateful time. If immigration is not controlled, HillaryCare becomes a sure thing in the next decade, because the voting balance will shift leftward, as it has in Europe. Healthcare is now a trillion-dollar industry in the United States, in a total GDP of about 7 trillion dollars per annum. Put that trillion bucks under the monopoly control of Hillary and her friends, and the government sector will tip over the crucial fifty percent GDP mark. Welcome to France.
Foreign policy will inevitably follow. The Left is not shy about revealing its objectives. American sovereignty is seen as the last obstacle to its total control.
The sovereign nation state is our little wooden life boat. It has preserved our country and the civilized world for two centuries, but it is by no means invulnerable --- not when half the political culture keeps trying to knock holes in the bottom. In the Left's fantasy life, sinking the nation state will inevitably lead to a glorious, peaceful future. How we will get from here to there is anybody's guess; it's a pure act of faith, and has been ever since Karl Marx articulated it. The end of the viable nation state is much more likely to lead to a century of chaos and war than it is to usher in an age of everlasting peace and prosperity.
Immigration is one domino. HillaryCare is another. Sinking the US Constitution by adopting UN "standards" for human rights is another (already well on its way in Britain and Europe). Clintonizing our defense and Carterizing our foreign policy are logical next steps.
Even the Wall Street Journal, which takes a libertarian view of immigration, has published an op-ed by Peggy Noonan calling the present Senate bill a "Rube Goldberg contraption." This is not responsible legislation; it's a jumble of self-delusions and vain hopes. It must be stopped until voters are sure that we can trust immigration enforcement. The burden of proof for that rests on the government, not the voters. Building a border fence would be an important symbol of our determination to keep our identity as a nation.
What we have going for us in this battle is the power of individuals and individualism, the creativity of free markets, and the robust identity of Americans who are not yet ready to surrender. At this point things do not look good, but twelve years ago, during the Clinton years, HillaryCare also looked like an unstoppable juggernaut. The Senate bill's farrago of nonsense must be stopped. Then we must start from scratch, hopefully under the guidance of a sensible conservative president who takes our borders seriously.
There's a lot at stake.
James Lewis blogs at http://www.dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
