Angus MacDonald
Patrick J. Buchanan has written an important book that outlines the dangers of the present flood of immigrants into our country. (State of Emergency, The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.) The book has been reviewed as racist because he says that the chief problem for us is the invasion by Mexicans. The assumption by critics of the Buchanan book is that present immigration is no different from earlier immigrants who have become patriotic Americans.
Our view of immigration depends on how we define America. The Constitution and Declaration of Independence do not define America, Mr. Buchanan says. That differing views of the Constitution divide us is shown clearly by the bitter partisan struggle when a new judge is nominated to the Supreme Court. The Democrats demand that we interpret the Constitution to conform to their political philosophy. The Republicans insist the Constitution is the ultimate authority and is understood by the clear meaning of the text. If Americans who have been here for generations do not agree on the national creed, immigrants will have no clear guidance and will become part of our bitter, sectarian divisions. The country will babble nonsense and citizens will never know the meaning of patriotism.
Patriotism is larger than any creed and is the soul of the nation. Europe saw mad creeds in the 20th century: Nazism, Fascism, Communism. These creeds are gone and Germans have returned to being Germans, Italians to being Italian, and Russia is trying to rediscover its soul. China has a long history, but present-day Chinese believe they belong to one tradition. The English have a long tradition and they should preserve that tradition today when they are being invaded by Islamic immigrants. Christian traditions cannot survive with the Islamic faith, even as Islam cannot live with the Christian tradition. Their histories forbid this. Americans are identifiable wherever they go in their dress, speech, mannerisms, behavior, manners, and, in spite of peculiarities, are of the same Christian tradition as the countries of Europe. We are different and united.
Patriotism is an outgrowth of history, the sharing of past events that interpret the present, a common religious and intellectual heritage, the use of a common language which enables us to know each other. Patriots have stood together in good times and bad, united by love of country. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor they did not attack a creed defined by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; they attacked America, a mysterious entity with a living soul.
America is our history, formed in the early years by British tradition but separated from that country when England did not respect the rights of Englishmen. America is George Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Lincoln, many events, language, faith, culture, memory.
Washington believed that immigrants must embrace our language, customs, and habits, as well as our principles. Hamilton believed that the safety of the nation rested on "love of country" and "exemption of citizens from foreign bias and prejudice." Madison urged excluding immigrants who were unlikely to "incorporate into our society."
Mexicans are the largest group of immigrants, and are not good for the country. September 15 of this year Los Angeles celebrated Independence Day--Mexican Independence Day. Thousands assembled in front of City Hall waving green, white, and red Mexican flags. Governor Schwarzenegger said some Mexican immigrants want "to stay Mexican" rather than assimilate into the United States.
What I am saying to the Mexicans is you've got to go and immerse yourself and assimilate into the American culture, become part of the American fabric. That is how Americans will embrace you.
A great number of Mexicans believe that Southwestern United States was stolen from Mexico and should be returned. According to a Zogby poll, anywhere from 58 to 28 percent of Mexicans believe that the American Southwest belongs to Mexico. All 47 Mexican consulates in the United States are mandated to provide to U.S. schools with significant Hispanic populations textbooks that say America stole the Southwest. The Los Angeles consulate has distributed this year 100,00 of such books to the L.A. school district.
Mr. Buchanan tells us that illegal Mexican and other immigrants bring disease and crime to the United States. In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all warrants for homicides, which total from 1,200 to 1,500 a year, are from illegal aliens. California now has 40,000 cases of tuberculosis, which was almost extinct a few years ago.
The problems is that Mexico is a corrupt country which profits from sending the poor and disadvantaged to us, relieving themselves of the burden. Everyone knows the problems and what must be done, but no one has the courage to make the reforms. The ruling Mexican monopolies profit from the status-quo. The privatization of the Mexican telephone company moved a government monopoly to a private monopoly. The chief investor is the third richest man in the world.
Only two countries in the world forbid foreign investment in oil production: North Korea and Mexico. Pemex is the state oil company of Mexico and is going broke, though Mexico is the fifth largest producer of oil in the world. There are large reserves of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, but Pemex is $85 billion in debt and cannot invest in exploration and development for either.
The tax system is as corrupt as the rest of the country. Forty percent of businesses and 70 percent of professionals and small business owners either cheat on their tax forms or pay nothing. It is nice not to pay taxes, but a country must have money to operate. The state relies on oil revenue, and Pemex is broke.
The socialized farm system has put 42 percent of the country in extreme poverty. In 1917 the government broke up the large and medium sized farms and distributed land to the peasants. By 1992, when the program was discontinued, the size of the lots was a little less than 3.5 acres. The owners of these little parcels of land do not own them, they belong to the state, and they cannot pledge them for a loan!
During the '90s, the industrialized cities of north Mexico profited from cheap labor and did a lot of business with the United States. They have lost this business to the Asian Tiger, China. Business would be improved if the state took less than 31.5 percent of all profits, if it were easier to start a business, if there were less rigidity in work hours and the firing of employees, and if there were less expensive hiring costs. Foreign investors retreat from the Mexican government.
And the education is inadequate, dominated by a powerful and corrupt teacher's union. Less than 25 percent of students graduate from high school, with no responsibility felt by the union to parents. The need is for better teaching and advanced education that will enable students to participate in the industrial world, with something more than low-paying manual labor.
Globalization, or our practice of it, demands immigration. Economists say, and correctly, that the world economy will improve if there were a free exchange of goods and services. The U.S. pushed for this and reduced tariffs to almost nothing, but the rest of the world added VATs (value added taxes) to all imports, making the foreign sale of American products difficult if not impossible. U.S. manufacturers now produce only two-thirds of the domestic products they consume. Business makes up for some of this loss by using immigrants. If these are not sufficient, they outsource to where they can afford what labor costs.
How shall we solve the immigration problem? I doubt if a wall will make much difference. We would solve our problems quickly and easily if we fined employers who use illegal employees. We could justify these fines if we followed the example of other countries and added VATs to imports. We have succeeded in producing worthwhile goods, and should expect reciprocity. That other nations impose a VAT when we do not amounts to robbery. We should not allow ourselves to be used. *
"Individuality is freedom lived." -John Dos Passos
The quotes following each article have been gathered by The Federalist Patriot at: http://FederalistPatriot.US/services.asp.
