Speeding Toward a New Immigration Status Quo
with John McWhorter
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Not so long ago, John and I would wonder whether we agreed too often to sustain an interesting show. We don’t have that problem anymore. In this clip from our most recent conversation, we find ourselves on opposite sides of the immigration debate. John doesn’t see what’s wrong with immigration from Central and South America, and he’s opposed to policies that would seek to punish undocumented migrants too harshly. I agree that there’s nothing wrong with immigrants or immigration, but we do have immigration laws in this country, and we do have a border. What’s the point in having either if you’re not going to enforce them? And we should enforce them, because it’s in our interest to know who’s coming to our country.
Now, I should say that, while John and I are on opposite sides of the issue, we’re fairly close to the line that divides us. We can wave to each other across it. After all, John isn’t arguing for abolishing national borders, and I’m not arguing for the more draconian enforcement policies that the far-right favors. We’re both moderates on our respective sides.
And yet, one wonders if moderation has a role to play in the new administration, or if even raising the idea makes me sound old-fashioned. We’re at a delicate phase in the transition to the new presidency. Trump is stampeding forward. His supporters are getting what they want, while the opposition seems to be offering little in the way of, well, opposition. One might argue there’s little they can do. Trump has the executive branch, and his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate seem to have ceded their agenda to him. That’s not exactly a recipe for the slow, deliberate approach to change for which conservatives traditionally advocate.
But then, we’re making America great again. Perhaps conservative skepticism toward rapid, heedless social change only applies when that change is moving forward. If we’re casting ourselves back to the past, when America was once great, the country’s mood seems to indicate that we can floor the accelerator, as long as we’ve shifted into reverse. On the other hand, if this turns out to be what necessary reforms look like, then both John and I may need to rethink our respective positions.
This is simpler than we think it is.
There are two essential challenges here. There is the problem of ongoing illegal border crossing... and there is the problem of those who have already crossed the borders & taken up illegal residence. These problems require two different solutions.
Considering only the first -- imagine, in metaphor, a pipe break in our home: water flowing everywhere, soaking everything. What do we do? Well, first -- and with incredible urgency -- we SHUT THE WATER OFF. And since we can't shut-off the flow to that single bursting point, we shut-off the water to the entire house. Now John might say: ‘the leak was in the basement, why shut-off water to the other rooms...why shut it off to the places it's needed? He might tell us that our actions have created a water shortage (which will rapidly become critical) just because we had a leak in the basement. That solution, he says, seems way excessive.
But of course it’s not. The answer, as all of us know who've ever had to deal with such a mess: you begin (you can only begin) by shutting water off everywhere simply because you can't afford anything else. You can’t afford to research the problem right then, as water is rising up to your knees; you can’t afford to build a series of individualized plumbing solutions; you can’t afford to install micro-water-meters...you can’t afford to wait 5 days for a plumbing expert. That way leads to chaos and destruction. Instead you simply STOP IT. And you stop it absolutely.
You then go about carefully crafting an effective long-term solution that will allow the water to flow to where it's needed, when it's needed..and to stop it from flooding everywhere it's unwanted.
Illegal immigration, the unimpeded flood of unvetted immigrants into our home is absolutely unacceptable. And so it, too, must be stopped and stopped absolutely. We need to lock the doors, build the walls, put armed forces between American citizens and the invading horde.
And then we go about building a much more effective, long-term solution to this tide of wannabe Americans that gives the nation what it needs in terms of immigration. It controls whom we allow into our home, when we allow them, and in what quantity we give them the gift of a chance at citizenship
We speak too readily about the relative ‘smallness’ of the numbers...or the assimilation tendencies displayed by certain nationalities or ethnicities. None of that matters. A broken pipe, a rising flood – it doesn’t matter how ‘nice’ the illegals might be; they’re still illegal; they’ve not been invited; they are not welcome (especially not when they break down the doors and shatter the windows just to gain entry). So just as Glenn, just as John, just as all of us do with our own homes: we lock and bar the doors and give the entry codes only to those we love and/or value. No more, no less.
There is nothing at all wrong or bad or perverse about immigrants. There is nothing wrong, or bad, or perverse about those who wish for a different and better life. But the hard truth is that we do not owe the world that better life, that nicer place. We don’t. We owe them -- those who wish to share in this, our life, our world, our nation --only a proper, moral, and ethical consideration....the same as we would owe those who wish to enter our homes and share our table.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” And so we press on!
I quote Glenn: "On the other hand, if this turns out to be what necessary reforms look like, then both John and I may need to rethink our respective positions." HALLELUJAH.
Glenn is barely keeping pace with the international / national zietgiest. John McWhorter is as dull and slow as a wet week. He is so lagging behind, that when he finally receives his pink slip nobody will care. Gentlemen, the vast majority of the world knows that stories like the George Floyd murder were one hundred percent contrived, and the opposite of truth and justice. Such blatant hypocrisy and dishonesty takes time to vomit out. My advice to Glenn and John, if they have the stomach, is to dive in and thread the truth. We will be riveted.