Posted on 08/26/2006 12:39:30 PM PDT by Westpole
In the 1850's a mass of new immigrants gave rise to a movement to resist new immigration. It wasn't just the numbers of new immigrants that irritated many Americans but that they were "different". They were catholic not protestant and not from the "right" countries. This movement proudly dubbed itself the Know Nothing Party.
It was a losing idea then and its a losing idea now. Pat Buchanan claims that America will lose its identity because of new immigrants. He emphasizes the cultural differences of the new immigrants. But all this is just a mask for his visceral hatreds. Not satisfied to bash immigrants for their differences he broadcasts the ridiculous claim that Mexican immigration in particular is a threat because as he says "58 percent of hispanics want to return the southwest United States back to Mexico."
This is of course meant to inflame US opinion. Yet there is no credible movement either in the United States or in Mexico for that. No hispanic leader in the United States exposes such a view and there are none in Mexico. Mexicans greatly admire the political freedom and democracy of the United States. They may not agree with many aspects of US foreign policy but widely understand that any reform in Mexico would instill processes that are more like those in the United States. Growing up on the border a common joke was that Mexican didn't mind so much that the US stole so much of their land except for the fact that they took all the parts with the great highways and cities. Oh yes there is a widespread historical belief that the southwestern United States was stolen from Mexico but even Ulyses S. Grant believed that. But it is quite another thing to suggest that Mexico or Mexicans want a redress of some kind. And then to wrap this false charge into a racist baited arguement that Mexicans are taking over the country.
As far as illegal immigrants are concerned it is one thing to complain that they take over American jobs but its ridiculous to suggest that the people coming over here to clean toilets are really subversives. The Know Nothing Movement rears its ugly head again and will end in the same result. Those that fear immigration as a national problem should consider what our real problems are. Namely an increasingly militant Islamic movement that has targeted the United States as its principal enemy. The people working in slaugherhouses, picking fruits and vegatables and doing the backbreaking work that many Americans would rather not do are not the enemy. By the end of the 1850s the Know Nothing movement disintergrated and some followers went into both the Republican and Democrat parties. Today we see on both sides the same gut hatred of the newbies. For an article on this history read here http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0233110-00&templatename=/article/article.html
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Thanks,
Now we have a 4th option: work, starve, go home, or mooch off of the country at a standard of living that is far higher than the sh*thole that you came from. Many choose number 4. I would be happy just doing away with number 4 as an option, but the courts seem inclined to give all existing benefits to illegals. Therefore, I say throw their butts out.
I tend to agree with you. After all, Mexicans are in the vast majority Christians, Catholics mostly or more so than ever, Bible Christians. This is the tie that binds. They are Western people.
Crimmigrants
Oh bull! Buchanon rightly claims that new immigrants should be assimilated into our American way of life. -As my grandparents were.
That's Mexicans as in people who live South of the Border, not US Hispanics.
I don't know what Buchanan said or how relevant the statistic is, but that is what the Zogby poll in fact found.
As for the rest, dragging out the "Know Nothings" is simple name calling, a non-starter.
You have to look at the present situation, not rely on spurious and sentimental historical analogies.
Most -- including Mexican immigrants -- are. By the second generation, most only speak Spanish at home, and by the third generation, most cannot speak the language. Same as the Italian immigrant's kids I grew up with in New York, and same as the west Texans I live among now. Even here, where Spanish is, and always has been, spoken, you find "Hispanics" who barely know the language, are Southern Baptists and give their kids names like Kevin and Darlene.
Good chart!
You say
According to Tony Blankley, Pat Buchanan "cites a 2002 Zogby poll showing that by 58 percent to 28 percent of Mexicans believe the American Southwest belongs to Mexico
"belongs to Mexico" is the poll here meant to show 58 percent of Mexicans are dillusional or ill informed? Perhaps the poll meant to say "should belong to Mexico" if so that is just baiting to get a historical arguement going. But is purely inflamatory and false to suggest any current movement to that end. Mexico signed the Treat of Guadalupe Hidalgo that settled the boundary line. So far only Pat and his ilk want to revive the debate.
And that's only legal immigrants, and over 10 years old.
These immigrants are not assimulating.
The only immigrants Buchanan reveres are those nazi's who entered the country on false pretenses and he fights to keep them from being deported.
>Crimmigrants<
Well coined, cc!
>...Buchanon rightly claims that new immigrants should be assimilated into our American way of life....<
And it is true. Multiculturalism cannot exist in one nation without the essence of that nation being watered down into thirdworldism. Coming into this country LEGALLY is the first step. ENGLISH ONLY is the second. And the newcomer's sole allegiance to his new country is the essential third.
I keep hearing Fred Barnes, etc extolling the virtues of unlimited immigration. They're not living in Texas, California, Arizona, where we are overrun by illegals, with skyrocketing crime, multi-million dollar deficits in our public hospitals due to having to care for illegals, tax monies going to provide benefits to illegals, etc. It's only the New England "Know-Nothings" that support these open borders.
Exhibit A-1 evidence that Pat Buchanan is a racist right there.
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