I have a plan to destroy America [Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado]

WorlNet Daily ^ | July 11, 2006 | Richard D. Lamm

[conservativecorner]

Editor's note: In 2004, Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado, addressed a conference sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington. The following remarks are reprinted with his permission.

Richard. D. Lamm

I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that "an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide." Here is my plan:

We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. History shows, in my opinion, that no nation can survive the tension, conflict and antagonism of two competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. One scholar, Seymour Martin Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon – all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with its Basques, Bretons and Corsicans."

I would then invent "multiculturalism" and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal: that there are no cultural differences that are important. I would declare it an article of faith that the black and Hispanic dropout rate is only due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out-of-bounds.

We can make the United States a "Hispanic Quebec" without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently, "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved, not by tolerance, but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically, and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor. It is important to insure that we have various cultural sub-groups living in America reinforcing their differences, rather than Americans emphasizing their similarities.

Having done all this, I would make our fastest-growing demographic group the least educated – I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50 percent dropout rate from school.

I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was all the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would "celebrate diversity." "Diversity" is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A "diverse," peaceful or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together, and we can take advantage of this myopia. Look at the ancient Greeks. Dorf's "World History" tells us: "The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus, and all Greeks venerated the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet, all of these bonds together were not strong enough to overcome two factors ... (local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions ...)" If we can put the emphasis on the "pluribus," instead of the "unum," we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.

Then I would place all these subjects off-limits – make it taboo to talk about. I would find a word similar to "heretic" in the 16th century – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like "racist", "xenophobe" halt argument and conversation. Having made America a bilingual-bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of "victimology," I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra – "because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good." I would make every individual immigrant sympatric and ignore the cumulative impact.

Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson's book "Mexifornia" – this book is dangerous; it exposes my plan to destroy America. So please, please – if you feel that America deserves to be destroyed – please, please – don't buy this book! This guy is on to my plan. "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." – Noam Chomsky, American linguist and U.S. media and foreign policy critic.

[Killborn]

How did he get his hands on the 2006 Democrat Platform?

[brain bleeds red]

Nice parody. It reeks of potent truth.

[Migraine]

...a nice update of Swift's "A Modest Proposal"; I love it when someone absolutely hits the nail on the head like that! Thanks for the post...

[AliVeritas]

Whoa

[AliVeritas]

Whoa

[fanfan]

This chap has Pierre Elliot Trudeau down pat.

Canada ping!

Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[rellimpank]

--one of the few subjects on which I agree with my former governor---

[edcoil]

This is the guy that said "liberals and democrat's are your best neighbors but worst ancestors cause they will help you out but leave nothing for future generations.

[Harley]

I didn't know who this was and then I remembered him from his porno name--Dick Lamm.

[Alexander Rubin]

Too close to the truth to be a satire that sits comfortably.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Since I am now work for the Federal government, I get an up close and personal view of our Government's approach to extolling the virtues of diversity. I don't have a problem with diverse people as individuals, but the system seems to hold it up as a virtue. It is an element in the panoply of multiculturalism. In my opinion, any student of history can see that cultures are not equal. Western Civilization about 4-5 centuries ago took off like a rocked compared to other civilizations in the world. It's emphasis on individual freedoms and discovery created most of the worlds truly free societies and countries. It is clearly the dominant culture in business and pattern of government. The countries that have adopted some versions of Western Culture as a part of their government, and truly those that are succeeding in creating a free society: S. Korea, Japan, India, Taiwan and to a lesser degree Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. Economically, Western Civ created free enterprise in the more libertarian form and Socialism/Communism on the other hand. Unfortunately for some (China) the bad twin took charge for a while.

Currently kids are taught multiculturalism in our public schools, and not the strengths of our system. Instead they are taught that WC enslaved the rest of the world and did harm to the world. If we don't respect our own culture, how can others respect it. Countries like Mexico have a culture that is a mix of the indigenous and WC (Spanish), and is therefore more collectivist. Should Mexico's political and economic culture ever become rooted as a bi-culture to our current English-Western European culture, we will see more of the problems that Mexico has like corruption, graft and a decline in the rule of law. God Help Us.

[gakrak]

Why not make English the official language of America?

The following is a memo noting the list of slimes in congress.


Subject: English

38 SENATORS VOTED TODAY AGAINST MAKING ENGLISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF
AMERICA. HERE THEY ARE.



Kaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

REMEMBER THIS THE DAY YOU VOTE. PLEASE PASS THIS ON
Amen.

[upchuck]

Governor Lamm said:

Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that "an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide."

The Scottish Jurist and Historian Sir Alex Fraser Tyler published a collection of lectures in 1801. He advanced a theory of democracy based on historical observation:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until voters discover that they can vote themselves largesses from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

So here are two noted historians saying the same thing. I concur, do you?

Our Republic is 230 years old and, IMHO, it is high time to take ourselves down a notch or two or three.

[CaptainCanada]

We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country.

I spent several weeks in Florida over the winter months and another 2 weeks
in California and I got news fer y'alls - that's already done!
The good news is that current birth and immigration rates will eventually
ensure that the U.S. will eventually be a unilingual country again..

[GMMAC]

Our good friend Australia & her Prime Minister John Howard's stand against multiculturalism (tribalism) lauded here.

[Libertina]

Thanks, Bay. Didn't the communists say they would tke our country down without a shot being fired? Freedom of religion..going, freedom of speech...going, private property rights...going. Country - gone?

[visualops]

More evidence that most taxes are counterproductive at best, and destructive for the most part.
Take away as much of the ability of government to appropriate the public's money and you'll get rid of alot of problems. In fact, get rid of most of the federal government.
Education and a host of other issues should be local and preferably private enterprises.
The founding fathers were right about alot of things, and when "public servants" starting fiddling because they thought they knew best, they started mucking it up.

[jch10]

I sent this to my Congressman. No response....

I didn't bother sending it to my bonehead senators.