Victor Davis Hanson: A World in Flux. Immigration Implosion. Making the Middle East Irrelevant

The President never understood why so many Americans were furious about the bill—witness the administration’s condescension toward, and abuse of, its critics.

There is an elemental anger over the issue, even if poorly articulated and sometimes contradictory. But the furor arises from a weariness with 5-pound bilingual phone books or having to select English over the phone as the preferred language...

Where do we go from here? First, close the border and all good things arise—more assimilation and integration, less identity politics, higher wages for low-paid American citizens, renewed respect for the law, and a warning to Mexico we will not subsidize its own failure to reform. When the number of illegals is static, the forces of the maligned melting pot will resume. And we will have time to sort out “earned citizenship”, guest workers, and all the other contentious issues that were to be snuck into law under the current legislation—but only when the forces of apartheid are stopped through border security.

It happened once before. By 1500 the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire seemed unstoppable, especially when the West was trisected by Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox sectarianism. The Sultan’s galleys roamed even throughout the Western Mediterranean and with impunity raided the Italian coast. But after Lepanto (1571), and by the end of the 16th century— despite the acquisition of Cyprus and with later inroads into eastern Europe, Austria, and more islands still to come—the handwriting for the Turks was on the wall.

The Mediterranean was soon seen as hardly the nexus of global wealth and communications (in these pre-Suez days, it was more a bottle-neck that led to nowhere), and so the Ottomans became increasingly irrelevant.

“There is an elemental anger over the issue, even if poorly articulated and sometimes contradictory. But the furor arises from a weariness with 5-pound bilingual phone books or having to select English over the phone as the preferred language... “

Or going to Home Depot or Lowes and having packages turned so Spanish is in front (are the stock boys doing that on purpose?) and hearing PA announcements in Spanish...

I wish there some english-only alternatives.

Hansen has hit upon all the little things that infuriate me and most other americans.

Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep

Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Toll free to the US Senate:

1-800-882-2005. (Spanish number)
1-800-417-7666. (English number)

Courtesy of a pro-amnesty group, no less!!

Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE Washington, D.C. 20003
phone: 202.863.8500 | fax: 202.863.8820 | e-mail: info@gop.com

As I remember...

I was talking with VDH after he made his presentation.

He was talking about the justifications and the need to fight and win in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As you obviously know...VDH regularly makes these points in his essays about the need for liberal (sic) Western democracies to stand and face the Islamofascist threat head on.

The manner in which he made his case was so crystal clear that “even a caveman” would understand and agree.

I was telling VDH how frustrating it was that the White House and President Bush had NOT made the same points repeatedly in public.

I think that what I find so frustrating about Bush is his inability to articulate our need to be in the Middle East and fighting the jihadis on their turf. If this was communicated in the manner that VDH made his presentation, then public support for the war and for Bush would be much higher.

I even (half seriously) suggested to VDH that he go to work as the director of White House Communications or as the White House Press Secretary. He chuckled a bit and said that he agrees with me that Bush and the White House have been poor communicators. He was somewhat hopeful in that about a year ago Tony Snow had just come on board as White House spokesman.

Anyways...that was pretty much the gist of our conversation. He has a great mind. Other excellent professors who were also there that day included Professor Bruce Thornton from Fresno State and Professor Brad Birzner from Hillsdale College.

If you are interested in attending these ISI seminars, check out the following site for ISI:

http://www.isi.org

Their seminars are offered at various locations and year round. I am a great fan of ISI and I know that you would enjoy their programs as well since you are so big on VDH.

Finally, at last year’s seminar, I had VDH autograph my copies of “A War Like No Other” and “Mexifornia.”

P.S. I attended another ISI seminar in Rancho Santa Fe just last month. While VDH and Bruce Thornton were not there, Brad Birzner was there again. The topic of the seminar last month was “Propsects for Conservatism.” Birzner covered the conservative movement after WWII specifically dealing with the Cold War and the the fight against communism. Birzner identified the three individuals he believed were the lynch-pins in ending the Cold War: Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Alexander Solzenitzen. The story he told about Pope John Paul and the Pope’s tale of a Catholic priest who was executed at Auschwitz nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sorry to go so long...but I want to emphasize the great things being done by ISI and I hope that you check out ISI. ISI serves primarily as a resource for college students and professors who are engaged in conservative thought as well as providing a foil to all of the leftist/Marxist junk that comes out of so many college campuses nowadays. This organization is great for deep thinkers in the conservative movement.

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