Posted on 06/05/2003 9:14:49 AM PDT by TheWillardHotel
Mexifornia: A State of Becoming
"Massive illegal immigration from Mexico into California," Victor Davis Hanson writes, "coupled with a loss of confidence in the old melting pot model of transforming newcomers into Americans, is changing the very nature of state. Yet we Californians have been inadequate in meeting this challenge, both failing to control our borders with Mexico and to integrate the new alien population into our mainstream."
Noted for his military histories and especially his social commentary of post-9/11 American life, Hanson is a fifth-generation Californian who teaches college classics courses and runs a family farm. Mexifornia is part history, part political analysis, and part memoir. It is an intensely personal book about what has changed in the California over the last quarter century, and how the real losers in the chaos caused by hemorrhaging borders are the Mexican immigrants themselves.
A large part of the problem, Hanson believes, comes from the opportunistic coalition that stymies immigration reform and, even worse, stifles an honest discussion of the growing problem. Corporations, contractors, and agribusiness demand cheap wage labor from Mexico, whatever the social consequences. Meanwhile, academics, journalists, government bureaucrats, and La Raza advocates envision illegal aliens as a vast new political constituency for those committed to the notion that victimhood, not citizenship, is the key to advancement.
Mexifornia is an indictment of the policies that got California into its present mess. But this beautifully written book also reflects Hanson's strong belief that our traditions of assimilation, integration, and intermarriage may yet remedy a problem that the politicians and ideologues have allowed to get out of hand.
Victor Davis Hanson is author most recently of Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power and An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terror.
His interview with Limbaugh was fantastic.
We have? LOL...... Prop 187.......
Vic calls Texas, Texico.
Hell, might as well call the entire country, the United States of Mexico.
I believe Hanson is way too intelligent for that.
California has been screwed for decades by her politicians, courts, academians, newspapers, Liberals, Greenies and the Federal government (lack of) immigration enforcement. Reasonable political and legal efforts to salvage her have failed.
She is morphing from once-upon-a-time paradise to future basket-case right before our eyes. If something radical isn't done soon, color her "gone"!
The only thing you got wrong here is the 'future' part.
But nevermind that, we have landmark legislation protecting transsexuals & cross dressers.
You are confusing him with Mark Victor Hansen (Hanson?). Pretty easy to do with those very similar names.
From what I have read about Victor David Hanson, I seem to recall that he describes himself as a liberal, but from his writings, he does not seem that way. Maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong.
North Carolina has been screwed for decades by her politicians, courts, academians, newspapers, Liberals, Greenies and the Federal government (lack of) immigration enforcement.
Historically, small-town rural America has been less vulnerable to the effects of our flawed immigration policy and poorly defended borders. In fact, many of these areas have not seen significant immigration in 80 years. However, states such as North Carolina that had managed to maintain a fairly status quo population balance are now experiencing an insuperable influx of illegal aliens.,
North Carolina is one of the states that has experienced the largest per-capita growth in its illegal alien population in recent years. During the 1990’s, the state’s Hispanic percentage of population swelled by a whopping 394%. For example, the bucolic town of Siler City, with less than 7,000 residents, went from having a 4% Hispanic population to 39% in barely 10 years.
Yes, this is North Carolina. Stunning isn't it?
What does that make Arizona? Mexizona or Arizonico?
In Minnesota, the illegal alien population tripled in the 1990’s, overrunning the meatpacking industry, which in the last 30 years has gone from a bastion of well-paid blue-collar employment to a sweatshop industry.
· Tennessee’s Hispanic population almost tripled in that same timeframe. Approximately 25 percent of the state’s prison population are illegal aliens.
· Waves of illegals doubled Utah’s immigrant population, first drawn by agricultural jobs, later moving into year-round work.
· In Nebraska, during the 1990’s about 40% of the state’s aggregate population growth was illegal aliens. A state sponsored study found that illegal aliens often reside in multiple family dwellings, which places increased burdens on schools and health-care systems because property taxes do not increase according to the number of household occupants.
· Illinois is yet another state that has experienced an unusually large growth in immigration. The nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies estimated that due to immigration, the population of Illinois would increase by approximately 3 million persons over the next 25 years. The consequences are predictable: Bilingual education increased the cost per student by about 50 percent; the state spends more than $170 million on welfare for illegal aliens; the increase in crime costs the state $44 million to imprison illegal aliens.
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