Immigration—the challenge of our lifetime

When my first work on America’s immigration disaster was published in late 1990, the percentage of the U.S. population that was white had declined from the 89 percent it had been in 1960 to 75 percent. I presented in easily understandable, tabular form the projections by demographers that at then-existing rates of immigration and fertility, America would cease to be a white majority country around the middle of the 21st century. I called this ongoing process, and the belief system that was pushing and legitimizing it, the “path to national suicide.” Today, only 16 years after my booklet of that title was published, the white percentage of the U.S. population has shrunk from 75 percent to 67 percent. Not that there are fewer whites, but that the unceasing mass influx of nonwhite immigrants, combined with their relatively high birthrates, is ballooning the non-white part of the population. The rapidity with which this seemingly irreversible catastrophe is unfolding, betokening the literal loss of our country to Third-World peoples, mainly Hispanics, who do not share our culture, our values, our intellectual and artistic aspirations, our belief in liberty under the rule of law, and, most obviously, our historic national identity, but who instead are seeking to impose their own imperial ethnic nationalism upon us, can create deep depression and discouragement, even, at times—let us be frank about it—despair.

Salient among the effects of this transformation is that a population with lower earning power and an ethnic chip on its shoulder is going to swell the ranks of the Democratic party and push America into a regime of ethnic-based socialism. In this connection, here is a paragraph, chosen almost at random, from the powerful fifth chapter, “Suicide of the GOP,” of Patrick Buchanan’s State of Emergency:

After Ellis Island, the Democratic Party has been the next stop for immigrants. Only when they achieve economic security and a share of prosperity do immigrants migrate toward the GOP. That process can take generations. With Third World immigrants, the mass conversion to the Republican Party has never happened. The naturalization and registration of 500,000 to 1 million immigrants each year is thus locking up the future for the Democratic Party and throwing away the key. If the GOP does not do something about immigration, immigration will do something about the GOP: turn it into a retirement home of America’s newest minority.

Buchanan’s logically argued and unstintingly alarming picture of an America permanently ruled by a racial-socialist Democratic party gets some support from an anecdote I heard over the weekend. A correspondent attended a small meeting in New York City where the speaker was Herman Badillo, the Puerto Rican born veteran pol who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor in 1973. Badillo, who is a smart and talented man, had in more recent decades developed something of a reputation as a neoconservative, or at least a moderate liberal. That Badillo was not much in evidence yesterday. He said, inter alia, that in New York City’s schools the more advanced classes where real learning takes place are all white and Asian, and the slower classes where no learning takes place are all black and Hispanic, and he said this was a disgrace and something had to be done about it. His message was clearly that it was society’s fault that blacks and Hispanics are behind.

Badillo also said that it is inevitable that we will get the poor of the Hispanic countries, since they do not supply education and economic opportunity to their people, and so we are going to have to take them in and educate them. The Hispanics won’t reform their countries, he said, they don’t know how, and so they will come here, and there is no way we can stop this immigration. In history there has never been a cessation of economic immigration.

To his credit, Badillo blames Hispanic culture in general and Hispanic parents in particular for not instilling in Hispanic children a desire for education, an argument for which he has taken some heat from Hispanics. But, given his basic egalitarian assumptions, given the fact that as a Hispanic he cannot acknowledge that the reason Mestizos and Puerto Ricans are so far behind the whites and Asians is that they are less intelligent, can we see someone with the relatively moderate outlook of a Badillo as strengthening the side of the majority in the decades to come?

Indeed, if someone as smart and as critical of left-wing nuttiness as Badillo could sound the racial-socialist note at this stage of the game, after so many disasters have already resulted in the past from the same egalitarian assumptions, and the lessons had presumably been learned, then we have a bitter taste of the future. America is filling up with a vast population of people who, let us be frank, have no interest in education, no interest in reading, and an average IQ of 90, and, residing as cultural outsiders in a country with a still dominant and successful though ebbing white majority, and also fueled by their own ethnic chauvinism, those people will naturally and increasingly blame their inferiority of accomplishment and income on the whites and seek to appropriate as much from them in the form of government transfers as they can. As their numbers increase, their political power and their will to express their resentments politically will also increase, as will the perverted anti-white passions of the white left.

This is our future, our future that, in terms of years, is rushing upon us with shocking swiftness, and, as I said, it is enough to make us despair. But it does not make me despair. It rouses me to the realization that while we are looking at the very real approach of national and civilizational extinction, we are still the majority—as Buchanan says, 90 percent of voters in the U.S. are still white—and we still have the ability—if we have the vision, the principles, and the will—to stop the Hispanicization of America and even to reverse it.

This is the calling of our lifetime. As threatening as Islam is, Muslims are still a very small percentage of the population. Hispanics are an ocean of Third-world mediocrity and ethnic and class resentment rising over our land. Stopping the Hispanic and other Third-World immigration must be our first and supreme task. If we don’t stop it, we won’t be able to do anything about any of the other civilizational disasters that are also piling upon us.

- end of initial entry -

Mark J. writes:

The great unknown here is just how quickly white liberals will become disenchanted with what will be an increasingly blatant anti-white tone in the Democratic party’s politics as time passes. I have read on the Brussels Journal blog that some white socialist liberals in Belgium are becoming disenchanted with the muslims who are increasingly taking over their party. Our greatest challenge is not a third-world wave; it is white liberals. A more or less united white population could not, in my opinion, be defeated by the third world, but if liberal whites work against us in significant numbers over the long haul, things will be more difficult. Note how in South Africa some prominent white liberals have become disillusioned and have left the country, but many still actively and enthusiastically work for the black government.

Nevertheless, in my own sphere, in recent months I have for the first time heard liberal friends spontaneously express some tentative complaints about minority attitudes and behavior. There are a certain percentage of hardcore white liberals who would rather die than modify their beliefs, but most white liberals don’t fall into that category. There is nothing like some extended up-close-and-personal contact with third world people in one’s own workplace or neighborhood to undercut liberal beliefs. We’ve got that working for us. Plus the sheer native competence of our people, which once awakened and directed towards a united cause is unmatched.

Mark P. writes:

You write: “Indeed, if someone as smart and as critical of left-wing nuttiness as Badillo could sound the racial-socialist note at this stage of the game, after so many disasters have already resulted in the past from the same egalitarian assumptions, and the lessons had presumably been learned, then we have a bitter taste of the future. America is filling up with a vast population of people who, let us be frank, have no interest in education, no interest in reading, and an average IQ of 90, and, residing as cultural outsiders in a country with a still dominant and successful though ebbing white majority, and also fueled by their own ethnic chauvinism, those people will naturally and increasingly blame their inferiority of accomplishment and income on the whites. As their numbers increase, their political power and their will to express their resentments politically will also increase, as will the perverted anti-white passions of the white left.”

What I find truly amazing is how white liberals somehow think they are going to come out of this smelling like roses. Don’t they understand that Democrat, blue-state cities are at the epicenter of this disaster, that is, that all of these predictable problems will show up on their doorstep first? Don’t they understand that New York, Chicago, LA, San Fran and other cities will be the primary areas reeling from this boondoggle? Oh sure, it will spread across the country eventually, but these cities will provide evidence of that disaster before it hits elsewhere.

Furthermore, what political power do liberals expect to hold? There is nothing a gringo can do that can’t be done by his Hispanic equivalent. The future of the Democratic Party may be racial socialism, but with the myriad of races and languages and cultures within the Democratic Party, absent a white glue, the Democrat’s future is one of balkanization and conflict.

On the plus side, the Republican investments in defense, food and energy businesses plus its presence in the military will make besieging New York City and starving/freezing its Latin population and white turncoats quite easy.

Brandon F. writes:

You speak the truth.

Sheila C. writes:

While not disputing anything you have written, I must add the under-reported dangers of continuing “legal’ immigration of nonhispanic people—specifically those from India and Asia. Here in prosperous Plano, Texas, my son’s elementary school is less than 50% white, and his classmates are from India, Pakistan, China, and Taiwan. The school aggressively teaches about celebrating “differences” and pushes multiculturalism as the highest virtue. My child has even learned from his classmates that all the red front doors he sees are for “good luck.” How wonderful. The public library computer terminals are constantly in use by Chinese children playing computer games (the library finally put in a terminal for library catalogue only). The hike/bike path along my house is filled with women in saris and Chinese grandmothers carrying sun umbrellas. There are numerous Chinese language, academic cram, and other academies and equally numerous “Montesorri” schools run by Indians and Iranians. The proprietor of a recently opened shopping center called “Asia World Market” proudly noted in the paper that an increasing number of customers are Americans (de facto admitting that most of his customers aren’t such, nor consider themsleves anything but Chinese). While these immigrants may value education more than the illegal Hispanics (and we have plenty of those too—after all, this is still Texas), they have equally alien cultures and languages and are equally militant in not assimilating. As I noted in a previous email, unlike you, I long ago gave into despair.

LA replies:

But the very thing that makes us despair is the very thing that can give us renewed energy to fight: the realization that we really are losing our country.

Edward DiBella writes:

I agree with every single point you make.

I would add several points of my own. The situation is getting worse faster than one might think because of the convergence of other factors that are combining into a mammoth perfect storm.

The news on the energy front is getting worse and the ripples are already being felt within the society.

I believe we are now at or just past Peak Oil and we are beginning the slide down to the abyss. Recent analysis shows that Saudi Arabia’s extraction declined 8% last year. If Saudi Arabia is in decline, the world is in decline. Here is a link.

Rising fuel prices and the increasing diversion of grain to ethanol production is already pushing up food prices.

The USDA has just announced that national meat and poultry production will decrease by about 250 million pounds this year because of the rising costs of grain feed. This is happening as predicted and is merely the first stage of a much more serious food crisis that is to come. I am already deeply involved in intensive preparation for it.

Think what all of this means for the immigration crisis. A gigantic proportion of these people here now are already on the economic precipice. A contact at the San Diego Food Bank told me in December that according to the statistics they’ve seen, 800,000 people in San Diego County are already dealing with monthly food shortages. That includes many of our own poor to be sure.

As things get worse and food prices increase, the demands by and for this huge population of squatters will increase dramatically, just as the struggling native population tries to hold on with greater desperation. You know how it will end-with increasing tension and social violence.

The response by the authorities will initially be against us. We are already seeing that here in San Diego.

As I write this to you, I’m on my break and listening to Rick Roberts, a major morning radio personality here in San Diego. He is right now predicting civil war if we don’t have a radical change in government posture toward the illegals.

The Hispanic invasion can be stopped and reversed. It will not happen peacefully. It’s too late for that now.

David H. in Oregon writes:

It may well be true that Mexicans and blacks have lower IQ scores than whites on the average. But they do have enough sense to maintain ethnic solidarity—my color, right or wrong—something the whites have yet to learn.

LA replies:

If people believe that the only choice is between having no loyalty to one’s own side and believing “my side right or wrong,” then their only choice is between collective suicide (as embraced by the left and the neocons) and tribal amoralism (as embraced by many paleocons). And indeed that false choice does describe much of our politics today. I reject both of those bad options. It is possible to be loyal to your own side, and also to believe in an objective morality by which your own side can be judged when it needs to be. If we don’t believe that, then we’ve given up on the possibility of civilization.

Peak Oil is not really the subject of this thread, but since Edward has opened the subject, here is Robert B.’s reply:

Peak Oil is a tin hat fallacy. This is from Businessweek:

“9. Finally, as for some who suggest that Peak Oil is around the corner, maybe not. In Dr. Hubert’s time, the commonly held view was that the world started with 2 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. In the late nineties, the United States Geological Survey put that number closer to 3 trillion barrels. Now the head of Shell Canada has suggested that the Canadian Tar Sands holds 2 trillion recoverable barrels. Add into that mix the fact that the Rand Corporation released a study last August that claims the Green River Formation in Western Colorado likely has one trillion recoverable barrels and suddenly Peak Oil doesn’t look like it is going to happen anytime soon. This is not to be confused with the end of cheap oil, which may well happen in our lifetime.”

Alan Levine writes:

Even if one does not agree with the assumption of Mr. Auster and some others that the intellectual inferiority of Hispanics is inherent—I am skeptical of this myself—and my own admittedly limited experience is that they, and other immigrants, aren’t quite as resistant to assimilation as some here believe—I am not sure that that matters. There is no doubt whatsoever as to their social problems.

It is a simple, practical observation, that the forces promoting mass Hispanic immigration are, generally speaking, the same forces opposed to assimilation, and in practice favor dismantling or destroying the mechanisms that successfully (if not as painlessly as is usually thought) assimilated previous immigrants who were less alien to American culture. In fact, they have largely wrecked those mechanisms already, most notably the public schools. The only people who favor immigration plus assimilation are the neocons, and, I assume, the greedy guts of the Wall Street Journal clique, althougt the latter in particular seem bent on passing on any costs to everyone else. It is up to those people to explain how they expect to assimilate immigrants, much less why all this is supposed to be in the interests of the native-born.

I am surprised, though, that no one else here has pointed out that immigration is an even worse threat to the interests of native black Americans than it is to whites. It is true that “black leaders” almost all avoid or deny admitting this, but my observation is that many black Americans are well aware of this. It is a truth that bears repeating, if only to embarass the other side!

By the way, my relative “optimism” such as it is, about Hispanic immigrants are based on my observations as a New Yorker. I freely admit that things seem to be worse in the Southwest.

Incidentally I would be much interested in hearing of Mr. DiBella’s ideas about how things will play out.

Andrew E. writes:

This blog entry is a tour de force, though I find it difficult to comment on because it stirs up so many thoughts and feelings within me that I can scarcely sort them all out. In the meantime, kudos to Robert B. for digging up some information to help dispel the myth of Peak Oil. We face many problems as a civilization but running out of cheap energy is not among them. Of course, that assumes government will not prevent the energy companies (through regulation and price fixing) from providing us with cheap energy, instead forcing upon us artificial solutions like ethanol which may well contribute to the food shortages Edward DiBella speaks of, but that is a subject for another thread.

Reader Alan Levine is unconvinced of the inherent intellectual abilities of Hispanics. Does he also doubt the 15 point IQ difference between blacks and whites? What about the 5 point IQ difference between whites and Asians? A good place to begin might be Richard Lynn’s Race Differences in Intelligence. This is something one can learn about in New York, Los Angeles or even Greenland. Perhaps we need more legislation like No Child Left Behind to smooth out the differences.

However, Mr. Levine is spot on in focusing on the forces within the American Establishment that are responsible for our immigration crisis.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 27, 2007 11:51 PM | Send