The new conventional wisdom on immigration?

Here is further welcome evidence that the insane Bush-Kennedy immigration bill is turning people against legal immigration as well as against illegal: Nicholas von Hoffman writing in the New York Observer calls for a moratorium on immigration that he says should last a least a generation, just as Peggy Noonan called for in last Friday’s Opinion Journal.

And maybe this is the way it will happen. A new conventional wisdom will arise, not based on any explicit cultural arguments such as I make, but simply based on the non-conceptual, commonsense idea that we need a long pause to absorb and assimilate the many millions we have taken in since the 1960s.

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A reader who writes on immigration and culture replies:

But the cultual argument is part of what has led people to say this. That we are losing our culture and identity. Previous conventional wisdom was that the immigrants are assimilating just as in past, that the great American economy assimilates everyone etc. Don’t downgrade the contributions of you and me and others who have tried to point out how it’s NOT working this time.

Rachael S. writes:

“Don’t downgrade the contributions of you and me and others who have tried to point out how it’s NOT working this time.”

In my view this is correct. I was listening to Michael Savage last week. In response to CSpan not televising his Freedom of Speech award, he remarked (something like): The press is involved in feeding you ideas you do not believe in, and keeping you from seeing and hearing ideas you do believe in.

The effect of that blackout would be much worse if not for traditional patriots articulating the vision of the America that “was, is, and could be.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 18, 2007 10:14 AM | Send