Jewish writer defends national quota acts, opposes de-Europeanization of America

Here is a further index of how the immigration debate has shifted in our favor. Joseph Puder, who is Jewish and works for Jewish organizations, writes at FrontPage Magazine today defending the national quota acts of 1921 and 1924 that have always been anathema to the Jewish community. Not only that, but Puder criticizes our current law for vastly favoring non-European immigrants over European immigrants. After quoting Edward Kennedy’s promise in the 1965 immigration hearings (first brought to light in my 1990 booklet The Path to National Suicide) that the 1965 bill would not change America’s ethnic balance, Puder continues:

Ted Kennedy was wrong on every count. America has been inundated with illegal Mexican “immigrants,” and millions of Asians. The ethnic balance has changed in measurable ways. The multiculturalists have won the day, and instead of a melting pot we now have a society of hyphenated Americans.

While Puder doesn’t cross every “t” and jot every “i,” he definitely seems to be saying that multiculturalism and America’s loss of identity both stem from the change of America’s ethnic balance resulting from immigration, rather than that the loss of identity stems only from multiculturalism and has nothing to do with immigration—the latter being, of course, the accepted conservative view. Other than a handful of articles I managed to get published in conservatives magazines in the early and mid 1990s, the argument that immigration itself is the driving cause of multiculturalism and America’s loss of identity has been forbidden in the mainstream. For example, David Horowitz, while he let me say some beyond-cutting edge things at FP, consistently refused to let me say that the transformation of America into a non-European country is itself a major cause of America’s cultural problems. But now he lets Puder say it. He lets Puder say it, because Puder doesn’t make the argument very clearly. As I always point out, conceptually clear dissents from liberalism are not allowed, but somewhat murky dissents from liberalism are. For example, by mixing up the illegal immigration problem with the legal, Puder blurs the fact that he’s objecting to the mass legal immigration of Mexicans. Nevertheless, this is progress. Let us give thanks again for G.W. Bush’s fanaticism. For the first time in our lifetime, significant elements of mainstream opinion are opposing our mass immigration policies on cultural grounds.

- end of initial entry -

Bruce B. writes:

Congratulations on your success in getting these things injected into mainstream “conservatism.” e.g. Goldberg, Coulter, Puder, the Corner, etc. I don’t think it’s just Bush’s fanaticism that producing a change in what’s being written. You’ve been patiently telling the truth for years and I think it’s paying off. I really believe you have a lot more influence than you think. Guys like you and Brimelow and Francis will never get the proper credit i.e. the mainstream pundits will just “discover” the issue on their own. But your readers know the truth.

I’m really hopeful that things are changing.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 28, 2007 10:06 AM | Send