The stupidest sentence ever written, revisited

By Joseph Sobran, on immigration, discussed here at VFR in April 2006, and previously here.

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Scottie writes:

Joe Sobran’s views have changed on immigration. Here is Sobran’s review of Pat Buchanan’s book State of Emergency, August 25, 2006:

Joe Sobran: Buchanan on Immigration

Rarely has a book rocked me as Pat Buchanan’s latest one has. State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, just published by Thomas Dunne Books, shattered my skepticism about the problem of immigration, which I’ve tended to think could be handled by gradual absorption and assimilation, as in the past. Buchanan argues powerfully that the current wave is radically different from previous ones. In America both the volume of newcomers and, all too often, their attitudes resist the adaptation to our traditions we used to be able to assume. As Enoch Powell warned a generation ago, when Britain began to feel the impact of limitless immigration, the thing has the character of an invasion; the aliens, he noted, were arriving not as mere individuals, but as whole villages, transforming British culture, and not for the better. Now the same thing is happening here—but on a much larger scale […]

For me, reading this book is like listening to a doctor as he gives you a brilliant diagnosis of your terminal illness. Only a few weeks ago, Bill Bonner’s Empire of Debt convinced me that this country is headed for economic disaster in the next few years. And of course Al Gore is certain that global warming is about to devastate the planet. If all three of these prophets are right, the twenty-first century isn’t going to be a whole lot of fun.

To read the entire review: http://www.buchanan.org/blog/?p=56

LA replies:

Sobran has been familiar with and hearing the arguments of restrictionists for many years. He was a speaker at the 1994 AR conference. He was criticized then for not taking immigration seriously. He’s been dealing with, or rather taking the other side on, this issue ever since then, and being criticized for paleocons for it. Then in April 2006 he made those statements (linked here at VFR) saying that Jesus wouldn’t turn back illegal aliens, and therefore we shouldn’t either—thus denying any moral right of America to defend its borders, even from the illegal alien invasion. So by April 2006 Sobran’s position on immigration has gotten worse than ever. Then in August 2006 he reads Buchanan’s latest book on immigration and—as though he’s never heard these facts, arguments, and concerns before, though spending his entire life on the American right and paleo-rights—he suddenly sees the light and realizes immigration is a problem!

A test of his seriousness on the issue would be if he’s revisited the issue at all since his review of the Buchanan book.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 10, 2008 07:42 PM | Send