On immigration and the Republican future

I sent the below e-mail to Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review:

Dear Mr. Ponnuru,

You write at the Corner that without the transformation of America’s ethnic/racial composition since 1992, which has, of course, been driven by immigration, Barack Obama would have lost the election by five percentage points. The fact that immigration-caused demographic change is leading to the permanent electoral domination of the U.S. by the Democrats and the demise of the GOP has been made repeatedly by immigration restrictionists for many years. While it’s late in the game, I’m glad that you have finally noticed it. But now that you have noticed it, I wonder what practical conclusions, if any, you will draw from it.

Do you want America to become an increasingly Democratic, leftist, big-state, welfare-statist country? Then all you have to do is allow mass Third-World immigration to continue as is. Or do you want to stop the transformation of America into a leftist country? Then you must stop mass Third-World immigration. Which means either reducing all immigration to a small fraction of what it is now, or repealing the 1965 Immigration Act, which opened America on an equal basis to immigrants from all countries in the world.

By the stand you take on immigration, you will make it clear how much you really care about stopping America from changing into a statist, socialist country.

Regards,
Lawrence Auster

P.S. Here is a concise article I wrote about this subject in 1996. See also this brief entry, from 2004.

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Vincent Chiarello writes:

Your letter to Ponnuru is similar to many that I, and countless others, have sent to the people who constitute the “conservative” core at NRO. In all fairness, Pommeru is a verifiable social conservative, especially on the abortion and homosexual marriage issues, but he and his colleagues are either unable and/or unwilling to connect the dots regarding the future of this country if both legal and illegal immigration are permitted to continue. Perhaps it has something to do with being raised in Kansas. In your note, you touched on a point which needs to be emphasized: the GOP, by its steadfast refusal to deal with the immigration issue, is sealing its own doom.

For more than a few years I served on the Board of the American National Council for Immigration Reform (ANCIR), and each year a group of us would travel to Richmond to visit the (mainly) GOP members of the House of Delegates who had exhibited a willingness to address the issue of the costs, both in societal and economic terms, brought on by the increase numbers of illegal aliens in the Old Dominion. Similarly, we would “pound the bricks” of the Capitol, and attempt to “educate” and “inform” the mainly Republican (although Senator Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia, seemed amenable to our entreaties) members of Congress of similar perils. While it can be argued that public pressure stymied two attempts by Bush, McCain, and their acolytes to grant amnesty to those illegally present in our country, that was a tactical victory; in strategic terms, the devastating losses by the GOP in ‘06, made it clear that many of our former allies in congress and in the state legislature would seek political cover and not be seen as anti-Hispanic.

In our conversations with GOP federal and legislators, we stressed the importance to securing our borders and its impact on national security; the tie between the presence of illegal aliens and the wages of working Americans, but both points were often dismissed as too hypothetical. The issue we used in our peroration was that, by allowing millions of immigrants into the country, the GOP would vote itself out of office, and to permanent minority status. Yet, to this day, that reality does not appear to have penetrated the very mushy minds of too many members of the GOP.

It is my opinion that most of the GOP representatives know of the dangers in the current political situation; yet, they believe that by appearing to be against any form of immigration—legal or otherwise—would cause them to lose the votes and esteem of their constituency, which is arrant nonsense, as the exit polling data in last year’s presidential election clearly demonstrates. Given that Obama has openly declared his support for amnesty for 20 million illegals, the failure of the GOP to stop it this time will change the country irrevocably, yet the Republicans as a party seem perfectly willing to along with its permanent subordination. It will not surprise me that, within my lifetime, the fissure between Liberal and Conservative GOP members will cause a major split in the party, or the GOP will descend into the lower depths of political Hell.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 13, 2009 10:57 PM | Send