On Glenn Beck, Buchanan repeated his claim that allowing immigrants from "the whole world in" the U.S. will lead to "a tangle of squabbling nationalities"
SUMMARY: Promoting his new book on Glenn
Beck's CNN Headline News show, Pat Buchanan claimed that Americans are
"addicted to this myth" of the United States as a "melting
pot," adding: "[T]here's no doubt that the American melting
pot worked wonders with the folks that came from Europe from 1890 to 1920. But
we had a 40-year time-out, and we had clashes in that period and it finally
worked." Buchanan then claimed that "we're going to end up with what [former
President] Teddy Roosevelt warned against: a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
But while Buchanan has previously asserted that the United
States must keep "Americans of European
descent" from becoming a "minority," the targets of Roosevelt's ire in a 1915 speech were European
immigrants.
On the November 27 edition of his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck teased his half-hour long interview with MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan by describing the United States as a "nation in peril," later adding that "the inability to secure our borders, illegal immigration gone wild, and our economy. Something is not right. It's something that I labeled the perfect storm over a year ago. And now Pat Buchanan has a new book out that says the same thing." Buchanan appeared on Beck's show to discuss his new book, Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, And Greed Are Tearing America Apart (Thomas Dunne Books, November 2007). During their discussion of border security and immigration, Buchanan asserted: "[T]here's no doubt that the American melting pot worked wonders with the folks that came from Europe from 1890 to 1920. But we had a 40-year time-out, and we had clashes in that period and it finally worked. So now we say, 'Well, that worked. Let's let everybody in from the whole world, legal and illegal, and the whole thing will work.' You are risking the United States of America doing this." Buchanan also asserted that Americans are "addicted to this myth" of the United States as a "melting pot," and claimed that "we're going to end up with what [former President] Teddy Roosevelt warned against: a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
Earlier in the interview, Buchanan stated:
BUCHANAN: You talk about -- I mean, this -- the former president of Mexico [Vicente Fox] came up here and he has made statements. He clearly wants a merger -- economic merger of the United States and Mexico, an erasure of the borders between us, free flow of Mexicans into the United States.
I understand his motivation doing that. What I don't understand is why there's -- the government of the United States and patriotic men and women don't understand this means the end of the United States as a sovereign, independent, unique, separate nation and people.
Buchanan's interview with Beck was not the first time that he has invoked Roosevelt to defend his position on immigration. In a 2006 appearance on CNN's The Situation Room, Buchanan claimed that illegal immigration threatens to reduce America to "a polyglot boarding house for the world, a tangle of squabbling minorities," as noted by Media Matters. But while Buchanan has asserted that the United States must keep "Americans of European descent" from becoming a "minority," the targets of Roosevelt's ire were European immigrants. From an October 12, 1915, speech by Roosevelt:
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country.
As Media Matters for America documented, Buchanan made similar assertions during a discussion of his book on the November 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes. Buchanan responded to a question by Sean Hannity by stating: "I think America may exist, but I'll tell you this: I do believe we're going to lose the American Southwest. I think it is almost inevitable." He continued: "If we do not put a fence on that border ...you're going to have 100 million Hispanics in the country, most of them new immigrants from Mexico, which believes that belongs to them. What's going to happen to us, Sean, in my judgment, is what is happening right now: We are Balkanizing. We are dividing and separating from one another politically, morally -- on issues like abortion or Terri Schiavo -- racially and ethnically when you get Jena and then you get Don Imus, and all of these things ripping us apart. All the things that used to pull us together and hold us together no longer do."
In his book, Buchanan addresses immigration and describes current U.S. immigration policy as "a path to national suicide," as Media Matters has noted. From his book:
Truly, America faces an existential crisis. Are the racial, political, social, and cultural forces pulling us apart overwhelming the forces holding us together?
It is the belief of the author and premise of this book that America is indeed coming apart, decomposing, and that the likelihood of her survival as one nation through midcentury is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course. For we are on a path to national suicide.
How is America committing suicide? Every way a nation can.
The American majority is not reproducing itself. Its birthrate has been below replacement level for decades. Forty-five million of its young have been destroyed in the womb since Roe v. Wade, as Asian, African, and Latin American children come to inherit the estate the lost generation of American children never got to see."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2005 to 2006, our minority population rose 2.4 million to exceed 100 million. Hispanics, 1 percent of the U.S. population in 1950, are now 14.4 percent. Since 2000, their numbers have soured 25 percent to 45 million. The U.S. Asian population grew by 24 percent since 2000, as the number of white kids of school age fell 4 percent. Half the children five and younger today are minority children. (Pages 7-8)
Additionally, as Media Matters has previously documented, on the June 25 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, Buchanan asserted that "every 20 months, we add a new Mexico in the Third World. You're going to add 30 new Mexicos by 2050, and they all know the door is open." During the show, Buchanan went on to criticize the immigration bill being considered by Congress at the time and similarly warned of losing the "American Southwest": "If you grant amnesty -- and there's nothing in this bill that stops the invasion -- I think you lose the American Southwest." As Media Matters also noted, in his 2006 book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (Thomas Dunne Books), Buchanan also made reference to a "new Mexico":
The crisis of the West is of a collapsing culture and vanishing peoples, as a Third World that grows by 100 million people -- the equivalent of a new Mexico -- every eighteen months mounts the greatest invasion in the history of the world. If we do not shake off our paralysis, the West comes to an end. (Page 245)
From the November 27 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: We're back with Pat Buchanan, author of The Day of Reckoning. I think, Pat, I'm happy to say I think you're making me look like a man full of sunshine and lollipops. And that's not -- that's not easily done. We were just talking about the people's pessimism. I sensed something when I went down to Texas. I lived in Texas for a while. You know it's a different place.
BUCHANAN: Sure.
BECK: And I went down there and I sensed real disconnect. I talked to a woman today in Bangor, Maine, who said she was out in the shopping mall this weekend and somebody said to her, "You tell me. When are we going to -- when are we going to lock and load?" People are beyond pessimists with their government. I believe there is a growing disconnect. How do we wake the government up to see people are not going to be treated like boobs for very long?
BUCHANAN: You know, I think what you're getting to is what they call a crisis of the regime itself, a crisis of the democratic government of the United States. When you see the president at 30 percent, Cheney at 20 percent and the Congress at 10 percent, and all manner of people saying we don't like the choices we're being offered, I do think the people are far ahead of the -- certainly of the government and the elites --
BECK: Oh, yeah.
BUCHANAN: -- when you see them trying to grant an amnesty to 12 to 20 million aliens in the face of this firestorm. And you see Republican conservative [Sen.] John McCain [R-AZ] and [Rep.] Mike Pence [R-IN] and others going right in the teeth of this storm. What is the matter with you fellas? Don't you see it coming? I think it's already arrived on the immigration issue. I think the trade and lost jobs and manufacturing issue is coming. I think the sovereignty issue is here.
You talk about -- I mean, this -- the former president of Mexico came up here and he's made statements. He clearly wants a merger -- economic merger of the United States and Mexico, an erasure of the borders between us, free flow of Mexicans into the United States. I understand his motivation doing that. What I don't understand is why there's -- the government of the United States and patriotic men and women don't understand this means the end of the United States as a sovereign, independent, unique, separate nation and people.
BECK: Is it that we are just -- is it that we've been watching circuses and eating cakes? Why -- I don't understand. I get so frustrated, Pat. It is so clear to some, and the rest are just not seeing it. Is it arrogance? What is it?
BUCHANAN: No. I think there's two things. One is ideology. And ideology is really substitute religion that's got this belief -- for example, one of the things I mentioned is free trade. But the other is the -- I mean, the belief in the great good myth that we are a nation of immigrants, the more people that come in the better, that all those who opposed it were entirely wrong.
And there's no doubt that the American melting pot worked wonders with the folks who came from Europe from 1890 to 1920. But we had a 40-year time-out, and we had clashes in that period, and it finally worked. So now we say, "Well, that worked. Let's let everybody in from the whole world, legal and illegal, and the whole thing will work." You are risking the United States of America doing this.
And I'm asking, why are you taking this risk when the people don't want to take it, the country doesn't want to take it? And the only thing they can explain to me is they're addicted to this myth, and they think it's all going to follow through on that, and I don't think it is. I don't think it's working. And I think we're going to wind up with what Teddy Roosevelt warned against: a tangle of squabbling nationalities in a country, the Southwest of which is linguistically part of Mexico -- I mean, the Anglos, as we're called now, are moving out of California. Two million in the 1990s.
BECK: OK. Back with Pat Buchanan in just a second.
The Buchanan old racist goat tour continues. Others have said and I agree that Pat's honesty is refreshing. There is and no talking in code and no back tracking. He’s a crusty old bigot that Pat.
He is a crusty old bigot. He is a good example of how the corrosive ideololgy of hate groups filter into the mainstream dialogue.
But why is he so afraid that law enforcement in our country won't be able to police our streets in the manner they always have? What is Pat's real fear?
Fear of a black planet, maybe? (God bless Chuck D)
Bass in your face, Roundhouse.
"I got a letter from the government the other day. I opened and read it. It said they were suckers. They wnated me for their army or whatever. Picture me giving a damn, I said never..." Chuick D.
Seriously though, good point on the the no-coded speech stuff Buchanan peddles in. I'm reminded of Daisy Buchanan's husband talking sh*t about the rise of the colored empires in The Great Gatsby...As a young Chicano reading that book I thought it was clear his talk of how the white race was in danger was meant to make him seem like a moron, though Fitzgerald probably didn't intend it that way. Read the book, it's good. His name was Buchanan as well. Conincidence? I just heard Pat Buchanan on the Armstrong and Getty show (from Sactown). The guy has clearly been hating Mexicans since at least the 60's. Old school conservative, he.
Buttcannon's problem is he's never known "colored" love. The only women he's bedded are white hookers in DC, and that crusty old pasty white arranged marraige whitey who he despises. Explains why his daughter is butt ugly...
Me on the other hand? An equal opportunity lover. If they breathe, I couldn't care less what color they are! ;)
Snoopy, you're a kinky little doggy. ;-)
If they breathe, I couldn't care less what color they are! ;)
So that's why Blue Man Group runs away when they see you coming! 8^)
"But the other is the -- I mean, the belief in the great good myth that we are a nation of immigrants"
Um...... Pat
I guess I'll be the one to play History teacher for you.......
We are a nation of immigrants!
In fact..... the only ones here in America that actually belong here, if we are to use your brand of logic is.......
The Native American Indians!
Everyone else either forced their way or was invited by those early settlers to come here.
History calls these people......
Immigrants..... look it up, its true!
Many of these early immigrants murdered those indians by the thousands and then moralized it by convincing themselves that they were only savages and not humans..... seems this leason has been learned and relearned father to son by some that can't ever come to terms with the hard cold truth.
And, if you go back far enough, the Native Americans themselves probably migrated here from Asia...(unless you're a Mormon, and believe that they came over here from Israel.)
Ol' Pat's just a guy with a product to sell. In Pat's case, the product happens to be fear and xenophobia, seasoned with just the right amount of racism.
Well, to be accurate, the product is a book. The brand identity is fear, xenophobia and racism.
Okay, So where is the misinformation??!!
Buchanan did not say anything that was false.
Teddy Roosevelt was not concerned about WHERE the people came from, but the fact that we would have separate groups who really did not hold allegance to American, but rather their European Country.
That is Buchanan's same argument. People coming to this Country who no longer identify with America, and do not want to be American.
Now we have 12 Million+ people who have a boarder attached to America who do not consider themselves Americans or even Mexican/ South American Country (fill in) Americans, they identify with their Country of origin only.
Then add to the fact that more AMERICANS have been kidnapped from Texas to Mexico that were ever kidnapped in Iran, demonstrates why MMFA is out of touch with America - over 75% of them to be exact.
What are you talkin' about, pig?
You have no allegiance to Americans.
Your allegiance is to the GOP.
Hello, modern day racist. I know this is a difficult issue for you to wrap your brain around, but you only have yourself to blame. You should have told the doctor you prefer "a bottle in front of me". In the meantime, please show how history proves buchannon's point. I'm waiting with extatic anticipation to know how that huge influx of white people in the 1800's shows how the country will be ruined again.
Snoopy...that's the answer to everything you don't agree with. Just call them 'racist' and the discussion is over. Look - once again MMfA is mistaking 'misinformation' with difference of opinion. Buchanan is right...we have created a culture where diversity is more important than assimilation.
Diversity and assimilation are not mutually exclusive. If you can make an argument against that, I'm interested.
Snoopy...that's the answer to everything you don't agree with. Just call them 'racist' and the discussion is over. Look - once again MMfA is mistaking 'misinformation' with difference of opinion. Buchanan is right...we have created a culture where diversity is more important than assimilation.
Pat is wrong! America was created by immigrants who celebrated their culture, differences and customs and today, still do. There was a time (and in some cases still is) where your ethnicity defined you and was cherished and praised. Don’t pretend that segregation is not alive and living in the US and don’t pretend that what Pat was really saying is white folks need to reproduce more otherwise they will become the minority. Differences of language and ethnicity have always been accepted and celebrated. It was accepted that if you were Irish, you lived in your Irish neighborhood and still followed the old Irish customs and the same was true for other ethnic groups. Now you don’t want people who speak Spanish to speak Spanish but you don‘t seem to care if others speak their native language and follow their customs. Should Asians not speak Chinese, Japanese or Koran and should they stop observing their customs? You don’t want Latinos to be proud of their history when other races have been speaking their language and celebrating their culture and history for years. That’s what makes what Pat said and your thinking seem racists, it's not balanced by what we, as a country have always accepted.
It was accepted that if you were Irish, you lived in your Irish neighborhood and still followed the old Irish customs and the same was true for other ethnic groups.
You refer specifically to only one immigrant group of the past, the Irish. I would think that since Mr. Buchanan is more German by ancestry than Irish, that you would cite the Germans. Also because of the Penal Laws and terrible economic conditions prevailing in Ireland, going back would not have even been an option for them---unlike many of the cotemporaneous immigrant groups.
Differences of language and ethnicity have always been accepted and celebrated.
This was not true when the first immigrants arrived in large numbers mid 19th century, the Irish and Germans, especially by comparison to the level of acceptance of immigrant groups today.
You refer specifically to only one immigrant group of the past, the Irish. I would think that since Mr. Buchanan is more German by ancestry than Irish, that you would cite the Germans. Also because of the Penal Laws and terrible economic conditions prevailing in Ireland, going back would not have even been an option for them---unlike many of the cotemporaneous immigrant groups.
I referred to Irish simply as an example. I could have used Italian. It was not directed to Pat's race at all.
Mexican Americans cannot make a decent living in Mexico. They are willing to do anything to make their standard of living better. If I were Latino and lived in Mexico and could provide a better life for my family by crossing the border, I would. You can dislike illegal immigration but you cannot say that if you were living in their shoes you would not do anything and everything to make life for your family better.
This was not true when the first immigrants arrived in large numbers mid 19th century, the Irish and Germans, especially by comparison to the level of acceptance of immigrant groups today.
While it was not accepted it did not stop immigrants from speaking their native language and keeping their traditions and customs.
Mexican Americans cannot make a decent living in Mexico. They are willing to do anything to make their standard of living better. If I were Latino and lived in Mexico and could provide a better life for my family by crossing the border, I would. You can dislike illegal immigration but you cannot say that if you were living in their shoes you would not do anything and everything to make life for your family better.
Pearlene,
Many of the immigrants that came to America in the past also wanted a better life, the difference was they came here legally. We should not condone crossing our borders illegally no matter what the reason. Mexico is not a third world nation per say. They have resources & wealth, what they also have is a semi-corrupt government that has not helped it's own less fortunate citizens.
While it was not accepted it did not stop immigrants from speaking their native language and keeping their traditions and customs.
My Grandparents [both sets] came here from Italy. They kept their language, traditions & customs alive within their own homes. But they also learnt English & assimilated into American traditions & customs.
Jeter, you seem to forget that coming here "legally" for our ancestors meant they just hopped on a boat for america and signed their name at Ellis Island. You can't make an apples to apples comparison about legality when the rules were specifically changed to make it harder to come here.
Jeter,
Before 1924, it was much easier for immigrants to come here. However, many Americans didn't want them coming here to take jobs from "Real Americans". In response to the immigration flood, they produced bogus studies which claimed Southern and Eastern Europeans were "intellectually inferior" to other Caucasians. This phony study helped passage of new laws which greatly restricted immigration. We should relax immigration laws again, IMO.
What makes people think that Mexicans aren't trying to learn English? Hasn't anyone noticed that American kids are having a hard time learning it? Jeter2, you say that your ancestors retained their culture and assimilated into t anew one. Do you really think this assimilation happened overnight? I am a teacher; I know for a FACT that the children of immigrants are assimilating. They are assimilating into SOMETHING; many of these kids can't even speak Spanish, and yet the majority of Americans believes they refuse to assimilate. Imagine how you would feel to be growing up in this generation with one side of your identity slipping from your grip and the other side disparaging you for not being "assimilated" quickly enough. I'm just saying, this myth of "assimilation" needs to be re-examined. This is a new world, there is not ONE American ideal we children of immigrants MUST assimilate into and if anybody thinks they can identify it, then that person is guilty of a tyrranous ignorance. For the record, my parents came to the US in 67, became citizens in the 80's and always, ALWAYS, remained loyal Mexicans WHILE adoring America. They taught their children to be bilingual AND bicultural and never, in any way, did we feel that being so would keep us from succeeding at whatever we did. I usually ACE all of O'Reilly's "American Culture" quizzes, despite their being skewed towards the geriatric set. THAT'S how much most Latinos have "assimilated". We just hate having to prove it to you all of the time.
"Many of the immigrants that came to America in the past also wanted a better life, the difference was they came here legally."
Please keep in mind that legal immigration back then meant that impoverished families could immigrate here, as long as they could GET here. Modern immigration policy seems to say that if you're poor and want better opportunities, you have a better shot at taking an elephant down with a pea shooter than you getting approved to bring your family here. The comparison is meaningless, and a false equivalency.
Jeter, others responded just as I would have and again I say if your family is starving you will do ANYTHING to try to improve your circumstances.
Illegal immigration is NOT the fault of those who cross the border illegally, it's American businesses. They want cheap labor and THEY are the ones who should receive all the anger and rage that many feel, not the illegal immigrants themselves. Would people cross the border by the thousands IF there were not jobs? I don't think so.
No goodfella, that's just the answer for copious. He has a long history of spouting crap and never backing it up, and his website is full of illiterate garbage that apparently isn't up for discussion because he loves to kick off bloggers who disagree with him. You are more than welcome to try to prove Pat's claim though.
I guess you're "Devils Advocate". Are you also Emily?
Copulous claimed:
"Now we have 12 Million+ people who have a boarder attached to America who do not consider themselves Americans or even Mexican/ South American Country (fill in) Americans, they identify with their Country of origin only."
You're right. We should stop letting those boarders live in our homes.
This almost too funny to take seriously. Does Patrick Buchanan have any sense of the history of this country?
"the Anglos, as we're called now"
I've got news for you, Pat. The whites were called Anglos 150 years ago in California when we first invaded that part of Mexico.
As Al Franken has said, when California was surrendered to us in 1847, the 10,000 Mexicans living there immediately became undocumented immigrants.
Whatever happened to the "Great American Melting Pot" theory? The fear and ignoramce that runs rempant in a certain segment of US citizen I find disgusting.
Hatred of immigrants has a long history. For much of my ancestor's early history, this was a well founded. They calmned down a bit after they entered positions of power.
If Prestons about I think your post yesterday of being Anglo-Saxxon, is by your name wrong. Like mine the ton syllable at the end points to Norman English ancestry. Also, welcome back.
Hey, Eweston, good to see you. Very funny by the way! Granted, I’m what those in the South would call “high-yella,” and I definitely have a mixer of English and Native-American blood in my ancestry based on a genealogy test. However, at the end of the day, here in America, if you have one drop of black blood running through your veins, than that’s what you are: black. Both of my parents are black, but due to slavery, both have a mixer of many different ethnicities in their ancestry. This is why I laugh at white supremacists like Finarfin and his obsession with Eugenics and other crypto-Nazi beliefs: there’s been so much intermixing between blacks and whites during the 1600s to Reconstruction, to say that we—meaning black folks—should all be shipped back to Africa ignores the disturbing reality that the blacks of today aren’t the same as the blacks that arrived here in chains. Our ancestors not only lost their culture and religious practices, but also their native tongue, mostly by forced. So we’re as much a product of the American experience as other ethnic groups, moreso because we had to start all over from scratch and create a new culture—based off the scraps that America threw to us—to give us livelihood against a society that viewed blacks less than human. Not only do many of us have white ancestors due to intermixing, but our black ancestors helped build this country! Finarfin knows this very well, but like so many of his ilk, rather than accept this reality, he instead clings on to some utopian myth that whites build this great country all by themselves with no participation from Africans. Because blacks today dare raise their voices and speak out against the injustices today that are lingering effects of Slavery and Jim Crow—systemic racism that’s not just a Southern thing but deeply ingrained throughout America—we should be shipped back to African. Sociologist Stephen Steinberg said it best, though: We hear from many quarters that the United States has made great progress in solving its race problem. As a nation we celebrate the triumph of the civil rights movement, and the memory of Martin Luther King is enshrined in a national holiday, shared only with Washington and Lincoln. Undeniably, African Americans have made enormous strides during the post-civil rights era. For those of us old enough to remember the terrible conditions that fueled the black protest movement, it is obvious that race in America has undergone profound change. However, whenever I hear exuberant claims of how much “progress” we have made, I think of that inscrutable French expression, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The more things change, the more they remain the same. It is important to acknowledge the ways in which race in America has changed for the better, but it is equally important not to be lulled into a false optimism that leaves us unprepared for the battles that lie ahead. Beware of the optimists who tell us that the glass is half-full. After three centuries on American soil, we have a right to say to them, “No, friend, the glass is half empty.” Optimism is customarily regarded as a virtue. We are enjoined to look at the bright side, to “accentuate the positive,” and even during the worst of times, to look for a break in the clouds that admits the bright rays of sunshine. We like our friends to be optimistic, and we frown on people who wallow in despair. “I’m just a cockeyed optimist,” the character peels out in South Pacific, to the delight of audiences.No doubt optimism provides a necessary defense against despair. No one knows this better than African Americans who, even during slavery, produced beautiful spirituals that kept alive the hope for freedom, even if it was deferred to the next world. In our personal lives, we recognize the need to give our children a message of hope and possibility, if only to motivate them to do their best. And yet optimism is no virtue if it verges on self-delusion, if it blinds us to harsh reality and renders us defenseless against the forces of racism. And pessimism is no vice if it prepares us to confront the injustices that the optimists prefer to wish away, like a wart on the body politic.”
Preston, Bravo! This is why you were missed!
Have you seen Paul Mooney's special that's currently running on cable? I don't remember which channel...HBO, Showtime...not sure. He does a really funny routine about race relations in the U.S. I strongly recommend it, if you're not easily offended.
yes... the issue is immigration.. not the war or the money, or the health care.. but the people who our own government refuse to take action against...
If they really want to stop illegal immigration.. apply law that would punish pepole for hiring illegals and force everyone to use an ID.... 'other countries' do it.. what's the piont of being a citizen if you can't show you are when asked..
I seem to remember something about "papers" and a Constitution, but after this administration, most of that has slipped away into Mythology.
Pat should go back and visit the ancestral land from which his own ancestors, you should pardon the expression, migrated. It's one of the most multicultural countries in Europe now, taking in lots of immigrants in search of good jobs in the high tech industry. The majority are eastern European, but there are a lot of Asians and Africans there as well. When I was in Dublin last summer, I passed three Halal grocery stores on the way from my hotel to the downtown area.
And guess what? The Irish economy has never been better in historic memory. The country is thriving. New houses are going up everywhere. The harp that once through Tara's halls the soul of music shed has now gone digital and is available for quick and convenient download on the MP3 player of your choice. Try peddling your anti-pluralism blather in the old country, Pat, and they'll toss ye out of the joint on the back of your head.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!.
Pat's Immigration Policy; "White People Only!"
I wish I could elaborate, but? "White People Only!"
Pat's been making a living flogging political rascists views as All-American truths for so long it's like he's in his own fantasy story, and the realities we know to be true are suspended when ever you skin tone changes to brown or darker.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
HELP! HELP! THE BROWN PEOPLE ARE COMING! THE BROWN PEOPLE ARE COMING! LOCK UP THE DOG...HIDE YOUR DAUGHTERS...CHAIN YOUR BICYCLE!
What Xenophobic nonsense. America is great becasue we've always gotten the best from everywhere. Diversity is and always has been our greatest strength. The "suicide" for our country would be follwoing idiots like Pat Buchanan.
Exactly. If the NeoClowns are successful in their plot to establish one-party domination, we'll crumble from within.
Pat Buchanan makes white people look stupid. And racist.
I don't agree with Pat Buchanan, but I must admit I absolutely agree with Roosevelt. I'm from Brooklyn, New York and I can tell you honestly it is no melting pot. More like a pressure cooker. Canadians are generally proud to be from Canada. Enland thinks it does everything right. And don't even mention the french. The common thread in these countries is pride. I may be wrong, but I generally don't get that sense of pride from immigrants in the U.S., whether they get here illegaly or not. I don't even get that sense from Americans who have been here for many generations. Just my opinion.
My grandparents immigrated from Greece at the turn of the last century and came through Ellis Island, not wading across the Rio Grande. Don't be offended, it's just is the way it was...and still is, respectively. They had to verify that they had family who would be here waiting for them, a place to live (and garages in L.A County didn't count as a residence as it does now) and that they had jobs lined up and that they were disease-free. Sick people and other "undesirables" were put back on the boat and shipped home; no attornies, no activists marching, no national days off to protest. Typically, and in the case of my family, last names were shortened because the agents at Ellis couldn't pronounce many of the names on the tags pinned to their clothes. They were completely at the mercy of the government agents who processed them into this country. They saw coming to this country as a privilege, not a right or rallying point for people a little too full of themselves.
Greeks were generally seen as dirty, untrustworthy and unwanted until WWII when the Greek army, backed by civilians, kicked Mussolini's ass when the Italians invaded Greece. Hitler retialiated for the embarassment with brutal, murderous suppression against civilians. A faint hint of respect was born from Greece's well-publicized reaction to being invaded by the real Axis of Evil.
When my grandfather and his brother came over, they were teen-agers and worked in the coal mines of Utah. When they had their own families, they taught their children to assimilate, not call themselves "Greco-Americans" or some other nonsense. They spoke Greek as a first language at home, but all had to learn English as perfectly as could be expected from children.
Yes, they observed old country traditions and religion, but they didn't fly the Greek flag next to an American flag except in church.
They came over to escape poverty, but more than that , they wanted to become Americans. Melting Pot, not multicultural Tower of Babel.My latest understanding through statistics is that about 2% of illegal aliens are doing the work we all would like to think they are doing. Ninety-percent of America's population explosion is from south of our border.
Immigration is the top story for America, although the morally, ethically and financially bankrupt Bush Administration has created so much more for us to live through. And our children will grow up in a land that encourages a politcially correct, level and entitled playing field where everyone will be encouraged to rise to the level no higher than the person next to them.
Multi-lingual signage and services are already the order of the day in most large sities. It isn't about making someone speak English or ignore thier native cultures and traditions. It's about English and American cultural values being the language and lifestyle of our land. I don't mind at all if someone can't speak English very well, but is trying to improve.
What I mind is having to choose English as an option when I call a government agency or many, many businesses these days. I'm not crazy about information I'm seeking being delayed while I'm forced to listen to a separate set of instructions in Spanish first. I'm trying to learn Spanish because I need the mental exercise and it's a relatively easy language to learn. Besides, I figure if a housekeeper at a hotel can learn English, I can damn well learn Spanish.
So, I have deep issues treating illegal immigrants as my equal. It has nothing to do with rascism. It has to do with history, contributions and living by rules that we all live by.
Oh dear God you're so oppressed! For English press 1, for Spanish press 2. The indignity.
Go to Iraq where life truly sucks.
And as for not seeing another human as your equal, may God have mercy on your soul. That is the exact same condescension and arrogance Martin Luther King spoke out against.
Uh, perhaps you missed the bigger picture of my post, Roundhouse. How come they don't give the telephone options in Greek? After all, my family's been here, legally, for over 100 years and contributing to everything from Social Security to taxes for schools. Sure, some sent money to the "old country," but not in the volume illegals are sending money out of the communities where they tax the system.
How come I don't have a box to check on my job application that offers "Greek" as a nationality for minority consideration?
No, I'm not feeling suppressed. I'm feeling screwed-over by a system that is bankrupt, but politically sensitive to the people who constitute a huge drag on our economy and system. It's not that I don't like them or harbor some kind of rascist emotions toward them. Are you serious? My maternal grandparents were immigrants and my paternal grandparents were Indians right off the reservation in New Mexico. Sorry, R.H., my mixed heritage prevents me from being condenscending and arrogant on this particular issue.
I love people who quote MLK but inject their own anger to make a point.
If we're talking political correctness, where is it? I want some!
The problem with people like you is you believe that the parking is never full and that we just need to scoot over a bit and all will be well with the world.
How much bending over do you want to pay for with tax dollars, my friend?When I read that the Mexican government is distributing pamphlets for illegal giving instructions on how to milk our health and welfare system (your tax dollars at work) yeah, I get a little misty-eyed, R.H.
Sorry you're so upset. You're inability to see border crossers as your equals prohibits you from seeing the root causes you should be raging against.
Fight the elites who would tell you that NAFTA style trade agreements are good for us. They're not. Fight the elites who treat people as cheap labor instead of members of our communities.
Actually many of the immigrants through Ellis island returned to their native country. Their motivations and assimilations were diverse, just like the current immigrants.
Such generalizations about todays immigrants that you list betray the complexity of immigration, however they do dovetail well to the talking points that feed all the anti immigration hysteria.
Playing the victim role with immigration makes many of us feel good while we ignore the real problems that face our country and that of our neighbors. For example, the backlash to immigration will do much more damage to our country than the immigrants themselves. It will also make conflict and disloyalty a self fulfilling prophecy.
I know Roundhouse strongly disagreed with some points in your post, but I don't. I think it was well written and didn't sound racist at all. A country deserves to decide how many immigrants it allows. No other country holding the power America has/had, would allow this to happen. Not France, not Spain and definitely not Canada. I have no problems w/ immigrants, especially since I am first generation American. However, my mother came over when the law permitted and she wasn't using up resources by tax-paying citizens. I respect all humans equally, but how can I respect someone equally as an American when I know you've butted in front of the line and will be using resources reserved for citizens. Again, I have nothing against people looking for a better way of life, but college tuition is not cheap. Grant money is limited. First time home buyer money programs are limited. Healthcare is limited. Don'tt these priviliges deserve to go to American citizens Roundhouse?
Healthcare and education are human rights, they are essential to the commongood. They are of the public domain. Only when they are viewed as privatized consumer commodities do they become privileges.
There is enough for all of us if the political will is focused on the good of the many instead of the profit for the few.
O.k, lofty ideals mixed with a pinch of Marxism. I don't have a problem with anything you have to say on those levels.
I just don't understand why the groups in our country that contribute the least in the way of taxes, social security, and spending the money they earn in their own communities get tuition breaks, free healthcare (mine and my kids' isn't free...is yours?) that so many legal citizens are denied. I would love socialized medicine to come along and help everyone. Just not the people who are here illegally. They havn't earned it. They're here using our infrastructure like an ATM.
Haven't earned our gratitude? Please. Their exploited labor make our lifestyles possible.
And I guess you know where you can shove those Marxism and socialism references.
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-------------------------As I have grandchildren --American citizens, all--living in our present system of government - and seemingly living as free and protected;--I need—now much more--to be concerned at what the future holds for them---considering the congress’ stance—of: ---------------- “a setback for the immigration bill-- does not declare it as completely rejected for future consideration”. ----------------- Why then are those Senators and our other government political leaders determined to toss this precious land so easily to the ‘hoards’ of illegal immigrants ? –YES –some twelve to fifteen million illegal -–criminals by law –would be cast on the American social benefit rolls of every monetary allowance —that thousands of Americas poor citizens have struggled for years to receive. Yes –those illegal--- they are humans---real people. However--could they ---illegally—so easily cross the borders of a foreign country---thus: those masses allowed to march causing disturbances to usurp the rights and freedoms of it’s people ,--- simply by demanding it? Yet -even here---in my America--the illegal immigrant criminal are being accorded some privilege ;-----in no uncertain way allowed to our own ‘jailed ‘ inmates. Thus, our living generations from WWll and on, live fearful-- not for our selves, but for our children and grand children. For us---theseniors,--- rebellion to save our nation is out of reach--but still we persist to no avail. It is that,- while our troops must be detained on foreign soil,---- here at home the quasi-invader are upon us. My beloved wife passed away never knowing that even her Dear England is in dire straits. --------frankCC ---091407A tangling of squabbling nationalities? Like, all the immigrants hop into a huge rolling ball of people screaming in different languages, thirsting for anglo-saxon blood?
It's a good thing our unique status in the world isn't dependent on being a melting pot, and that our forefather's weren't immigrants. Otherwise i might feel hypocritical.