Immigration is a key issue in this political year, and it is bound to remain contentious through the presidential election. I have tried to avoid the issue, mainly because there is no perfect solution. I recognize that the only real solution will involve compromise, and that sort of middle ground tends to be a lonely piece of real estate during campaign season. Marra and I will be confronted with both sides of the immigration debate in NH, so I felt I had to start my education somewhere. So I picked up State of Emergency at the library.
Before my comments, I offer full disclosure. While I consider myself fully qualified to review the contents, I did not finish the book. I survived approximately 80 pages before I couldn't take it anymore. Buchanan had a statistic for everything. The constant statistical barrage left me feeling like a terror suspect being broken down during interrogation. By the end of the first chapter, I was ready to agree with everything Buchanan wrote. I had no mind of my own left. "Anything, Pat, just no more statistics!!!"
After the first few chapters, I was onto Buchanan's methods. Statistics can support any conclusion the writer wishes. I remember my favorite statistic from my college studies - 98% of all convicted killers drank milk as children. It's a dramatic fact, but no causal relationship exists between calcium intake and a life of crime. Still, it sounds impressive, and makes you think at least for a moment, "Maybe it IS the milk!" Buchanan's parade of numbers came with questionable conclusions for me.
He made some solid points at first. He almost had me ready to grab my pitchfork and march with him to the master's gate in armed protest. Then a simple thought kept coming into my head. I kept pretending that the book was written in 1870, and that instead of Mexicans and Latinos, the groups were the Irish, the Germans, the Jews. I kept thinking that Buchanan would have made the same arguments about the immigrant invasion 130 years ago, and reached the same conclusions - America is at a turning point, and if we don't start claiming our white, Western European heritage quick, our way of life will perish. But that's isn't the way it played out, is it?
Maybe I'm a cockeyed optimist, but he could be wrong. Perhaps the immigrant flow will enrich our country, the way in which the immigrant flow of the 19th century did. I concede several points. It is true that there are more honors students in China than North American has students. It is also true that America is not producing replacement workers (having babies) as fast as the developing world. I appreciate Buchanan's paranoia, since we Americans will soon be even more outnumbered than we are today. At the same time this is happening, though, the largest English speaking country in the world will soon be China.
I don't claim to know what all this means, but I do know this - our next Leader of the Free World better get a handle on these global demographic shifts quickly. The statistics don't lie (even if the interpretations sometimes do).
As a final thought: at the same time I offer you this bleeding heart liberal love all people nonsense, I can't understand why we don't build a big wall. Why can't we stop illegal immigration? That should not be considered racist. I want the borders secure, and it should have been done years ago.
Marra and I will hear candidate opinions on the immigration issue, and we won't trust the first candidate who can speak Spanish, either. We want to hear compassion, yes, border control, yes, but fear - no.
100% of all candidates who try to harp on fear of immigrants to win votes will not get mine.
JS
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