03/15/2014
Re: James Fulford’s article Michael Barone’s Immigration Enthusiasm Means Never Having To Say He’s Sorry
From: Vincent Chiarello
Michael Barone is at it again. The Beltway insiders’ numero uno on immigration matters has published another volume on the subject: A review by Prof. Walter R. Mead can seen in the Winter 2013/14 edition of The Claremont Review. [Subscriber link] The book is another by Barone, whose The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again (2001) also dealt with immigration, and whose current perspective on this subject is, according to Prof. Mead, “ … a contrarian take of Mexican immigration … “ That should surprise no one.
Mead reports Barone’s oft-repeated line that the era of Ozzie and Harriet is over, and that includes immigration restrictions. [VDARE.com note: The point here is that Ozzie Nelson’s family were regular Americans.] He posits that the period of 1924-65 (which demographers call the “Great Pause” in immigration) was atypical in America’s past, but of course it was one of many historical pauses. Regarding the current kerfuffle about our immigration problems, Barone’s remedy is that we should all take a deep breath and relax. Things will work out, Barone assures us (wrongly), because “ … both legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico have fallen to much lower levels.”
But the refusal by presidents of both parties to secure the border is, ipso facto, a guarantee that a new surge of illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America will arrive whenever they decide that they wish to come, for there is nothing to stop them.
Barone refuses to recognize Milton Friedman’s point that no nation can exist with massive immigration and the welfare state, or the endless pandering by both parties to those who protect illegal aliens. And, finally, there’s the corrosive influence of a mindset favored by Barone and his acolytes who see no “American nation,” but only its fragmented parts.
Prof. Mead’s review ends on this note:
Shaping Our Nation affords every reader both a richer, better informed perspective on the forces that made American the country it is and a stronger appreciation of the continuing dynamism of American life.
To which I would respond to Prof. Mead: Not to the readers of VDARE.com it doesn’t.
Chiarello is a retired Foreign Service Officer whose tours included U.S. embassies in Latin America and Europe. See Vincent Chiarello’s previous letters to VDARE.com.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.