05/08/2006
There are couple of good stories about Dr. John Tanton in the media, one by Jonathon Tilove, of Newhouse News, and one from the progressive environmentalist magazine In These Times.(Dr. Tanton has a been the victim of a lot of unfairness over the years)
They both deal with the apparent disconnect between moderately liberal politics and immigration restrictionists. There is one quote that has caused some confusion, where Peter Brimelow is quoted [here]as saying
"FAIR is a big problem," says Peter Brimelow, an anti-immigration activist who runs the Web site VDARE.com, "because its natural constituency is conservative nationalists, but its operatives are basically liberal and centrist and terrified by Pat Buchanan."Peter is travelling, but he called me from the road, and and explained that what he meant to say, (and may actually have said, as you know if you've heard all the jokes about his accent) is not that "FAIR is a big problem," but that "FAIR has a big problem" with people who may support their immigration position but differ on other political ideas.
Vdare.com tries to maintain a coalition attitude, and there’s a reason for that. Sam Francis wrote a story in 2002 that pointed out that
"91 percent of the American public believe mass immigration is a critical or important threat to the country in the next decade."10/24/02 — Poll Exposes Elite-Public Clash On ImmigrationWhen 91 percent of the public think something, it’s beyond liberal or conservative. That’s larger than the Republican and Democratic parties combined. And that’s why we're always happy to cooperate with FAIR, which does a lot of good work.
However, the reverse is also the case: there’s a "bipartisan" consensus among elites, which in the poll Sam cited means that the editors of the Wall Street Journal and the editors of the New York Times, along with
members of Congress and their top staffers, top-level executives of federal government agencies, corporate CEO’s, union presidents, religious leaders, college presidents and faculty, presidents of think tanks and foundations, and editors, columnists, and television commentators.all agree that immigration is good for you. Shut up and eat your arugala!
When you have that kind of situation, you can’t afford to reject allies, even if they don’t always agree with you.
Anyhow, read the articles, especially Tilove’s. Dr. Tanton deserves a lot more honor than he’s received over the years.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.