I have a habit when the issues of the day seem to split the American socio-political stage: I go back to the Founding. I go back and review the feelings, the purposes, and the fears of those architects of our country. There was a time when Americans prided themselves in the system of government where not only the citizens, but also the rulers were subject to the law, a time when men were bound by cohesive principles of right and wrong as well as acceptance of consequence for action. Some of these cohesive principles seem to be wasting in today’s public discourse, especially with respect to two doctrines fundamental to the American experiment: Pluralism and Rule of Law.
Pluralism:
I hate when the media tell me that 90% of Americans are racist for wanting to deal with the immigration issue. I hate accusations of intolerance and bigotry. I hate people telling me that America never was, and never will be accepting of other cultures. People like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow arrogantly and ignorantly flaunt their lack of understanding of American ideals every time they open their mouths. In a dynamic society like ours, the self-interested actions of the individual must be counterbalanced by a strong emphasis on community, an emphasis which finds its naissance in virtue. Community is what binds a society. Schools, churches, business all play their role.
The media today lash out at conservatives for adopting an attitude of nativism, or the outlook favoring native-born inhabitants over immigrants. This, my fellow conservatives, is simply not the case. Our belief structure, our political view as conservative Americans commits us to a concept that supersedes community, it is one of pluralism. Where community is inherently exclusive, plurality is inclusive. We do not stand as an American community, but as American communities. This pluralization of cohesion is born from the very ideals of America’s birth.
The rules of our society spring from one overarching ideal, eschewed most vigorously by conservatives, “that all men are created equal,” – not specific social, cultural or ethnic groups. No one group is better than another, and all should be subject to the law, even illegal immigrants, regardless of their positive or negative impact on our economy. American inclusiveness has been tested in times past. Nearly one million Irish immigrants flooded America. The table salt of nearly all of New England was mined by those same Irish Famine immigrants from the mines in Syracuse, New York. A local dish emerged and is found at every Fourth of July barbecue in upstate New York, the salt potato. Some attribute this to the assimilation of cultures made possible by a common language. Of course, the naysayer on the left will doubtless underestimate the intelligence and reasoning of today’s conservative. They will make impassioned diatribes against the right that our stance on illegal immigrants is rooted in fear that the Mexican populace now flooding America will fail to assimilate, largely due to the language barrier.
We are smarter than that; we are not afraid of a failure of assimilation. Before the Irish, the shores of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, were home to a massive immigration of Rhineland Germans. Escaping European disorder of the 1840’s and 1850’s they sought refuge, opportunity, and most of all, freedom, in America. They brought with them a language barrier and one stark cultural distinction: they were Catholic, coming to a country founded on Protestant and Puritanical ideals, save Maryland only. At first they may have been victims of nativism, but this rarely pored over into a pot of official discrimination. They came here poor, destitute, and undereducated, but the air of America was fresh with opportunity and they rose from their beleaguered past invigorated with the promise of the American dream.
I have as much faith in the Mexican people who come to America. Our ideals are universal and strike the heartstrings of all people. Those who came here will pull themselves up by their bootstraps and begin to succeed as Americans. Sure, they will always hold on to memories and legends of their past. Drive through the streets of Syracuse, New York; many a house fly Old Glory side by side with the colors of Ireland. For the conservative, this is not an issue of community, though many a liberal will tell us that we think it is. We believe America has room for any culture, any creed, and any ethnicity. This is deeper and strikes at the concept of Rule of Law.
Rule of Law:
Since the beginning, Americans have revered themselves as something extraordinary, not as individuals, but as a people. Their opportunity, their very lives and communities were not cut from the same mold as those of the Old-World. The Americans of old recognized God as the grantor of opportunity, and so felt compelled to honor him in their daily deeds. Their jobs and professions became a calling. This concept has been loosely termed by historians as American Exceptionalism.
The foundation of this American Exceptionalism rests on the concept of the Rule of Law. The primary aspect of this concept is generality, or the idea that laws must apply to everyone. John Locke (an unfortunate witness of Stuart England’s practice of two legal codes, one for nobles and one for commoners), said that laws are “not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the favourite at court, and the country man at plough.” The very hallmark of our standards, the Declaration of Independence, details that King George the III was guilty of 27 acts of obfuscating the Rule of Law. America is founded on the principle of equality among those who obey the law.
No one knows for sure how many illegal Hispanic immigrants there are in the United States, most studies suggest somewhere between 8 and 20 million. Let me help you understand that, the enormity of that number.
According to the US census data for 2005, 17,167,000 is equivalent to the total COMBINED number of Hispanics living in Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Montana, Delaware, Alaska, Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Wyoming, District of Columbia, South Carolina, Iowa, Tennessee, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Missouri, Minnesota, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Utah, Kansas, Ohio, Georgia, Oregon, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, Connecticut, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, Arizona, and Illinois combined!! Throw in Florida, New York, and half of Texas and you are still under the 20 million mark. That only leaves the population of one state out of the count… California.
Conservatives understand illegal immigrants come from non-Latino countries, especially China and Korea. But only an estimated 20% of Korean immigrants are undocumented according to the Pew Hispanic Pole, whereas up to 55% of Latino immigrants are here illegally. The problem is disproportionately endemic among Latino cultures. Over half of this community illegally sought refuge on the shores of America.
There is no greater threat to the security of our homeland than the recognition and granting of suffrage to a community of individuals without respect for the law. That is why convicted felons are denied the right to vote. Moreover, this act of entering our great country without proper documentation is indicative of something far worse than the failure to uphold the law. It is systemic of a group of individuals which does not cherish the Rule of Law as an ideal. There is a stark difference between obeying the law and cherishing the Rule of Law, and this population of illegal immigrants fails to due either. This reverence is the very virtue upon which a democracy depends.
Fallen republics, throughout all of history, have done so due to either societal divergence from this one solitary principle. We want people from every land to come and build America. We are certainly not afraid of them, and our ethnocentrism is rooted in that to be American is a super-ethnicity, one that is overarching and accepting of all other ethnicities. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
America is the golden door, the shining star among nations. She has twice saved the free world from destruction at the hands of lust filled regimes. She has done more good for mankind and the cause of liberty than any nation in all of history, but she has done so under respect for and veneration of her rules and her order. The very founding principle of the Rule of Law is threatened by the Democrats’, and unfortunately some Republicans’, insistence on amnesty. In essence, the legalization of undocumented workers is not amnesty, it is anarchy.
