I know it is dreadfully cliché to utter this, but with friends like our fellow Republicans over at BD, who needs enemies?
My main beef with BD is simple. For as much as they discuss the topic of immigration, they never – and I mean never – make any mention of rates of welfare usage among various immigrant groups. All they do is call those of us who address this problem as “anti-immigrant racists, bigots, and nativists”. Additionally, the BD-ers cannot – or will not – make the distinction between (a) legal, self-reliant immigrants who benefit our society; and (b) legal and illegal immigrants who either intentionally or inadvertently end up on welfare rolls and impose a burden on us taxpayers. If someone like me criticizes immigrants from category (b), the Bearing Drifters take that to mean that I am against all immigrants. Nonsense. Millions of immigrants, particularly those from East and South Asia, are making valuable contributions to our business and technology sectors. Their low rates of crime and solid family stability provide a stellar example of civility and good neighborliness. They are energizing and benefiting our society, just as previous generations of immigrants have done.
But sadly, this is not true across the board and the ability or desire of immigrants to stay off our welfare rolls varies dramatically by country of origin. Why the BD-ers fail to make this distinction is a mystery to me. Unlike them, I do not pretend to be a professional psychologist with insights as to what motivates other people or what lies in the solitude of their hearts. I am not as puffed up and presumptuous as they are, but I do know their efforts are not helping build unity within the party. In fact, the BD-ers sound so much like Democrats, that maybe they are a front group funded by George Soros to foment dissent and burn down the GOP’s Big Tent.
Or perhaps since they are a relatively young crowd, their critical thinking and moral courage have been paralyzed and stymied by political correctness, the dictates of which forbid any negative mention of any member or faction of a chosen, protected, and privileged victim group. And we all know what I am talking about. In today’s America, any criticism of a non-white person, or non-white group, is likely to be met with charges of racism. For example, an attack against the protestors in Baltimore or Ferguson is viewed by many as an attack on black people. If you speak out against radical Islam, then you are speaking out against all Moslems – or worse, “brown people.” If I were to use the same line of thinking, I could accuse those who bash the TEA Party as being anti-white bigots. After all, the TEA Party is overwhelmingly white, but that line of thinking would be ridiculous, as there is often good cause to criticize members or groups of the TEA Party. But that is the exact type of “thinking” that prevails at BD when it comes to immigrants.
Having grown up in an immigrant community in lower Manhattan, I know it is foolish to lump all immigrants in the same barrel – and I NEVER do. But when immigrants from India are far, far less likely (by a factor of four) to end up on welfare than immigrants from Honduras, then I, as a taxpayer, have a perfectly legitimate right to speak out against this misuse of our generosity and the unsustainability of this demographic trend. But to some of the geniuses at BD, this means I am against all brown-skinned people. Sigh…such is the level of their discourse.
In a future op-ed, I will look examine how the Left and Bearing Drift (sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two) have criticized the Center for Immigration Studies Report, which I have often referred to in making my case against allowing immigrants access to welfare programs. I will also look at how Chris Todd of NBC countered Donald Trump for his having made the connection between SOME Mexican immigrants and crime. Stay tuned.
My problem with the GOP establishment’s position on immigration
