Again, I have posted the First Word article from Commonweal by Heidi Schlumpf on my WEAL site.
Immigration and the American Catholic Bishops
The article on the Commonweal site begins with "Prophetic Words." While both the conference "special statement" last year and many other statements by individual bishops and officers have been critical of government policy and actions, I doubt whether the bishops would appreciate their words and actions being labeled prophetic. I think they see themselves as doing their job as bishops.
If the Democrats win the House and Senate in November, their rebuke of administration policy on immigration will become just a part of a broader rebuke by the American people rather than the words of some dissenting or marginal prophets.
As I point out in my comments, as the public becomes more aware during the lead up to the 2028 elections that reducing immigration is reducing our population growth, one will no longer have to evoke "sympathy" or "Catholic social teaching" when it becomes evident that increasing rather than decreasing immigration is in our rational best interests as a nation. Indeed, it might become evident that immigration might make America great in the future as it has in the past. A complete repudiation of Trump.
" Indeed, it might become evident that immigration might make America great in the future as it has in the past."
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that America lacks the confidence and conviction to welcome immigrants. We have lost the plot somehow.
Instead of being optimistic and full of energy, Americans seem afraid and waiting for someone else to come along to fix whatever is ailing.
I don't know if anyone will agree with this: I think the US is "hollowed out": people don't believe what they believed when we were optimistic and full of energy - they don't believe in the things that fed our optimism and our energy.
The post-liberal Right sees only power. American military might as the quitessence of what makes America great. They see no reason that America should be on the side of what is morally right and virtuous in the world. Hence our sick-making betrayal of Ukraine, now in flight, in order to curry favor with Putin.
The Left sees the dynamism and faith that used to characterize American life as bad things that must be "fixed" in the name of "equity". The Left will never succeed in making America great.
As long as America is untethered from core values, and smolders in pessimism and fear, we won't have the optimism and confidence to welcome immigrants. We are no longer are willing to extend the hand of welcome.
“The Left sees the dynamism and faith that used to characterize American life as bad things that must be "fixed" in the name of "equity".”
DeleteThat’s a rather sweeping generalization ( accusation). Could you be more specific?
I see the left as promoting the values that our country was founded on such as “all men are created equal “. I see the right as systematically working to destroy America’s core values, using Hungary and Project 2025 as their roadmap.
That should mean working to create a society that is as equitable as we can make it, given the history of slavery and Jim Crow. It also means freedom of religion and separation of church and state which many on the far right are working to destroy. They also want to destroy freedom of speech, academic freedom, and freedom of the press.
As far as dynamism goes, there are several countries that provide as many opportunities and support for entrepreneurship as the US does. Where did you get the idea that the left sees dynamism and faith as bad?
The idea that we used to love immigrants is a fiction. Every group that has ever come here got harassed and stereotyped and barricaded out of the main stream. Ben Franklin complained about the German speakers moving into Pennsylvania in the 1700s. We passed exclusionary acts against the Chinese. Some Irish and Italians were blocked out of the mainstream and turned to political machines and crime syndicates. Out West restaurants posted "no dogs or Mexicans" signs. Japanese citizens got rounded up in concentration camps when we went to war with Japan. We weren't even decent to Africans who were forced to immigrate here.
ReplyDeleteSchools teach about melting pots and rainbows, but that's more aspirational than an accurate reflection of our attitudes.
Basically I see three things making the immigration picture worse:
1. Right-wing Christian Nationalists who make no bones about wanting only people as close to WASPs as possible, like the Afrikaners Trump is recruiting;
2. A right wing that is obsessed with the idea that somebody, somewhere, and especially foreigners, are getting a free lunch on their dime (unlikely given the way they have eroded social safety nets and jiggered wages so that families cannot make it on one income) or taking jobs away from Americans;
3. An inadequate number of immigration judges and immigration lawyers, and lack of any coherent immigration plan that supports communities that are high volume entry points for immigrants.
Increasingly, Americans who might support immigrants have empathy burn-out because their own situation is bad: pensions are a rare benefit, health insurance costs too much and doesn't cover enough, wages are not keeping up with expenses, college education is too expensive, and on and on.
As our standard of living becomes more precarious and our culture becomes more coarse and violent, the immigration "problem" will fix itself. Nobody will want to come here.
I would say that this is a pretty good analysis. The WASPs who were the first to arrive definitely did not welcome newcomers, especially Catholics of any shade of complexion, including the painfully pale Irish.
DeleteAnd I think that the attitudes and beliefs that cause the current extreme resentment towards immigrants are largely due to GOP policies. The current MAGA replacement for the GOP of earlier years don’t realize that in Reagan’s last speech he praised America’s immigrant heritage, noting that they built this country- every generation of immigrants added to our strength.
doesn’t realize….
Delete