Topic: The Philosophies of Illegal Immigration

[rickl]

VDH's columns seem to be getting--I don't know how to put it-- more focused lately.  He seems to be increasingly pissed off and isn't trying to hide it.

Even to talk of illegal immigration earns slurs. I can attest to that. It is the most self-censored topic in America today, where we construct artificial worlds of rhetoric that in no way resemble reality (e.g., try to suggest that California’s current problems with 30,000 to 40,000 too many prison inmates, or spiraling entitlement costs, or test scores right below Mississippi’s, or gang-related crime have something to do with the entry over two decades of millions of illegal aliens, and then see whether that proposition is discussed or slurred in ad hominem fashion). The most ardent critic of open discussion is often the most likely to self-select and remove himself from any concrete exposure with the issues he champions at a distance. No one is a better exemplar of the dishonesty than the president who, with large majorities of liberal Democrats in both houses of Congress for two years, deliberately ignored his own “comprehensive immigration reform” agenda — only to demagogue his opponents for now opposing what he would really, after all, at last, but of course, like to do — but only after it is, conveniently, legislatively impossible. So we get “moats and alligators,” a perfect summation of the bankrupt status of the entire hushed debate.

Link

When a classical historian is angry and frustrated with the current state of affairs, you know you have a big problem.

[Pandora]

I'm not a classical historian and have known for some time we have a big problem.  So have others.  The difference is no one has been listening to the likes of us ~~ we suffer the ad hominem attacks that those with some standing have so far avoided by refusing to speak out plainly and offering a resolution.

Mark Steyn is another pundit and chronicler who admires the problem via many column inches without prescribing a solution.

[charlesoakwood]

Yes, Hanson is no longer a disassociated observer he has become the unhappy commentator of record on the ills that are afflicting his beloved state and the nation.  His accuracy and clarity to the present and future is rather frightening.  One can only hope that some of the geniuses of politic are paying attention.