MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE NATION, PLEASE
I add my analysis to the issue of immigration. That is, I add to the imprecision. It seems that the Liberals always bring one phrase into the discussion. It is: “We are all immigrants.” Sometimes pretty much the same sentiment is expressed as “We are the children of immigrants.” Of course this is not true, at least for the current majority of the population. An immigrant is one who came here from somewhere else. Most of us were born here. It is irrelevant that our ancestors were immigrants. They had no choice.
What principle exactly is supposed to be conveyed in this phrase is not clear. Perhaps it is something like this. “As we are (were) immigrants we should treat other current immigrants with some degree of partiality.” That is, what is called identity politics makes in-equality an official policy. Official equality is a theoretical goal of America. Giving people victim status, however, has been another goal of American culture and law for decades. This is perhaps best symbolized by handicapped parking spots.
All affirmative action programs are intended to even out (dis)advantages, by making certain classes of humans unequal to others. So all men are created equal, but some really are more (or less) equal than others… and vice versa as well.
I am not objecting to giving such special status. Justice demands that people be treated unequally. At least some of the special treatment also probably does reflect some kind of charitable sentiment. I am objecting to a whole lot of confusion on the issue. Consider the nature of the immigrant. There are only two possible ways for humans to become the population in a location. The first is when, and where, God creates men. The second is when the first settlers entered. As we no longer have access to the Garden of Eden, EVERYONE now alive is descended from previous immigrants. That is, our ancestors entered into an unpopulated land and styed. Are those closer to the original immigrants better than the rest? Who knows?
What is being ignored in the discussion is that this means that the special status of immigrant, or descendant of immigrant, really applies to everyone. I may be able to summarize it with a real life example. I recall a supervisor for whom I once worked. When the workers were rated he insisted that our goal was to have everyone above average.
But then, being a descendant of immigrants, maybe he was doing things as they did in the old (or new) country.