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Another Perspective
Calling All New Americans
Whatever Obama's current problems, it is up to Republicans to face their own.
The news from Washington, D.C. has not been good for the president and his party this week. With his personal approval numbers dipping below 50 per cent for the first time since his election, public support for his signature programs dwindling rapidly and a Blue Dog rebellion among Democrats in Congress, things are not going as planned for Barack Obama and friends.
Yet "independent" pollster John Zogby has seen fit to opine that it is the Republican Party that may be "teetering on the brink" of extinction, noting that it is "swimming against the tide of demography." Now I may not be an expert on the fine art of polling, but the fact that Nancy Pelosi et al. are trying to push through a vote on so-called healthcare reform before the August recess tells me that they fear hearing the wrath of the people when they descend from their ivory towers and return home.
Still, Zogby does have a point: the Republican Party, in its usual state of inexplicable inertia has chosen to retreat and pander rather than to speak to its conservative base and to those who might otherwise be attracted to it. Instead of trying to draw Latinos and other immigrants to the party by trumpeting the differences between it and the Democrats, Republicans merely show themselves to be weak and meek imitators of same. Add to this the media's long and constant disinformation campaign -- that Republicans hate immigrants and minorities -- and it must be acknowledged that a problem does exist.
So how can the Grand Old Party stem the tide and attract these burgeoning demographic groups? By getting someone -- Sarah, are you listening? -- to stand up and say something along the following line to all Americans and in particular to those legally seeking to become citizens:
We welcome all you who have come to these blessed shores in search of a better way of life for you and for your posterity; you who seek the American dream. And guess what? We are the folks who can still see that dream and the ways in which it might yet be attained by those who desire it.
The Democrats have been engaged in the decades-old pursuit of trashing that dream here at home and around the world -- indeed, our current president has made a cottage industry out of it. Yet still you come; so your beliefs must be more in line with those who share your dream rather than those who disparage it.
In seeking to undermine the America you came here to find, Democrats are in the process of nationalizing the industries that are the engine of our economic prosperity. Their attachment to socialism -- a failed economic system that many of you fled from -- is a malady that, if left unchecked, will take us all down. Not content only to go after the industries themselves, they have managed to create a culture that stifles initiative among our young people and others whom they need to keep as second-class citizens, and therefore welcome seekers of government largesse.
They are undermining our morals by insisting that there are no objective truths; that everyone should define right and wrong based on their own perceived victimhood; that the belief that America has been a force for good in the world is just so much hokum. The notion of personal responsibility that made this country good and great cannot survive without truths that are self-evident. It is the Republican Party that still supports the idea of American exceptionalism; a belief you apparently share or you wouldn't be here.
Similarly, those on the left seek to use your children by keeping them immersed in a culture that you risked everything to escape, by encouraging them to live the rest of their lives on the outside of the American dream; still speaking the language of their past rather than achieving proficiency in the language of their future. Again, by keeping you and your children as victimized outsiders, they can keep you from assimilating into the kind of Americans who braved the oceans before you to make this country great.
American liberals have sought to remove God from our national identity; the God most of you Hispanics and Haitians still worship with reverence, awe and thanksgiving for your delivery from the poverty and despair of your homelands. They seek to limit the size of your population by encouraging you to deny your faith and join a party that openly and aggressively promotes the murder of your unborn children; an abominable sin that in itself should preclude your identification with them.
In short, the Democratic Party represents most everything that you are not; worse, they seek to destroy everything that you came here to find. Indeed, if left to their own devices they would turn America into the banana republics and third-world nations many of you happily left behind.
So be true to the dreams and aspirations that drew you to this beautiful and bounteous land. Side with the people who share those dreams and don't be afraid to shout with them from the rooftops, "May God continue to bless America."
Letter to the Editor View all comments (37) | Leave a comment
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Rocco| 7.29.09 @ 7:03AM
Anyone who loves this country, the principles it was founded on and what it represents could say this from the heart, WITHOUT a teleprompter. Why the Republican party cannot articulate this vision has got to be the biggest question of our time.
Simply amazing.
Melvin| 7.29.09 @ 7:34AM
The Republican Party has been in decline since reaching it's zenith with Ronald Reagan. The Country Club blue-bloods along with the party elites made a blood oath to never, ever let a candidate like President Reagan run for office again.
This is why the Republican Party's bench is empty, there are no rising Conservative future candidates waiting in the wings. This is the main reason that the Republican octogenarian leadership is still hanging around,"!There is no one to replace them!"
Those Grand Old Bastards are refusing to cede control of the Party to a younger generation of Conservatives is out of fear of what Reagan did to them. Reagan humiliated them, and showed this Country that you don't have to compromise your Conservative principles to attract voters.
If the Republican Party has any hope of attracting voters and those willing to run for office under the Republican banner, it has to complete it's purge of McCain, Snow, Graham, Collins, and other Republican moderates who have made the Republican Party into a fetid pile of stinking dog squeeze that only attracts flies.
RON PAUL 2012
bwt| 7.29.09 @ 8:01AM
Good try but not likely successful. It's a matter of numbers. Our incoming immigration levels are WAY TOO HIGH and that contributes greatly do non-assimilation (as well as left-wingers who control the schools).
A better strategy for the GOP and the nation as a whole is to work for lowering immigration levels (legal and illegal). We need lower levels for 10-20 years. This is traditionally how US immigration has worked for centuries. We have periods of high immigration followed by periods of low immigration. We have been living under high immigration for about 25 years now. We need a time out period.
paultex| 7.29.09 @ 9:15AM
I'm with Melvin.
The present GOP lacks any principles except keeping itself elected. And you see how that worked out in 2006 and 2008.
Jeff Davis 2012| 7.29.09 @ 11:40AM
As Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg, & Mark Levin have been making clear, the real problem is that the GOP isn't really a conservative/constitutionalist party. Indeed, if you go back to its earliest days in the 1850s, the GOP has been a Progressive party. What we really need is some way to break the 2 party system, replace it with some sort of functional multi-party system in which 3-5 significant parties are all viable. Then there would be a constitutionalist alternative that could work in a coalition fashion with the GOP or whatever other right-of-center parties were in congress, etc. But, let's face it, there hasn't been a real constitutionalist party since 1861.
ds80| 7.29.09 @ 12:23PM
Melvin, minor correction. It's "Gnarly Old Bastards". RNC, you haven't and won't get a dime from this conservative.
"Millions for defense (of liberty, life, and the Constitution", but not a penny for tribute."
Nittany| 7.29.09 @ 12:30PM
..a good idea and worth pursuing hard but there is a larger group the GOP needs, the independents, the largest voting block out there...I think of them as the "reasonables" as in "that sounds reasonable " . They want to be led to a self-affirming solution that appeals to their ego as compassionate, thinking individuals who disdain extremists from either side. The Dems know how to manipulate the psyches of these self-identifiers, wooing them with narratives of fairness and compassion . The GOP, especially conservatives, yell at them, "You're stupid; can't you see what I see !". Yes you do.
Think of the famous frog in a pan experiment. These "reasonables" can be incrementially cooked through and through. How to get them back? Drop them into boilng water; they can be shaken up as easily as any of us BUT fearful warnings have to be framed in calm, reasoned, positive ways not the stridency of Beck and Paul and Palin whom we love.
If the GOP can find youngish non-threatening candidates from the right who can reach and soothe these egoists so they learn to appreciate how the conservative view benefits them without being unfair or uncaring to others, we can turn this around in a couple of elections.
fundamentalist| 7.29.09 @ 1:25PM
Rocco: "Why the Republican party cannot articulate this vision has got to be the biggest question of our time. "
Lisa gave the answer when she wrote " ...Republicans merely show themselves to be weak and meek imitators of same."
Democrats are socialists; Republicans are socialist-lite. They want exactly what Democrats want, just a little less. The Republican base has finally figured this out and is staying home.
Joe B| 7.29.09 @ 2:38PM
Zogby is right about one thing. Republican power will erode as the proportion of white people decline. On the other hand, the Democrat Party might break up as non-whites battle against each other for more government largess and power. So long as whites remain a plurality, the Republicans have the chance to lead so long as they focus on the interests of white, middle class Americans, which includes closing the door to mass immigration in perpetuity. Most immigrants now are coming from the third world and bring with them repulsive cultural norms and cognitive deficits. They come here simply looking for easy money and a better, fully functional society to sponge off which they themselves were incapable of devising in the homeland. If demographics is dooming Republicans, it's a self inflicted wound made substantially worse through the presidency of Jorge Bush. Time to cut the crap and campaign on the issue of closing the floodgates.
Sheila| 7.29.09 @ 3:34PM
This article is so full of half truths, emotional assumptions, and outright falsehoods that I hardly know where to begin. Ms. Fabrizio assumes that all these "new Americans" come here just yearning to breathe free and successfully assimilate. Nothing could be further from the truth. The VAST majority of immigrants come for purely economic reasons. They maintain close ties to their home countries, send significant financial resources out of the United States, and have no true allegiance to America. I dealt with this constantly as a foreign service officer. If Ms. Fabrizio and all the other immigrant enthusiasts would merely look at the issue factually/rationally, instead of emotionally, the evidence is overwhelming. Look at the sheer volume of Chinese espionage, and the allegiance they all claim to their homeland. Look at the immigrants who live here for decades yet never learn English (and no, it's not merely the fault of the public schools/bilingual lobby). Look at second and third generation immigrants and how they define themselves. Read the next story on a plane crash or international disaster and note exactly how many of the "Americans" claimed as missing/dead are recent immigrants once again visiting the homeland Ms. Fabrizio supposes they are so anxious to escape from. Very few immigrants come with a heartfelt desire to be purely "American," and then the balkanization/rights lobby reinforces their prejudices. They come from systems and cultures profoundly alien to our own and bring their mores with them (Somalis in Minneapolis, anyone ? Liberian rape? Mexicans and pink houses and old cars in the yard? Shall I go on?). They view "human rights" as Obama and the United Nations view them - as enumerated entitlements which other citizens, via the power of the government, owe to them.
If what Ms. Fabrizio and all these other pundits who claim the problem with the GOP is that its tent just isn't big enough, or that the reason blacks don't vote Republican is that the party hasn't done a good enough job of communicating what goodies it has to offer (as per Michael Steele), have as their ultimate goal is pure numbers of technical party affiliation, then fine. They'll get the party they want - they might even win an election here or there. The big question is, what do they stand for - a political party, or a genuine conservative philosophy? There are enormous and profound differences between the two, yet most of the "conservative" writers on the web are merely classical liberals dressed up in new Republican clothes.
Richard Baker| 7.29.09 @ 10:11PM
Sheila:
Sadly, I have to agree. The latest immigrants don't seem to want to assimilate, they want the rest of us to AID them in re-creating their countries in exile. It's as if all the struggles to create this nation were a waste of time. If I went to live in Mexico or Germany, say, within a year or two I'd be expected to be come part of the culture or be ostracised. Modern Americans seem to think that setting up these troubled countries of the world within our borders will somehow make us strong?! Assimilation and the creation of an American character have made us strong, not the opposite.
Le0| 7.30.09 @ 12:46AM
I am an immigrant, a naturalized American citizen of non-European origin. My family and I are attracted to the pro-family, hard work, self-reliance stance of the Republican party represented by Sarah Palin.
Unfortunately, the Republican elite seem so unwelcoming to immigrants. The heartless Republican "fiscal conservatives" who are looking more and more like the ossified, amoral, European conservatives are a turn off. I can't stand the Democrats but did I make a mistake to join the Republican party?
How about an outreach to immigrants and new American citizens like me?
Pingback| 7.30.09 @ 4:13AM
The American Spectator : Calling All New Americans | 888 Phone Cards links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 7.30.09 @ 2:43PM
Leo:
What you see as unwelcoming is a school of thought which doesn't trumpet identity politics regarding race and says that if you're here legally, then welcome to the US. However, don't expect the rest of us to excuse your every twitch or pander to you. You're here now so go forth and prosper according to YOUR efforts, not the rest of us spoon feeding you. If the US is so bad then, by all means, allow us to show you the door.
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