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The Public Policy
A Racial Revolution?
Is demography America’s destiny?
Now that census data show — for the first time in American history — the number of white babies born exceeded by the number of babies born to non-white minorities the question is: What does this mean for the future of American society?
Politically, it means that minorities who traditionally vote overwhelmingly for Democrats can ensure that the country veers ever further to the left over the years, making America more like the welfare states of Europe, whose unsustainable spending led ultimately to financial crises and widespread riots.
But this is not strictly a matter of whites versus non-whites. Jews vote consistently, and almost as overwhelmingly, for Democrats as blacks do. Moreover, Asian Americans are by no means as likely as other non-whites to vote for the class warfare, tax and spend agenda of the Democrats.
Yet when all is said and done, the future political direction of the country seems painfully clear from these demographic trends, unless something happens to change the current correlation between race and political party affiliation. Moreover, even that may not be enough.
Even if Republicans can siphon off enough votes from groups that normally vote for Democrats to keep the two-party system alive, the preservation of the Republican Party is a trivial issue compared to the preservation of American society.
If Republican politicians save themselves by becoming Democrats under a different label — and appeal to minorities as minorities, rather than as Americans — the same policies and attitudes will have the same destructive effect on the American economy and society.
Refusing to cut back on entitlement spending, for example, means that the current generation can continue to enjoy government-subsidized amenities, at the expense of future generations, who can be left to struggle to get necessities, after the money runs out and government’s promises can no longer be kept.
The growth of ever bigger and even more intrusive government means that the freedom, for which generations of Americans have fought and died on battlefields, around the world can be slowly but steadily lost within our own country.
Painful as such outcomes can be the dangers do not end there. A continuation of the current political tendency to take away the money required for national defense, and spend it instead on handouts that will win votes, means that our enemies around the world will have golden opportunities at our expense.
Again, the dangers may not be immediate. But they can be catastrophic when they catch up with us — and catch us unprepared. We recovered from Pearl Harbor at enormous cost, including the needless deaths of American soldiers, fighting for their lives with obsolete military equipment against enemies with state of the art weapons.
But even such sacrifices, which brought us time to catch up during the Second World War, may not even be enough in a nuclear age.
What can be done now, to head off the many dangers in our current political policies and attitudes? There is not much we can do about demographic trends. But the changing composition of the American population is not, in itself, the fundamental danger. After all, vast millions of immigrants crossed the Atlantic for generations on end, and began the process of becoming Americans. Millions of black people likewise began that process after being set free.
Demography is not destiny. But the history of Balkanized and polarized societies in the 20th century is a history of horrors that we dare not ignore.
We are not at that terrible point yet. But that is the direction in which we are headed, under the spell of magic words like “multiculturalism” and “diversity,” which have become substitutes for thoughts, even among those who pride themselves on being “thinking people.”
Our whole educational system, from the elementary schools to the universities, is permeated with ideologies of group grievances and resentments, painting each group into the corner of its own separate subculture, instead of drawing them into the mainstream of the American culture that made this the greatest nation on earth.
Unless this fashionable Balkanization is stopped, demography can become destiny — and a tragedy for all.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Frank Drackman| 5.21.12 @ 6:40AM
Ahhhh Statistics, Statistics....
and by using some tricky OPS/Sabermetrics, I can prove Andy Etchebarren was a better catcher in 1971 than Johnny Bench...HEY HE HIT 250 POINTS HIGHER IN THE 71' SERIES(I know. Bench didn't play in the 69 Series)
The birth statistics totally ignore the Scandal(Wasn't Patty Smyth hot?, hey you think John McEnroe doesn't know his Snatch? Dude was banging TATUM O'NEIL)that is Black/Hispanic Infant Mortality/Crime/Motor Vehicle Death Rate from driving cars with those rediculous 40 inch rims/hydraulic suspensions...
and if current trends continue, 800% of Black Males in 2030 will be on DeathRow(the Cell Block, not the Record Company)Prison/Parole/Congress.
Frank "divide THIS by Zero" Drackman
TLP| 5.21.12 @ 6:47AM
Now that the Census Data shows that, for the first time in American History - the number of White babies born exceeded by the number of babies born to Non-White Minorities the question is: What does this mean for the future of American Society?
That's easy.
Yugoslavia.
I'm sorry. I misspoke.
Out of deference to the Oracle of the LEFT, and In Honour of the Reigning Heavyweight Champion of Liberal Intelligencia, everybody's Go To Guy for the Correct Answer to all of the problems we little people are wont to come across in our pathetic little lives, and the absolutely most informative Guest that any Sunday Show could ever hope to have - Thomas L. Freidman - let me rephrase my conclusion to Dr. Sowell's missive.
What is Yugoslavia, Alec.
Better.
Mike 3/505| 5.21.12 @ 7:59AM
Good Morning Tim! Pithy repost!
TLP| 5.21.12 @ 2:59PM
Good afternoon, and Thanks.
Jack in Wi.| 5.21.12 @ 8:06AM
This place is turning into places like Hawai, Brazil and Mexico. California, New york and Texas are already there. I don't much like it, but there is nothing I can do about it. There are worse places then those multi racial mixed up societies
Frank Drackman| 5.21.12 @ 10:56AM
and whats wrong with Brazil???
You'd have more thongs/hot asses to chase than you could shake one of your sticks at.
and the Women are pretty hot too..
WHOAA!!!!!!!!! Ha Ha, what a Homo...
Frank
Bob S| 5.22.12 @ 2:02PM
You do know Brazil is much, much more than just Rio de Janeiro, right?
Eric| 5.21.12 @ 8:17AM
Dissolution, divorce, separation, division...
That is the future. Conservatives of all colors will not live in a totalitarian welfare state and whites won't tolerate being tax slaves for the welfare state's client class. There are still far too many of us who love liberty, individualism, responsibility, hard work, and free enterprise.
If a majority of minorities and their guilt-ridden white enablers want a welfare state I say let them have it. Just don't expect people like me to stick around to pay for it.
Von Mises Jr| 5.21.12 @ 8:33AM
Tocqueville in "The Ancien Regime" spoke about the irony that the French Serfs had the best living conditions and treatment in continental Europe, but they were the most abhorred by serfdom and revolted so violently. The reason was that once they saw a crack in the door of freedom, they could no longer tolerate slavery by comparison. So they kicked the door wide open.
This will be the problem of enslaving people such as Eric, me and most of the rural population. We will not surrender easily to Agenda21 "One World Government" or to DC's European-style welfare state. I see the nation splitting apart before I see people in the South and much of the West (save the coast) going quietly into the night turning over their liberty to finance the inner-city entitlements.
daddio| 5.21.12 @ 11:51AM
I see it as more a case of producers Going Galt, sitting on their hands and not producing any longer. Let the welfare state implode. Take care of your own, and let the rest die a horrible death. Out of the ashes remake a new society.
Von Mises Jr| 5.21.12 @ 11:55AM
I have a year's worth of food, access to unlimited water, lots of books to read and we have ample means to protect ourselves and our staples. We have gardens throughout the neighborhood and I am a solid fisherman, and a hunter lives down the street.
The inner-city entitlement class can eat their EBT cards. I am sure plastic is fine with ketchup or mustard, daddio.
John Q. Public| 5.21.12 @ 12:48PM
You're still going to die.
Repent, sinner!
Von Mises Jr| 5.21.12 @ 1:56PM
I am not afraid of death. But you should be if you covet other people's goods. G-d calls that stealing. Do you go for killing babies in the womb too?
Like all socialist, do you worship materialism? They don't call Marxism Dialectical Materialism for nothing.
Erik| 5.22.12 @ 1:52AM
Eric, where would you go? This is happening, more or less, to every single Western country on Earth. And most of them have less of a conservative base than we do, so they are even more vulnerable than we are here.
Bob K.| 5.21.12 @ 8:29AM
There is a nationalist and populist element in the immigration and growth of the Hispanic culture in our country that never was part of the Black or Jewish populations. You can see this in the existence of organizations like La Raza.
As the political power of the US continues its inevitable advance to the South and the Southwest these organizations will become more powerful and independent of the Democratic party. There will inevitably be demands for independence from the USA from these people and calls for closer ties to Mexico and nations to the south.
Nancy in NC| 5.21.12 @ 8:43AM
Exactly right, as our FPN (Federal Propaganda Network, known as the education department) does such a fine job of letting others rewrite history to fit their agenda. How many Hispanics believe we stole the land from Mexico? Forget the war and they mone we paid...not important. Feed hate and discontent by overlooking facts. Soon everyone will believe what they want to believe.
Excellent article as usual by Mr. Sowell. Lost on the Frank's of the world, but those pesky ideas and facts are too much for their tiny little minds.
Bob K.| 5.21.12 @ 5:32PM
Incidentally, today the US Supreme Court refused to hear a Redistricting Challenge brought by the League of Women Voters alleging that the new congressional and legislative lines drawn by the Democrats who control the State were unconstitutional.
One of the arguments the LWV made was that the Democrats had only created one new Congressional district with a majority Hispanic population despite the fact Hispanics make up 32% of the population in Illinois.
Bob K.| 5.21.12 @ 5:34PM
Note that this was for the State of Illinois!
Frank Drackman| 5.21.12 @ 8:36AM
Some one left the gate open.....
Nah, not that stupid commercial, America's Immigration "Policy"...
But there's still Idaho, with fewer Peoples of Color in the entire state than in the concessions line at your average NBA game...
And this whole thang would have happened 30 years ago if it wasn't for Roe v Wade, "Nixon's Revenge" sucking (literally) some 50 million future Demokkkkrats out of the Gene Pool...
Seriously, 5 of the 7 Justices were appointed by RepubicKKKlans...
And I was at Wal-Mart the other day, with my old Man, buying Old-Man thangs, when I realized, that My Old-Man probably dropped Na-palm on somebody in the stores Old-Man some 40 years ago..
Vietnamese, there's alot of Vietnamese, where I live.
Not many stray cats/dogs.. strange.
Frank
Bob S| 5.22.12 @ 2:06PM
You do realize that the KKK thrived in the South, which was a Democrat stronghold for a hundred years after the end of the Civil War, and where the Democrats instituted Jim Crow-style laws to oppress blacks through government, and created the KKK to oppress blacks culturally and personally, right?
Louis Jenkins| 5.21.12 @ 8:42AM
Mr. Sowell:
A very dim picture that you draw. The truth stares us in the face. It's still a little early to draw conclusions, but yes, we may be forces to withdraw into smaller segments in order to survive. Survival. The new babies being born will undoubtly fall into the entitlement class, and the workers cannot support such a society. So get ready. Time will run out in approximately 21 years.
johnd2| 5.21.12 @ 8:42AM
There are more and more people born to mixed race couples all the time. It may be annoying for the peple who think in racial terms, but for everyone else it is a very good thing.
Minor point.. When a person of mixed heritage claims a "race" on a government form, there is an incentive to pick one that will lead to favor from the powers that be.. Ta Dah.. If there are thought to be minority special advantages, more people will claim to be minority.
Nancy in NC| 5.21.12 @ 8:45AM
Like Elizabeth Warren?
JimH| 5.21.12 @ 10:05AM
Good point, Johnd2. I do see it as interesting that while earlier generations of bi or multi racial people (such the big O) sometimes chose or had a particular identity forced upon them, recent generations, to the extent that they are concerned at all regard themselves as a group apart from whatever their constituent makeup might be. There are occasions when as you point out that there can be a perceived advantage in claiming a particular identity though.
TLP| 5.21.12 @ 7:48PM
I have mixed race children, as my wife is Asian, and I would NEVER allow them to seek an advantage because of their mixed race.
My little guy said that he was pushed by a kid on the bus. When I asked him if he thought that the kid pushed him, because he was Asian? He said something that almost made me cry.
He said: "I'm not Asian. I'm an AMERICAN".
Out of the mouths of babes.
My baby.
JimH| 5.22.12 @ 8:19AM
I too am the father of mixed race children and very proud of them. On the whole they reject the attempts of members of recognized ethnicities to categorize them or to claim them as one of their own. To the extent they have any group affinity it is to that growing group of people with multiple ethnic or racial heritages. Though on occasion when I ask my son to clean his room he will complain about how the ‘man’ is always trying to keep a brother down.
Melvin| 5.21.12 @ 8:43AM
Desmond Hatchett 33 of Knoxville, Tennessee a man With 30 kids from 11 different females requests Child-Support Break from judge.
Now consider this. Hatchett works at a minimum wage job, in which by state law 50 percent of his wage is split evenly between his brood mares. But consider this, if Hatchett was able to replicate himself millions and millions of times over, and then all of his spawn replicated themselves into that hellish life within social services.
Obviously the State of Tennessee is supporting Hatchett's brood mares and his spawn, but the greater question that should be asked is. Once all the producers have died out, who will support the suckling parasites who are replicating themselves at an alarming rate?
Who will pay for their free cell phones and diaper services, and who will pay for their motor vehicles that some states pay for?
Who will pay for the spawn's free breakfasts, lunches and dinners? Who will pay for their medical care and dental that the government mandates them to have?
Who will pay for the broodmares free contraceptives, but in Hatchett's case, the free contraceptives for his 11 broodmares didn't seem to work?
As I sit here with my back that went out earlier this morning, shooting pains down the front of my legs and pain that goes through my body like a short circuit from all my years of working my body to death. I don't give a rats ass about Desmond Hatchett's or his broodmares irresponsibility. Furthermore I don't give a damn about his spawn that he has brought into the world.
I'm too damn tired, and worn out to care any more. Has Mr. Hatchett come over to help me mow my lawn as a symbol of gratitude? Has Hatchett's broodmares baked me a cake as a thanks for all the services that they have been provided, while either sitting in front of their HD wide screen or sitting at the doctors office pregnant.
Hell no, they call me racist, they call me a bigot, they complain that I'm not providing enough for them because their less fortunate.
I have but one thing to say to Mr. Hatchett's fornicating ass and his parasitic broodmares. "Get off your lazy asses and get another job or better yet get another three." I past the point of caring any more.
I know that I speak for millions of Americans who physically feel the way I do and mentally feel the way I do. We're tired, we're worn out, we just don't care any more. Let middle class Joe Biden take car of them, wait a minute he can't do that cuz we're supporting his lazy ass to.
Nancy in NC| 5.21.12 @ 8:59AM
Melvin, you are so right. Thanks to the idiot in the WH the sentiment is growing stronger every day. We're sick and tired of working past 65 to provide for the scum of the earth. Forget about retiring to enjoy the fruits of our labor; it takes more and more dollars to provide gas, food and energy these days.
It's not about race either. There are parasites in all colors and creeds. I own a business (that has lost 50% of its gross business in the last 3 years) and a young woman stopped by to have some pictures framed. (They've been done for months, and she hasn't picked them up. Big surprise.) She has recently moved to NC from OH. Her biggest complaint about the area? She has to go to so many different places to apply for her benefits. Believe me, it took a lot of self restraint not to shoot the leech. (She has 3 children and a husband on disability. The only disability I could see was laziness and stupidity.) He didn't have any problem with his smart phone though.
Yeah, the Hatchetts of this world are just fantastic, and there are lots of them.
Richard Ryan| 5.22.12 @ 8:56AM
Disability can be successfully obtained by anyone who would rather not work. Around 10% of "disabled" folks I see are not capable of working.
PolishKnight| 5.21.12 @ 10:24AM
"I have but one thing to say to Mr. Hatchett's fornicating ass and his parasitic broodmares. "Get off your lazy asses and get another job or better yet get another three." I past the point of caring any more."
I don't have any sympathy for Mr. Hatchett, but his situation illustrates that the conservative endorsed policy of making men pay "child" support while rewarding welfare motherhood due to chivalrous patronage is as suicidal as it is stupid.
Even if Mr. Hatchett got another 3 jobs, it wouldn't change the odds of him going to jail or not. So the system doesn't reward men for being responsible while simultaneously throwing benefits at women with both hands for having as many children as they like out of wedlock.
The situation also begs to ask another question: If trying to get blood from a stone via "child" support isn't going to work, and women can have children out of wedlock without consequence, then how is this going to be stopped in a modern society? China's one-child solution and forced abortion and sterilization is ugly, but effective and social conservatives, if they get their way, and ban all contraceptives outright would certainly make the problem worse and, in the long run, Christianity and social conservativism are going to fall anyway.
daddio| 5.21.12 @ 11:54AM
The only thing I can say to this guy is "Tie a knot in the damned thing, will ya?"
PolishKnight| 5.21.12 @ 1:26PM
I'm reminded of the joke about someone asking an alcoholic why he still drank. He reminded the guy, sitting in the gutter, that alcohol had cost him his wife, his job, his status in society, and his home.
The alcohol looked back at him and said: "How can I give up alcohol? It's all I have left!"
Daddio, what does society offer this guy for "tying the knot" and working the 3 jobs and killing himself to be a "good" father? And what does he have to lose by having more kids?
In addition, keep in mind that a lot of social conservatives here are against abortion or even contraception and probably especially against forced contraception.
Jim| 5.21.12 @ 2:58PM
Our current family court system overly rewards women and punishes men. Changes are necessary, but good luck with all the libs and women's rights groups out there. Sad there are no mens rights groups powerful enough to chagne the corrupt family court system, that claims to care for children, but really only cares for women.
PolishKnight| 5.21.12 @ 9:28PM
Halftrue, Jim.
Consider latest offspring of Mr. Hachette: They only get a buck fifty per month. No doubt the "first" children get more. So there's a caste system in place and it's not only for the children but for the women as well.
Feminists, and traditionalists as well, regard only with slighter less disgust men who are divorced than the women who marry them. Each wife gets a progressively smaller cut, in theory, since the second and third wives are marrying "bad" men who didn't perform somehow.
Ironically, this is why many young career women are panicking as they realize that the good guys get taken fast and the divorced men flooding the market are "damaged goods".
Bob S| 5.21.12 @ 8:59AM
This growth is being fueled by Hispanics. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them give up to government. They encounter a bad government at home, and they either sit back and do nothing about it, or come here. Then, when they come over here, they don't give themselves the choice of living, so they just accept a bad government, only this particular government is intent on showering them with gifts. When Hispanic immigrants have children, the children have no one at home educating them on the evils of government, so the children learn at school that government is savior and no one tells them otherwise. The only notable exception are the Cubans, who, having escaped a communist government, know first-hand the evils of government without check, but the majority of minority growth comes from immigrants from central and south America.
They give up on government at home. Just look at de-facto cartel rule in parts of Mexico, the complete inability of government in Guatemala to keep drug violence in check, the authoritarian governments of Ortega in Nicaragua and Chavez in Venezuela, the list goes on, and that's just in recent history. They give up on government at home, and when they come here they're either too jaded to care about government here becoming authoritarian, too uneducated to recognize the dangers of big government, or too interested in being granted amnesty and welfare for life.
More than people, the socialist Marxist ideas that are prevalent in Latin America are also being imported.
fiscal| 5.21.12 @ 10:12AM
Sowell is showing his age and his viewpoint is somewhat dated. The fact that non-white groups vote Democrat is far too simplistic. This can be seen in his rigorous adherence to "right" and "left" ideologies in total.
There are several factors to consider here. First, the largest growing political group are independents. Polling shows them fiscally conservative but socially moderate. They are the ones that will decide elections in the coming decade.
There is also a huge difference between young and old. Older white voters, who are currently mostly Republican (and are dying off), grew up marrying their own race and have rigid views regarding social issues. Younger voters think nothing of mixed race marriages, contraception, gay marriage, etc. Older voters worry about Medicare and Social Security while young voters worry if there will be anything left for them as they get older.
Therefore, the morphing of votes in the future will be more amenable to cutting entitlements for the aged, but also require a more liberal social agenda. Remember, you are counted as Hispanic or Black if you even have any of that in your background. New thinking requires that we get rid of the the demarcations of race and delve into socio-economic demographics.
That gives us more hope for the future unless you are right wing social conservative and confuse fiscal policy with religious thought. The Republican party will become irrelevant if they hold onto their strict social positions which is the current trend. However, if they become the party of fiscal responsibility, the Dems won't have a chance.
This is why the silent majority of Republicans put a McCain or Romney in the President's role rather than a right wing radical. At this juncture, an educated guess would be that the Republican party will get restrictive to the point of irrelevancy. Then, you'll see the ebb and flow move the party back to the center. This will be a function of money in politics as those who currently give to Republicans are generally older than those who give to Dems.
PolishKnight| 5.21.12 @ 10:38AM
Fiscal, I agree with you partially about social issues. Even many conservatives have moved forward on social issues and would disagree with their parents in the 1950's who would say that women shouldn't work as full time professionals outside of the home and put the kids in daycare. Feminism cannot exist without the welfare state and most of the "social" issues are also tied into economics. Welfare motherhood requires big government, for example. Most Democrat voters are now seeking benefits based upon race, gender, or government crony status.
But yes, it appears we need to think about a post conservative Republican world where the left has won the war via demographics and race/crony politics. It appears that the youth who vote Democrat end to be similar to the filthy hippy OWS protesters who scream in the streets that they don't have high paying government jobs but can't figure out that not everyone can get those jobs. The Soviet solution for such people is simple: Throw them into gulags or death camps. This isn't happening in Europe or the USA yet because the left hasn't totally won the political battle worldwide and there's still a sort of free press which is why the left seethes over "Fauxnews" daring to report stuff they would rather remain buried.
For now.
When those days are over, then the left simply won't need that dirty underclass anymore and will put the more usable ones to work in the factories for 16 hours a day, send the rest to gulags to starve to death, and order the women to drown their babies in the stream bed.
There shouldn't be a lot of war since like in the book 1984, the crony elites have little interest in warfare since it hurts their bottom line as much as anyone. With elections being superfluous, why do they need to go to war to retain power? In addition, much of their economic interests are intermingled much like race mixing. If China bombs the USA, there goes all those IOUs! The only area where war is inevitable is the middle east and in many ways, that will merely allow the west to recolonize the region after the bombs have fallen (guess where!)
fiscal| 5.21.12 @ 11:50AM
Inasmuch as social issues are tied to economics, we should look for a more libertarian position on social issues as the country will not be able to afford a U.K., Greece, Spain, France type of solution. Libertarians take the position that government should stay out of the bedroom and our pocketbooks. That's why Ron Paul has so many young followers -- and they ARE the future.
I don't have, however, as negative a view of the younger voters. Just as the Depression made people concerned about feeding their families, receding incomes and greater income disparity will force younger voters to be more responsible. They won't overspend on housing and cars the way their parents did.
The thought that modern America could ever recolonize anyplace is a joke. Bush was wrong about trying to reshape the Middle East and the Chinese would be in a heap of trouble without U.S. consumption. I have absolutely no problem with mixed races the way many on the right seem to have. A century ago, we had Italians mixing with Germans who mixed with Swedes, etc. I don't think that made the country weaker, but it made it stronger. The same will be true with Blacks and Hispanics -- and that is good for the future.
PolishKnight| 5.21.12 @ 1:18PM
Most libertarians are either alienated potheads, nuts who want to bike without a helmet, or impractical radical idealists who are against government enforcing immigration laws because it's "bad for business" but can't seem to understand why the first thing an illegal wants to do when he or she gets a green card is to go on welfare. That kind of stupidity makes me question their judgement.
It's actually the other way around: leftist social issues are NOT the future since most of the special interest social groups are only being catered to by the big government crowd to buy votes. Once the Republican party falls, these special interest groups will be valued according to their useful merits. How many Octomoms on welfare are in China? In addition, the elites of the Democrat party are still largely represented by middle class white Christian or Jewish couples. Remember what happened when David Dinkins was (briefly) mayor of NYC?
Keep in mind that the world population has soared over 7 billion now and there isn't enough money to fund the unwed mother and gay lifestyle of having children for either fashion statements or to make money off the voter. Eventually, Uncle Joe, or his modern version, will need to take care of the problem. They're just waiting to win all the marbles before reversing their scorched earth policy which is destroying the very European utopia they claimed to have wanted.
Who Needs Moe| 5.21.12 @ 10:50PM
Curly: It is irrefutable tax cuts will not help the economy.
Larry: The Constitution is irrefutably a worthless piece of paper.
Curly: It is irrefutable tax cuts will not help the economy.
Larry: The Constitution is irrefutably a worthless piece of paper.
PolishKnight| 5.22.12 @ 10:09AM
In many ways, the Constitution is a worthless piece of paper since although it is protected in a special climate controlled area, it will never be sold so it has no market value.
Apart from it's material existence, it's legal definition is based solely upon the politics of the times which makes it little different than any other law or Constitution. Deal with it.
What Sowell is pointing out is that demographics, or collective politics, is destiny. When enough "wise Latinas" say that the Constitution says X, then the Constitution says X. It will still be under glass in a museum and visited by schoolchildren with banners in the background preaching the importance of social democracy and how the "Constitution" agrees with it.
Who Needs Moe- Curly? Curly?| 5.22.12 @ 5:44PM
Curly: It is irrefutable tax cuts will not help the economy.
Larry: The Constitution is irrefutably a worthless piece of paper.
Curly: It is irrefutable tax cuts will not help the economy.
Larry: The Constitution is irrefutably a worthless piece of paper.
Larry: The Constitution is irrefutably a worthless piece of paper.
Bob S| 5.22.12 @ 2:17PM
You give younger voters too much credit.
Bob S| 5.22.12 @ 2:15PM
You just have to ask yourself, why are Democrats so desperate for amnesty for illegal immigrants?
The fastest growing segment of the population is Hispanic, fueled by immigration, both legal and (to an increasingly larger extent) illegal. Most immigrants didn't get a good, or even decent, education back home, mainly because their school curricula are decided by the State and governments in Latin America lean heavily Marxist. So they come to the US, someone promises them a free stay, and they don't stop to think about the ramifications and just accept the hand that's feeding them, which today are Democrats.
The only group of Hispanics today that do not vote overwhelmingly Democrat are Cubans. Cubans know the dangers of an oppressive government who came in with promises of a nanny state but in the end left everyone impoverished. Cubans also know these promises are exactly the ones made by Democrats, so they will not vote Democrat (except in 2008 when a large portion of them were fooled by Obama, but they will not let that happen again).
Sowell's distinction between liberal and conservative, white and non-white is not simplistic, it is reality. The reality is that on the track we're on, there's no hope to become anything other than Cuba or the Soviet Union. The only way the Republican Party will become irrelevant holding on to "strict" social positions is if the Democrats succeed in granting amnesty to illegals and have all the votes they need to institute the government of their dreams. Heck, they can wait if they want, since the children of illegals also lean heavily Democrat and are also deceived by the Democrat promises similar to the promises made to the Cubans by Castro before Cuba went to crap.
Drunken Sailor| 5.21.12 @ 10:29AM
"Unless this fashionable Balkanization is stopped, demography can become destiny -- and a tragedy for all."
Can't argue with that.
Frank Drackman| 5.21.12 @ 10:54AM
Maybe its my Jewish eye for detail but.......
am I the only one who noticed the guy driving the Tractor is a(an?)N-......
I mean, sloping forehead, big lips, it sure ain't William S. Buckley.
And the unfortunates going over the Cliff??
Umm well I don't see one who looks like he could rap worth a damn...
Frank
Petronius| 5.21.12 @ 12:38PM
This country has never really had a freely embraced common culture. Necessity is a harsh dictator. Our recent prosperity has facilitated the cultural vandalism and libertine attitudes being enshrined in law. Former crimes are now lawful and virtuous people are now branded criminals. Whyizit? A Real American is honest, industrious, and virtuous. We have been overthrown by predators, perverts, and parasites. It's simple. The parents of the latter did not do their jobs force them to acculturate. Well our prosperity is now ended by Federal diktat, sabotage, and over taxation. When we hit bottom and there is no more money for the legal establishment to take, the ignorant, indolent, incompetent, and infantile dregs will meet their end, and then We can start again. And next time, the 3 p's will not be allowed to live here since they are ruining Our country now. It was "the economy stupid." Dr Sowell can say or imply, "it's race or race mixing." Nonsense. "It's BEHAVIOR Stupid!" People have been able to behave badly because others have been taxed to deal with the messes they made. The Republican Central Committee had better Understand here and Now that 50 years of depriving Us of the good living we earned and did not get, (which is 50 years too much,) is being laid at their feet for refusing to fight the parasitic Left.
Are you listening George?
John Q. Public| 5.21.12 @ 1:22PM
Gotta continue to love ya’ Mr. Sowell.
However, predicting the future is perhaps one of the most frivolous wastes of time. It’s not what its cracked up to be, in that, even as one can’t do more than generally plan for one’s own future, the problems vastly multiply when it comes to billions of other humans—especially when it comes to race.
Who remembers wysiwyg?
What you see is what you get---ah, those early computer acronyms!
Given that seeing is the overwhelmingly dominant sense people use to make order of the human “race”, skin pigmentation, sloped eyes, fat lips, big ears, tiny and massive penises and breasts, beer bellies, hook noses, flat feet, high cheekbones, yellow teeth, beetle nut-blackened teeth, sweaty palms, massive biceps, great lung capacity, big butts, sagging boobs, knock knees, bow legs, blue-brown-green eyes, hairy chests, backs and legs, big hands, kinky hair, no hair, blond hair, brown hair, snarling faces, naïve ones, in-pain ones, burned faces, amputees, Down Syndrome people, geniuses, average Joes and Janes---get the picture?
Color blind—that’s the ticket!
Humanity is becoming a dog’s, or a cat’s, world.
I once, in Tiburon, California---the richest of the rich part of Marin County---saw a large male dog “stuck in” a tiny female dog. Ah, it was so funny seeing her trying to get away from his large member! They both had such disconcerting looks on their faces. And, then, yesterday, I spied a dog engaged in giving a dump, with its owner at the other end of a leash, both of them with faces beyond parody.
Race, in America?
Here’s MY prediction---one of the useful gains from Obama---and Elizabeth Warren---will be the freeing idea of: COMPOSITE individual.
Returning to what “you” were, before “your” mother and father were born, as the Zen admonition goes, might become a most useful extension of the genealogy craze. Why limit your investigation to the official records of “your” bodily tree?
Imagine the web of life going back thousands of years, or even hundreds of thousands of them---or, dare I suggest, millions or many billions?
“Race”?
What a trivial pursuit!
Dmac | 5.21.12 @ 2:09PM
What an easy question to answer. There are two disctint minority groups growing in the United States. Blacks ans Hispanics. Show me one succesful black country? Show me one world class Hispanic Country (don't say Brazil as they are Portugese)? The answer to both questions, they're aren't any. Blacks and Hispanics have lived on the overflow of work that Whites have produced. No country in Africa or the Western Hemisphere have even come close to what White America has produced.
JmsA| 5.22.12 @ 3:55AM
Brazilians are primarily a mix of portuguese, african, and indigenous amerindians. As to the Portuguese proper, they're descendants of, among others, the ancient Lusitanians and Vettones, two of many Celtic groups or tribes to settle in the Iberian peninsula, only to ultimately be conquered and by the Romans, giving rise to, in the case of Spain, the Celtiberos (Celtiberians).
Coincidentally and interestingly enough, the same Lusitanians intermingled most with the Galicians and Asturians in northwest Spain, as well as, with the kingdom of Leon and western Castille, and Spain's mountanious northern coast of Cantabria. That union ultimately resulted in the Portuguese-Galician language, until the much later advent of the separate kingdom of Portugal, when the Portuguese language came into being. The Galicians, the inhabitants Gallaecia, Roman/Latin for the land of the Gaels, descended primarily from the Germanic Suebis (Schwaben or Swabians ), as well as other subsequent arriving germanic celtic or visigoth tribes displaced westward by the ostrogoths. Like it or not, modern day Spaniards are essentially, with the exception of the sui generis Basques, the direct descendants of germanic tribes.
THKrupp| 5.21.12 @ 2:11PM
I for one dont see this as an issue. To be honest there are people that are minorities who will end up being conservative. I dont think you can make a blanket statement that just because minorities always vote for Democrats now, that they will always vote Democrat. Most people I know are fiscally conservative. I dont know of many people(personally) Democrat or Republican that thinks the country should just be spending well above our means. The conflict always comes as to what the money we do have should be spent on. Will conservatives of the future look and act like Conservatives of the past? Most likely no. Does this mean that conservativism will be a thing of the past. Absolutely not. There will always be a portion of the population that is more conservative than the rest of the population. I think that as time goes on many of the social issues will become less and less important. As minorities become a larger percentage of the population they will have a larger stake in the country and as a result a certain percentage will have more conservative views. Culturally the USA is changing but then its always been changing and it will continue to change. It will not be a straight road and perhaps not always easy. There are also differences in generations. A conservative born in 1960 has a different viewpoint than one born in 1860 or 1990. Young people today seem to be less focused on a persons race than folks were in the past. Homosexuallity is much more tolarated in younger people as well. Society will change just as it always has and always will.
Peppermint Tea| 5.21.12 @ 2:27PM
How to solve the demographic problem?
1. vote for Romney
2. become a Mormon
3. start having babies
Skippy| 5.21.12 @ 7:45PM
RTFO
Amazing how selfish we have become.
New iphone; 118" TV; Prius; and no children.
America is becoming Japan, without the virulent racism.
Oh, sorry.
It is just fine to be a racist, just not a white one.
Shiori| 5.22.12 @ 2:48AM
Japan is not 'virulently racist'. Where do you get your information? Population growth has indeed slowed in Japan, but it's due to the same old devils - namely, feminism and abortion. Europe however, is still sickeningly antisemitic, hopelessly leftist, and dedicated to decreasing their own numbers as well as destroying their own cultures, all for idiotic utopian notions of multiculturalism and environmentalism. Japan had its lost decade in the 90's, and now faces another downturn due to the tsunami. This may make marriage and inheritance more important to those who might have otherwise chosen the single, material life.
davelnaf| 5.21.12 @ 2:49PM
Hispanics—really, people from Mexico along with their progeny—are soon to become the new majority here, so says the authors of the report. They hope that their group will soon be in control of the kind of people in Mexico whose mismanagement compelled their fathers and mothers to come here. And they cannot hide their joy over the possibility that their progeny will soon take their hatreds of the ‘other’ in Mexico out on the same type of people here. Only the most PC besotted will not see this kind of enthusiasm for what it really is.
Bob K.| 5.22.12 @ 3:25AM
Affirmative Action and Diversity will see to it that there are many people of pure caucasian European Spanish heritage like Geraldo Rivera who have liberal and progressive mentalities ready to lead them into Socialism.
Their counterparts will still continue to rule the Kleptocracies of Central and South America as they have done for hundreds of years!
cicero| 5.21.12 @ 3:30PM
They won. They have taken everyone's eye off of the target, or what should be the target. While everone is taking aim at the welfare queens, and the men whom they support, the beaurocracy continues to grow apace. The vast majority of the social program money taken from taxpayers stays in the beaurocracy. Seventy two cents of every social program dollar stays in Washington, or the state capitols, while only twenty eithy cents hits the streets.
We keep scurrying around trying to catch the goslings, while we should be killing the (golden) goose.
Dr. Sowell is right, though, on his comments relative to the Balkanization of the country. Divide et impera, as the Romans used to say. If the parasitic class (government workers, teachers, college beaurocrats), can keep us "diverse", they will continue to eat our lunches.
Bob K.| 5.21.12 @ 5:48PM
You got it right, Cicero!
Thumbs up to that!
Karl Jay| 5.21.12 @ 5:56PM
Demographics are a powerful thing...as far as they go. What is also is play is the unique culture of America...many first generation immigrants struggle to adapt and as a result cling to ways and laguage from the old country. The next generation is an entirely different thing...and by the 3rd generation the vast majority are as American as you can get.
The history of western PA is an object lesson with waves of Germans, Italians, Scots, Irish, Croatians, Serbs, Poles and many others. They were all hated in their time, and the common shared opinion of how it would turn out proved to be off by a whole lot.
None of us know exactly where events, and plans, and politics will actually take the country in the next 50 years or so. There will be surprises...some good, and some abhorent. But the odds are that the power of our culture, shared values, common sense, resiliance, and even our currently struggling government will see to it that the nation survives. Sometimes we sell short the power of We The People.
Bob K.| 5.22.12 @ 3:15AM
They all assimilated. They did not bring their nationalism and culture with them and did not make an effort to keep them. Far too many hispanics are not assimilating. Especially in the South West.
Bob Grant| 5.21.12 @ 7:57PM
People from third world countries don't understand, nor appreciate how our representative democracy works. Federalism, Liberty, and Constitutionalism are foreign concepts for most. They are used to being ruled under a dictatorship, socialism, or some hybrid of the two. As a matter of fact they are foreign concepts for far too many born and raised here because of what is being taught in our history, government, and social studies classes.
More and more people are being indoctrinated on the "tyranny" of Colonial Western Society and all things associated with it, like representative constitutional democracy.
We are on a collision course with destiny and I shudder to think what this once great country will be in the few immediate generations from today.
JmsA| 5.22.12 @ 2:24AM
As it has been going on for decades, a significant portion of this country's populace continues to vote for what other's elsewhere have been forced to accept at the point of a gun--socialism. It is thus no longer a matter of if, but to what extent and growing, the virus has managed to spread. We're finding out, the hard way, what so many others have also learned: that liberty is fragile, and one cannot coexist with socialists, for do so is to sign one's own death warrant. What irks me though, is that some many have tried so desperately to warm and avert the danger for so long, only to be almost collectively ignored.
Shiori| 5.22.12 @ 2:39AM
While I'm glad to hear more minorities are shunning abortion, it's still heartbreaking that still so many minority youth tragically die before age 21. Babies still need fathers, and while the numbers of babies are increasing, the numbers of responsible daddies, and mommies for that matter, is decreasing steadily. And the welfare state grows to gargantuan proportions. Take a good gander at Generation-Zero; A hopeless lot, aren't they? God help this country. I pray that the Black Family grows with renewed strength and purpose. C'mon black brothers and sisters - get married and reject the nanny state and rotten public schools! We can all unite under this banner.
POST American| 5.22.12 @ 7:04AM
---Great piece!
Putting aside the RED Ice Radio interview
'Clash of Civilizations' hr 2 on the capstone
agenda to, eventually, snuff our Rockefeller
debauched 'christian' churches ----and bring
in ---ISLAM--- as the needed religious component
for Globalization, 'ordo ob chaos' , turmoil
and population extermination program----
ONE and ALLLL should also CHECK OUT
that Joel Skousen-Alex Jones in studio interview
on May Day. (available youtube)
The set up for a nuclear exchange between
the US and RED China-Russia, probably over
a full-scale invasion of South Korea
(AGAIN------we told you Korea ---IS----
the defining conflict of the 20th century
viz a viz the 21st).
Some serious devastation (-est. about 15
cities destroyed) but the rest of the
country more or less intact ---and the pretext
established for TOTAL surrender of sovereignty
and rights to Globalism ---and scientific dick-tatorship.
Fully explains the cover up Russian military
build-up.
Also the minimization of the RED Chinese
threat --and the MASSIVE
and systematic handover of American tech to RED China over the past decades.
In short --still more ROT-child/Rockefeller
capstone mayhem -----comin' down the
Albert Pike!
SO CHECK IT OUT! and ----TAKE HEED, for
this is the 11th hour of the CFR---RED China
handover, takedown, USURPATION,
OCCUPATION and --FINAL-- EUGENICS OP.
-----'CULL---chore' creation that even puts
franchise slum Hollywood to shame.
Richard F Miniter| 5.23.12 @ 12:08AM
I get what Dr. Sowell is saying but I wonder about the numbers? What after all is white? Many hispanics think of themslves as white and many more of them marry whites. What then are those children? Four of my about to be six children of of mixed parentage, Vietnamese and Japanese blended with Irish and Swedish. What are they? I believe it's more a matter of culture. It would be amusing if on all those government forms where you now have to identify yourself by race you were required to label yourself by culture. Me I check the box next to cowboy but I bet the population of American Indians would surge by the tens of millions. Which might serve the purposes of Elizabeth Warren but also assure Dr. Sowell (who is an absolute national treasure) about the future diection of the Republic.