Return Of The Native

When you build a political base from disparate constituencies you will eventually face the problem of how to reconcile conflicting interests of groups with no commonality.

The Democrat party has that problem with labor. Labor does not share the fear/loathing of Christianity that many of its Jewish, and socially disaffected groups like feminists and homosexuals do. In fact their interests often are in conflict - as immigration highlights.

The Nation, primier organ of the Left, now faces that problem. Illegal immigrants vote Left - but they also take jobs once belonging to labor. Democrats have had the luxury of a generally healthy American middle class for decades with which to ignore the interests of labor while promoting lower-class immigration from the south. They don't have that luxury anymore.

They are now confounded by the passionate objections from their readers over illegal immigration.

When their editorial, "What's Fueling The New Nativism?" was answered loudly by their readers they took note.

This is described in the newest American Conservative magazine with, Return Of The Native, by Kara Hopkins -

"The roots of this zenophobic upsurge - fueled by economic frustrations and national-security phobias, and inflamed by voices of hatred - run far too deep..." claimed the lead editorial of the Aug. 28 issue. (They were not discussing some sudden proliferation of KKK rallies but recent immigration reform efforts.) No one could have foreseen the breadth and fury of the new nativism that has risen up from Middle America with an ominous roar."

Neither, apparently, could the old baron of leftist opinion have foreseen the breadth and fury of it's audiences reaction. The Nov. 13 issue confesses to "an avalanche of furious mail."

"All who oppose illegal immigration are not right-wing racist extremeists," a North Carolinia chastised the editors. "I myself am black. And those of us in the lower depths are definitely negatively affected-not only by the downward pressure on wages but by the fact that a requirement for many jobs now is the ability to speak Spanish!" Another reader responded, "Your characterization of people who are anti-illegal immigration as racists is unfair and untrue. Like myself, most are just working-class stiffs. I'm a plumber, trying to hold on to my job and a way of life I grew up with."

Hard to feel sorry for the Left - their own bigotries towards the American grassroots just don't win them points anymore. Hard also to feel sorry for American who finally react to illegal immigration only when it hits their pocketbook. It's too late. America once had a middle class - created by people like Henry Ford whom you've been taught to hate. But we don't have the power to fight back anymore.