Said Rep. Al Green (D., Texas) speaking on the House floor Dec. 4:

“Today, as Congress examines the constitutionality of impeaching President Donald John Trump, I have noticed a grave oversight. While erudite and experienced, none of the witnesses are persons of color. To see the committee hearing experts on the topic of impeachment with not one of color is both regrettable and disrespectful.”

It’s not good enough that the law professors testifying to the House’s Judiciary Committee are competent.  Their competence is undermined because none is a “person of color”.  Now, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the color of one’s skin has to do with his or her understanding of the law, specifically the law of impeachment, which is about the least-racial thing in the whole Constitution.  This is what you get when everything is seen through the lens of race, as it would seem that the Representative from Texas does.  Is this not the classic, textbook definition of racism?  If not, why not?

The Wall St. Journal reports that over 1,000 would-be refugees have drowned this year in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to get into Europe.  Tens of thousands more have been turned back, and often wind up in squalid, dangerous camps in Libya, Turkey and other none-too-desirable places.  One would need a heart of stone not to feel sympathy for these desperate people, especially the young women and children who are fleeing conditions so awful they are willing to risk their lives to escape.

Unfortunately for them, this is not a one-dimensional story.  On a purely practical level, not even the wealthiest nations of Europe have an unlimited capacity to accept refugees.  But it’s not a purely practical problem.  It has very much to do with national identity – and I would argue, properly so.  Progressives find this assertion distasteful at the least, and many will have much harsher opinions.  Conservatives don’t necessarily disagree, but understand that human nature requires it.

States are not random areas enclosed by randomly-drawn borders.  There is a logic to their existence, even if it’s not always clear and/or buried in ancient history.  Nor are nations a random collection of people who happen to live in the same place.  Nations are separated by language and culture – and often by race – and are recognizably different from one another. Not that there is no fluidity in the existence of either states or nations – clearly not the case – but it simply defies reality to insist that borders are wholly and necessarily artificial.  Britons are not Pashtuns are not Germans are not Yorubans; Great Britain is not Pakistan is not Germany is not Nigeria; and pretending otherwise can’t change the fact.  (Which is simply to say they are different, not better or worse, superior or inferior.  Which must be said to contradict the Progressives who caricature all conservatives as antediluvian, racist misanthropes.)

States have the right and responsibility to defend their borders, and nations occupying those states have right and reason to defend their language and culture.  Immigration, including the admission of refugees, that does not threaten these things is, as history proves, thoroughly positive and valuable.  But when does immigration become invasion?  This isn’t an idle question for academics to debate.  Ask Native Americans about the arrival of the Europeans after 1492.  Ask the Spanish about their ill-fated invitation to Americans to move to Texas in the early 1800s, or the Xhosa and Zulus about the Dutch settlement of South Africa in the 17^th century, or the Gauls about the arrival of the Franks in the Middle Ages.  History is full of examples of the destruction of nations and states by invasion that started as a trickle of settlers.  It is potentially suicidal not to learn from history and take appropriate action.  That will, necessarily, involve a great many personal tragedies.  And that, sadly, is the human condition.

Let’s end on a much-happier note.  As I write, the Department of Labor has just announced that the unemployment rate has reached an incredibly-low 3.5%, the best in decades, and widely believed impossible without the economy overheating.  That hasn’t happened, nor are there signs it will anytime soon.  Making the good news even better, the unemployment rate among black men (5.1%) and Hispanic Americans (4.2%) has never been lower.   For teens (12%) it’s the lowest in half a century.  Wages are rising across the board after years of stagnation.

This capitalism thing works pretty well when our betters in Washington and state capitals just get out of the way.  Think how much better it would work if all nations agreed to play by the rules, lowered tariffs to zero, and decided to see how little regulation is necessary rather than how much more can be imposed.  Too much to ask for at Christmas?  Well, you won’t get it if you don’t ask.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

– Kenneth D. Gough  © 2019