Wehrwolfen
02-28-2018, 06:26 PM
Stances on Guns, Immigration Reflect the Sea Change in Cultural Politics (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3636107/posts)
By Jonah Goldberg
February 28, 2018
Set aside what you think of guns or immigration as a matter of public policy or even morality. Instead, think of them as dye markers of how our cultural politics and the nature of the two parties have changed over time.
In the 1990's, it was common for Democrats to fret over both illegal and legal immigration. "All Americans," President Clinton said in his 1995 State of the Union address, "are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country."
Barbara Jordan, the civil rights icon and onetime Democratic congresswoman, headed a commission which concluded that legal immigration rates should be modestly cut.
Meanwhile, countless Republicans championed immigration. "I'm hard-pressed to think of a single problem that would be solved by shutting off the supply of willing and eager new Americans," then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey said in 1995. "If anything ... we should be thinking about increasing legal immigration."
After a 1995 meeting with the National Restaurant Association, newly elected House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, "I think we would be a very, very self-destructive country if we sent negative signals on legal immigration."
Back then, boosting legal immigration was seen by many on the left as a sop to big business. The ruling industrial class allegedly wanted a reserve army of cheap labor. As recently as 2015, avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders sounded downright Bannonesque in telling Vox.com that "open borders" was a "Koch brothers proposal ... a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States."
~snip~
On the immigration front: Democrats are increasingly invested in permissive policies in large part because they've bought into the theory that diverse populations are their key to electoral victories going forward. In dialectic fashion, Republicans are increasingly invested in restrictive policies in large part because they're chasing after ever-larger segments of the white vote.
As for firearms: Democrats passed an assault-weapons ban in September 1994. Even Bill Clinton credited that decision as one of the chief reasons the GOP took back the House two months later.
~snip~
All of these changes were driven by facts on the ground. To listen to Democrats, Republicans support gun rights because the NRA tells them to. In reality, Republicans support gun rights because their voters tell them to, just as Democratic voters tell their representatives the opposite.
Source: https://townhall.com/columnists/jon...-the-sea-change-in-cultural-politics-n2455036 (https://townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2018/02/28/stances-on-guns-immigration-reflect-the-sea-change-in-cultural-politics-n2455036)
~~~~
Wow, Jonah Goldberg just "discovered" how politics is driven by culture, which the rest of the world realized decades ago.
Just another reminder that the self-styled "opinion leaders" aren't as smart as they think they are. Is Goldberg willfully conflating illegal alien border jumpers with legal immigrants who abide by our labor laws? If so, he is again mistaken. If so, Democrats want illegal immigration not for diversity, they’re just easier to control with free stuff! Big problem. Who’s going to pay for it when whitey is the minority?
In other words, Democrats are allied with the enemies of our country and want to disarm us as part of letting the enemy take over. They want the power.
Running with Goldeberg's analogy for right or wrong he will hold to his positions. Like many of us that voted, I was surprised by Trump's victory and then very happy he won the presidential election.
By Jonah Goldberg
February 28, 2018
Set aside what you think of guns or immigration as a matter of public policy or even morality. Instead, think of them as dye markers of how our cultural politics and the nature of the two parties have changed over time.
In the 1990's, it was common for Democrats to fret over both illegal and legal immigration. "All Americans," President Clinton said in his 1995 State of the Union address, "are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country."
Barbara Jordan, the civil rights icon and onetime Democratic congresswoman, headed a commission which concluded that legal immigration rates should be modestly cut.
Meanwhile, countless Republicans championed immigration. "I'm hard-pressed to think of a single problem that would be solved by shutting off the supply of willing and eager new Americans," then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey said in 1995. "If anything ... we should be thinking about increasing legal immigration."
After a 1995 meeting with the National Restaurant Association, newly elected House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, "I think we would be a very, very self-destructive country if we sent negative signals on legal immigration."
Back then, boosting legal immigration was seen by many on the left as a sop to big business. The ruling industrial class allegedly wanted a reserve army of cheap labor. As recently as 2015, avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders sounded downright Bannonesque in telling Vox.com that "open borders" was a "Koch brothers proposal ... a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States."
~snip~
On the immigration front: Democrats are increasingly invested in permissive policies in large part because they've bought into the theory that diverse populations are their key to electoral victories going forward. In dialectic fashion, Republicans are increasingly invested in restrictive policies in large part because they're chasing after ever-larger segments of the white vote.
As for firearms: Democrats passed an assault-weapons ban in September 1994. Even Bill Clinton credited that decision as one of the chief reasons the GOP took back the House two months later.
~snip~
All of these changes were driven by facts on the ground. To listen to Democrats, Republicans support gun rights because the NRA tells them to. In reality, Republicans support gun rights because their voters tell them to, just as Democratic voters tell their representatives the opposite.
Source: https://townhall.com/columnists/jon...-the-sea-change-in-cultural-politics-n2455036 (https://townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2018/02/28/stances-on-guns-immigration-reflect-the-sea-change-in-cultural-politics-n2455036)
~~~~
Wow, Jonah Goldberg just "discovered" how politics is driven by culture, which the rest of the world realized decades ago.
Just another reminder that the self-styled "opinion leaders" aren't as smart as they think they are. Is Goldberg willfully conflating illegal alien border jumpers with legal immigrants who abide by our labor laws? If so, he is again mistaken. If so, Democrats want illegal immigration not for diversity, they’re just easier to control with free stuff! Big problem. Who’s going to pay for it when whitey is the minority?
In other words, Democrats are allied with the enemies of our country and want to disarm us as part of letting the enemy take over. They want the power.
Running with Goldeberg's analogy for right or wrong he will hold to his positions. Like many of us that voted, I was surprised by Trump's victory and then very happy he won the presidential election.