IMO,
Diversity without assimilation will continue to divide us and be our undoing. It used to be common to hear people say that America is a melting pot. It used to be a proud feature of our American heritage to boast about the strength we have found in assimilating diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions into the American landscape. While it is true that it is the duty of newer people to assimilate by learning about citizenship, our history, and our laws; it is equally important that public policy be designed to allow for assimilation that promotes the general welfare. Today, I hear more about celebrating diversity but, little or nothing is said about assimilation. I never hear public discourse that uses the words "diversity" and "assimilation" in the same sentence. By leaving an important step out of the discussion we have become vulnerable to fear mongering in the public forum.
Our separation of the two concepts ignores the symbiotic relationship between diversity and assimilation. Diversity alone makes us more prone to stereotyping and, in some cases, has become synonomous with an outside threat. Case in point is the fear brought about by extremism. 9/11 and fear mongering have made us susceptible to a thinking that equates extremism, terrorism, and Islam. We must resist the temptation. We did not think that way when Catholics and Protestants were killing one another on the Bristish Isles. One Centrist challenge is to marry diversity to assimilation to get public policy on the right track again.
For instance, I welcome an assimilation of Muslim Americans into the American landscape if only to help us fend off efforts to turn our governing body into a Christian Theocracy. Assimilating diverse traditions into the American landscape can only help us to understand one another better, see our commonalities, and to forge a governing perspective that is separate from our individual religious beliefs. I am truly grateful for religious leaders that place emphasis on the need to keep the hereafter religious judgements of a group of people separate from the here and now governing judgements of all the people. Wedge issues that arise out of diverse belief structures only hurt those entities and our governing abilities.
By the same token, secular humanitarian concerns find their way into the debate as a wedge issue when it comes to enforcing immigration laws. Laws that are instituted to promote our general welfare must take priority over the emotionally charged moment that such a wedge issue engenders. Laws cover a broad swath of established concerns ranging from national security to our ability to chart our own destiny and can not be trumped on purely emotional grounds.
. . . to promote the general welfare . . . Our inability as a country to marry diversity to assimilation reflects current governing problems. The sheer growth of the numerous lobbying groups is a movement to focus on our diversity alone. Each diverse group is compelled to pursue its own interests because it no longer feels tied to an all encompassing governing goal that promotes the general welfare. When are we going to stop celebrating diversity purely for its own sake?
I welcome other perspectives about why we are becoming more divided as a people.
Phil
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
phil i think a big reason that america is presently so divided is that the republican party in general and karl rove in particular have carefully orchestrated a plan that rove thought would secure the whitehouse for his party for years to come, perhaps he even thought it might become permanent.
bush was elected twice by getting the religious right to get out the vote in greater numbers than ever before.
post election republican sound bites and talking points focused on increasing that divide further by telling america if you disagreed with the whitehouse you were unpatriotic even though our country was founded on just the opposite principals. another example is for instance if you don't disapprove of gay marriage (notice i say disapprove for the right there is no middle a person cant have no opinion or just not really care) abortion, gays in the military well of course you aren't christian enough. i must say the republicans are good at what they do.
the problem with that is what they are doing are destroying the fabric of our country.
I can only compliment you on a well written post. The part about the lobbying groups is certainly one of the factors involved in the situation. It's also true and funny, (dark humor?) that most of the "wedge issues" that the lobbyist and pols promote, is not a concern to the American people. Or, if a concern, is not the uppermost important thing on our minds right now. Actually we have a rather short "to do" list.
But, what's on that list, we want done.
Newtoro, your point is well taken. However, this post is less a post about a resolution to a specific issue as it is a way to understand the philosophical perspective of a Centrist governing vision. IMO, in order for the Unity08 vision to succeed, our Centrist view that crucial issues must be addressed ASAP is the result of, not the foundation for, our governing strategy.
Now that I am clear as mud on this point, let me try to share what I am thinking better. Come election time we will want the American voter to understand that certain wedge issues drive both the Dems and the Repubs. Of course we believe voters will take a hard look at us because we will be proposing a practical approach to governing. Governing from the center will focus on crucial issues and not on the wedge issues the two main parties propose. However, just saying that we will take the practical route and address crucial issues is not enough. I believe we need to offer a foundation that addresses what we believe practical to mean in terms of a governing agenda.
We need to add some meat to the word "practical" in order to get voters on board with the Centrist Governing Agenda. We do that by proposing some guiding principles that resonate with the voters as good practical guidelines to reform or resolve the crucial issues of the day. In order to overcome any fear about the shape that reform will take, the reform process must be guided by these policy concepts:
Whenever mention is made that Social Security or Medicare or some other under funded Entitlements program is going to be overhauled to protect its liquidity, immediate fear comes to people's minds. They don't want to lose their security net and they fear that change will do just that. And who can trust politicians to do it right in the first place? There needs to be a way to assure Americans that any practical approach to governing and reform crucial issues will still safeguard their stake in all this.
This link is to an example of how these policies can be applied to one of our crucial issues.
The discussion about the separation of "Diversity" and "Assimilation" is just one example of an impact that has resulted from the broken governing practices of the two major parties. These two concepts, "Diversity" and "Assimilation", never would have become separated had our governing strategy included the Policy to Promote The General Welfare. We would have seen from the start that focus on Diversity alone does not promote the general welfare. Instead, it supports the formation of special interest groups that pursue their specific needs over the general welfare of the American people. For our practical Centrist approach to hold sway with Americans it must have underlying principles or policies that make sense and define what we mean by practical.
Phil
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
Great post Phil. You are right about our country moving away from diversity and assimilation. It is what has made us strong. I would add that the last 20 years or so there has been a large influx of illegal immigration which has made this country weaker, not stronger. The new illegals have nothing vested in assimilating. However, the laws that govern legally immigration is good laws. They require all that you stated, the problem lies with the illegal immigration. It also benefits big business and not the common good.
Religious leaders are preaching intolerance and have organized to a point where they plan to take over the court system. There are many unqualified attorneys working at the Justice department and the supreme court is moving further and further to the extreme right. IMHO, this serves no one and in fact does harm this country. If anyone doubts that when religious extremist runs a country it is anything but free, just look at the many middle east countries like Iran and others. I do not what to live in a country that dictates to me what I should or should not believe. My God dictates that, not my government. I begrudge no one their beliefs and would like the same courtesy.
Until the government and religious leaders begin to do their jobs, and work to keep religion and government separated, we could find ourselves in big trouble. If religious leaders would put their money, energy and time in reducing poverty instead of governing we would be much better off.
Betty
Betty327@ptd.net
Most of the problems, I perceive with diversity, are the enforced diversity that started in the 60's. Quotas were the biggest impediment to true diversity. The political reconstuctionists like to call it affirmative action but the reality is it is just reverse discrimination. It has reincarnated itself into political correct policies that cause more division than solve problems. The race mongers will find a way to play the race card whether it is latins, blacks, asians, browns, reds, it does not matter. There will always be turmoil whenever a new group tries to enter the population. We as Americans need to stop the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of America from clouding the issues. We need to call to task the professional victims of this country and show that we are no longer going to allow them to cause more problems than they solve. It just makes the transitions by everyone to a future America all the harder.
Illegal aliens are criminals and should be handled by the military as any invader is handled. Capture them, send them to a military prison. Hold a military hearing, if they are here illegally they should spend a year in a military prison and deported. Second offense should be 10 years in a military prison. The Constitution is for citizens and legal immigrants. Illegals have no rights. They should be treated like invaders and handled accordingly.
Stumpy, I think you have a handle on origins here. I don't entirely agree with your total analysis but, I do think the law of unintended consequences has had a big role in creating a monster that is the spin lexicon to celebrate Diversity as a laudable end unto itself. I call it a monster for all the reasons cited in this thread. Celebrating Diversity without incorporating the concept of Assimilation is the battle cry for any special interest group whatsoever to pursue its interests over the general welfare of all the people.
Affirmative Action was to correct past inequalities. It was supposed to be temporary. While it has had some success, it has failed to right the wrongs of yesteryear and its prodigy, celebrate diversity, now casts a dark shadow over the usefulness of Affirmative Action. I do believe that if Affirmative Action had remained intact in the narrow sense for which it was intended and did not morph into a buzzword for "quotas", that it would continue to fit the Policy to Promote the General Welfare.
Phil
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
I believe you are on the right track Phil. Diversity used to be synonomous with the idea of the "melting pot" discription of American culture. Over the past decade or so it has become a catch word for promoting a lack of diversity through cooperation and more diversity by mandate. Americans have an innate distaste for being forced to do anything. A prime example is the American Revolution. By assimilation as a natural course of events, of all immigrants, would allow a blending of cultures without denigrating any one nationality or race. The powers that be seem to forget history. The irish, Italians, Polish and many others came to America and still manage to keep their heritage intact while becoming citizens. Illegals won't try to assimilate because they are trying to build a country within a country. That has to change to have any chance of their being here and becoming citizens.
As long as they are kept in the shadows the 12 to 20 million will do as you say Stump - not assimilate. Hiding is not conducive to such. The ones after the amnesty in 1986 assimilated just fine you will find (faster than our European forebearers BTW) and most are fine upstanding citzens now. Assimilation usually takes a generation so I say we better get cracking and get those 12 to 20 miilion above baord and out of the shadows as much as possible. Give them the chance to show that. I think if history is any indication they will!! The ones coming in now DO assimilate maybe not in ways similar to our European bretheren (more cultural affinity there) but they do assimilate and have assimilated well - if accepted that is!!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
Illegals are criminals John. Read some of the earlier posts in this thread. They should be deported and if they are worthy they will come to this country legally. It is a lame excuse to say "they are here, let's let them stay". If you use that logic every criminal and rapist should be allowed to stay out of jail if they have a job. It is also a lame excuse to say that these people do jobs Americans won't. These people pull the wages of all job seekers down because corporations can pay them peanuts instead of a decent wage. It is to the business advantage to keep these people illegal. Send them back and let them apply like everybody else.
So everybody who speeds and does not get caught should be arrested huh! So eveybody who fails to pay all their taxes and does not get caught should be arrested right?? So everybody who drives under the influence DWI/DUI and does not get caught should be arrested right?? Illegals get here in many ways and under many circumstances by nefarious middlemen and employers and most do no harm (nlike the speeders/DUIs) but contribute their labor the best way they can and are decent law abiding people. As with the other "uncaught violaters" who do not get caught I say update the laws to reflect the present day reality (remember Prohibition!), give them earned amnesty period (probation) and a path to either temp guest worker or citizenship for those whyo can document their good work here, make it easier to get in this country legally (now the it is a byzantine hoop-jumping process that takes a decade or so if they are lucky) then hold them to full account for the laws that really harm people as you say! We give amnesty/probabtion every day for other law violators. Why should illegal immigration be any different esp since they don't really harm. Hey get them into Unions so they can plead for higher wages and fight the corporate usery - no problem there. The more the merrier! But get them above board. The only ones who benefit now from the present "shadow-land"rube-goldberg system is the criminal element middlemen and the unsavory corporations!!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
How do you pay for the increase in law enforcement to deport 20 million people? How do you protect the civil rights of Mexican American citizens while you conduct this operation against illegal immigrants? Once they are deported, how do you keep them from coming back? As John Milligan has pointed out, for every fifty-foot fence, there is a fifty-one foot ladder...
Americans will gladly pick lettuce - for $600.00 to $1000.00 per week. Are you ready to pay for that? Who do you think will end up paying the higher prices for goods and services?
You are not going to be successful deporting 20 million people, and they will never "self-deport" without a massive campaign of persecution that will unfairly target ALL Mexican-Americans. How many human-rights violations are you willing to commit to accomplish your goals?
Jeff C
leikec@yahoo.com
The wages of every American and legal resident are kept artificially low because an illegal will work for $6 an hour under the table. If the government enforced current law against businesses that hire illegals they would voluntarily leave and go back to their own country. If they want to come back LEGALLY than WELCOME TO AMERICA.
There are already work visas available for the agriculture industry and tech industry.
If we follow the logic you are considering every criminal and rapist that holds down a job should be allowed to walk the street and continue with their criminal behavior. Illegal immigrants are criminals. They are invaders and should be handled by the military just as any invader would be handled. They should be arrested, detained in a military prison, receive a military hearing, if found to be in this country illegally should get minimum a year in a military prison and deported at the end of their sentence. Second offense should be ten years.
Illegal aliens have no rights because they are ILLEGAL.