Here is what immigration is supposed to look like.
Do we form a lynch mob, defend the alleged murderers, or calmly allow a proper investigation and seek justice? The answer is obvious, right? So, why are we in a ferocious argument over whether ICE agents are Gestapo agents or just doing their job and deporting illegal aliens? The answer is that some people are trying to use the deaths of their fellow citizens for political gain.
Instead of using the deaths of our fellow citizens to score political points, we need to actually debate the issue of illegal immigration. Instead of trying to emotionally manipulate the voters, we each need to contemplate what is in both our nation’s interests and in the interests of illegal aliens. Will this be a thoroughly objective presentation? No. I am not a space alien. I have a dog in this fight. However, I don’t want a civil war. I want people to think about the battle over illegal immigration and to see how the other side views the issue. Therefore, so long as they are not needlessly inflammatory, comments are welcome. If you want to complain that ICE agents behave like Nazis stormtroopers, go someplace else. If you are not willing to use your brain, I am not under any obligation to pretend you have one.
Why are we having a battle over illegal immigration? Isn’t it obvious? No. I think people assume the issues involved are obvious because they have not given much serious thought over the issues involved. There are a number of reasons for that. Here are some of them:
- We have groupthink. We all tend to think about most issues the way the people around us think. That is, we all find it difficult to think out of the box. Since out of the box thinking can be profitable and bad, thoughtless decisions can be costly, businesspeople worry about groupthink. That is why we usually associate the term groupthink with the “group or the “box” of people we work with. However, when dissenting opinions are discouraged groupthink can endanger an entire society.
- We are apathetic. To solve a problem we have to do some work. It takes work to identify a problem, to figure out a solution, and to implement a solution. Thus, we often associate apathy with laziness or clinical depression. However, apathy can also arise from the lack of a decent education in civics. If we don’t know how our government works and our responsibilities as citizens, we may not take our responsibilities seriously because we may not know we have any responsibilities.
- The problem may be more complex than we imagine. Social problems like illegal immigration involve a constellation of variables. There are moral variables. What are our obligations to illegal aliens and would-be immigrants? How do we weigh our moral obligations to illegal aliens against our obligations to American citizens? There are economic issues. What costs and benefits do illegal aliens provide our economy? There are political issues. How do illegal aliens affect our political system? Would we experience more social turmoil if we deport illegal aliens or more social turmoil if we grant illegal aliens amnesty? Would illegal aliens vote for Republicans or would they vote for Democrats?
Groupthink
Why would we experience groupthink with respect to illegal immigration? The primary reason is that we each tend to associate with people who think like us, and the primary institutions that used to encourage us to consider the views of others don’t work properly anymore. That is, each of us increasingly participates in either Conservative Republican or Liberal Democrat institutions, but not both. Most Conservatives try to spend their time in the company of other Conservatives, and most Liberals seek the company of other Liberals.
- Our mass media, educational institutions, and Big Tech companies are dividing themselves into organizations that serve either Conservatives or Liberals. Until recently, the mass media, educational institutions, and Big Tech were the domains of Liberals. However, these institutions have lost the trust of Conservatives. The effect of this is to create echo chambers that tell people what they want to hear.
- Our churches tend to be either Conservative or Liberal, and Conservatives attend Conservative churches, and Liberals attend Liberal churches.
- Even retail and nonprofit institutions are starting to divide along or Liberal and Conservative lines.
Why are so many of our institutions choosing to cater to either Liberals or Conservatives, but not both? We live in age when can easily communicate our beliefs to others, and people want to associate with people who share their beliefs.
Churches and educational institutions used to be the place where we received indoctrination in wisdom, morality, and religion. And local communities ensured that their schools and churches taught their children what they wanted taught. Unfortunately, the curriculum taught our nation’s schools and colleges has increasing fallen under the control of state and national organizations such as teachers’ unions, state governments, and the Federal Government, and these organizations are more interested in telling people what to think than they are telling people how to think.
Because the mass media and Big Tech social media companies are relatively few in number, these companies have the capacity to filter what the public sees and hears. Thus, these companies can shape public opinion, and they have enormous political clout. Hence, to serve the interests of the rich and powerful, such companies have often taken sides in political debates, and much of the public has become suspicious of them. Therefore, Conservatives are now seeking alternatives.
Apathy
Since this is not a psychology blog, with respect to the topic of apathy, this section will only address the subjects of laziness and education.
It tends to be difficult to turn lazy people into hard workers. Generally, the best cure is to stop feeding people who don’t work. Unfortunately, politicians tend to use welfare programs to buy votes. So, Democrats are constantly trying to give away taxpayer funds, and Republican are constantly trying to cut the costs of welfare programs.
We have a similar problem with our education system. Teachers’ unions are full of Democratic Party activists, and they are a huge source of funds and campaign workers for Democrat candidates. Teachers’ unions provide a well-organized constituency that works at the Federal, state, and local levels to campaign for teachers’ pay, union benefits, curriculum content, and identity politics. Even the slightest effort (just see https://www.nea.org/ and https://www.aft.org/) to investigate the teachers’ unions will reveal that they have an extremely Liberal agenda and a highly partisan political role. The susceptibility of politicians to partisan organizations such as these unions makes government an unsuitable choice for running our educational system. Instead of focusing upon what is best for our children, politicians focus upon what is best for their donors. Therefore, children may get taught what to think, but not how to think. In fact, they may not be taught well at all.
Complexity
The regulation of immigration is a deceptively complicated problem. Some people will point to the Bible, for example, and they will observe that we are supposed to be kind to immigrants. Others will point to the same Bible and observe that our first obligation is to take care of our family, friends, communities and countrymen. Like it or not, when millions of poor, uneducated, unvetted people enter our nation, there are huge economic and social costs. Crime goes up. Housing costs go up. The pay for unskilled labor drops. Social fragmentation increases when people cannot speak English. And so forth. There are also political costs. Because the huge influx of poor and uneducated illegal aliens tend to vote for Democrats, Conservatives see the attempt by Democrats to promote illegal immigration as cynical, grossly unfair, and even disastrous for our constitutional republic. In the states they run, look at California, Democrats have radically corrupted their election system, blasting out ballots in the mail and eliminating any serious attempt at voter ID so that they can get illegals to vote. Voting by mail is notoriously subject to fraud, and vote harvesting is legal in California. Vote harvesting just makes the opportunity for fraud even worse.
In Part 3, we will take a deeper look at the issues related to immigration. However, in the next post, Part 2 we will identify the constituencies for and against illegal immigration and consider their motivations.
To Be Continued
- Part 2 — Constituencies For and Against Illegal Immigration
- Part 3 — A Deeper Look at the Major Issues Related to Illegal Immigration
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