All the above can become expensive to the state when a large segment of the population simply is not playing by the rules, either by volition or tragic circumstance.
My liberal friend, however, bristled at this “scapegoating” of illegal immigrants. And he suggested that illegal immigration was “no different from the Irish in 1850” or the “Poles in 1920.” Yet, it is most surely different, given the question of legality, the melting pot in lieu of the salad bowl, and the distance from Europe in comparison to the proximity of Mexico.
But I noticed one other thing: he chose to move far away from all of the above into a neighborhood that is ethnically monolithic (white), elite, and as far as possible from where he grew up. This too is an American trait — one professes global concern as a sort of psychological penance for one’s own worry that he wants nothing to do with politically incorrect problems.
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A must-read, but I must disagree about that “American trait”: surely VDH has read Bleak House?
