Those are the three little words that Heather Mac Donald should have said.
Heather Mac was recently in what had been scheduled as a debate on immigration with open borders zealot Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal on Michael Medved’s radio program. As Gerald Martin reports, in a letter to VDARE,
Of course, Medved [email him] (whom I used to like, but who has morphed into one of the most vicious and arrogant neocon pundits) made no pretense of objectivity, but ganged up with Riley to attack and belittle virtually everything Mac Donald said. When Mac Donald stated that Hispanics in general displayed certain social pathologies (crime, out-of-wedlock births, multi-generational poverty) Riley claimed the opposite, citing statistics (apparently a major theme in his book) to show that illegals were incarcerated at lower rates than native born citizens and that 85% of Hispanic children are in two-parent homes. Mac Donald was unable to counter these points (as I believe she could have, with a more nuanced and careful analysis of the relevant stats and categories). Medved also jumped in—in a very insinuating "if you say yes it means you’re a racist" way—by demanding Mac Donald answer his questions, "Are you [actually] saying there is something wrong with Hispanic culture? And are you [Oh, the horror!] against legal Hispanic immigration?"First of all, it is not true that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than Americans; every day that one lives and works in America, constitutes additional crime counts; every time one drives without a license, is another count of crime; every time one works using stolen identification constitutes additional counts of crimes, etc. The trick of Riley and his allies is to not count any of those crimes as crimes; they only count things like murder, rape, etc. Since illegals benefit from sanctuary policies that are themselves illegal, thus are not arrested for all of their crimes, and the crimes don’t get counted by the FBI, Riley can act as though the illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than Americans, which is nonsense on stilts.
After a long, pregnant silence, Mac Donald crumpled, and choked out a pathetic, defeated, "No...but statistics suggest...," and was quickly cut off by Medved. I could tell she wanted to make the ethno/cultural argument against mass Hispanic immigration, both legal and illegal, but she lost her nerve or didn’t have it in the first place.
But it gets worse. The so-called American citizen—so-called, because they are not citizens—children of illegals commit the sorts of crimes that Riley counts as such, at much higher rates than real American citizens. And things never improve with Hispanics. The longer they are here, the more crime they engage in. And I haven’t even gotten started on illegitimacy, educational failure, and refusal to learn English.
When debating Open Borders shills, one must always keep in mind that these are ruthless ideologues with no conscience. That they are going to play the race card is a given, so you’d better get ready to be hit and hit back. If you’re not willing to go toe to toe with them, and shake off being charged with “racism” and “xenophobia,” don’t get in the ring in the first place. As Harry Truman said, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Another philosopher named Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan, until they get hit.” But champs shake off the blows, and get back on plan.
Have you sent her your piece, Nick?
ReplyDeleteI find it unbelievable how these professional writers crumple in live debates. I would literally pay to debate any of these fools like Medved, Jacoby, Wattenberg or Dreher. (I mean, really, when it comes to a clown like Wattenberg, what's there to say? He openly expresses his desire to brown (destroy) America. Immigration can ONLY be a good thing to that piece of filth. I can only imagine what the wicked WASPS did to him as a kid to fire his ferocious hatred. You're not really much better in this regard, Stix. You don't allow that Jewish animus motivates these liars, which, when you think about it, really puts you in their category, too, though your "community service" does tend to make up for it.)
How the HELL can Heather have come to a debate without being prepared to knock down Riley's statistical arguments? Unforgiveable!
Either Heather realizes these debates are about the future of the country or she doesn't. It's as though it's some sort of "hobby" to her to inform herself of hispanic and black pathologies but never too much, oh no no no, and never to press that point too much, no no, that might be "racist." Good grief, why isn't our side putting up its BEST in these debates? Why must we rely on hacks like Heather?
(I know that's harsh and that she's no hack at all. But good God, what could she have been thinking? Bloody careerists.)
The too-delicate Heathers of this world need to learn that it's entirely possible to highlight the full extent of black and hispanic pathologies, and to utterly destroy your opponent's counter-arguments, in a sweet, delicate manner that betrays not a hint of racial loathing.
Evidently Medved has a bit of Torquemada flowing through his veins.
ReplyDeleteHeaven save us from conservatives like Medved and O'Reilly! They believe in a culture war, alright, the problem being they are on the other side.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought here: the real problem is that this is reducing the debate over immigration to a matter of numbers. Frankly, no one in the greater audience really cares if illegal immigrants have a crime rate that is 13.567% or 13.566% higher than that of native born whites. The argument descends to a series of footnotes, at which point people turn it and us off.
ReplyDeleteThe real issue here is that illegal immigrants are irrevocably changing the nature of the United States. Even if immigrants were the most law abiding people in the world, it would not make a difference. The real issue is this: the United States is being changed by them and in a direction which will inevitably destroy it as sure as the Goth and Vandal migrations brought down Rome.
We have to put the public debate in this context. But too often, race realists seem to make their debating points in terms that make sense to other race realists, or fall for the more general debater's flaw of spending too much time practicing talking to each other and not enough looking at what it will take to defeat the other side.
Being on Medved or O'Reilly is not about talking to some conservative talking head. It is a chance to reach an audience that would otherwise never hear the race realist position. Let's not blow it.
As Harry Truman said, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
ReplyDeleteI agree. Move to Mexico!
It is ironic that the USA is the wealthiest country in the world, but its people are the most unhappy ones on earth... And no kidding why... Americans waste their time in things that, at the end, they don't matter... White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Purple.... They are just colours.... What a pity!