Houston: We Have a Problem

"Immigration and the States: The Slave Power Strikes Back"
By William L. Houston

In the nineteenth century, Americans had another term for what we now call "the political class"—the Slave Power.

Americans gradually came to believe that there was a pro-slavery conspiracy to expand the range of slavery, erode the foundations of republican government, and undermine the dignity of free labor. This pro-slavery elite supposedly controlled both major political parties and used its influence to block all attempts at reform.

As the old saying goes, "history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." The Cheap Labor Lobby isn't a perfect reincarnation of the Slave Power—but it uses the same arguments, pulls in the same general direction, and is driven by same fundamental appetites.

This elite has an apparently insatiable appetite for cheap labor and an uncontrollable urge to dismantle the American nation. It is engaged in what is now all but open warfare against American democracy, which it dresses up in faux humanitarian rhetoric and self-serving religious and economic arguments.

The modern version of the Slave Power might not desire to resurrect slavery—but it has no real objection to indentured servitude, which it calls a "temporary guest worker program". And its members and supporters have shown the same contempt for the democratic process as their historical predecessors.

Last time around, the Slave Power became so aggressive, reckless, and uncompromising with its cheap labor agenda that it inspired a backlash that toppled the two-party system and sowed the seeds of its own eventual destruction.

(Read the whole thing, at VDARE. It includes a state-by-state breakdown and analysis of recent defeats of immigration reform votes.)