Posted on 06/03/2005 3:05:04 AM PDT by George Frm Br00klyn Park
Ron Smith's "Something to Say" CommentaryRon Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary
Gawd, They Hate it When the People Speak
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Ron Smith
The great Sir Arthur Keith, Darwin’s successor as the leading thinker in the field of evolutionary anthropology, once wrote:
“No tribe unites with another of its own free will. It will surrender its own independence only if first conquered by force; or, in the face of a powerful and aggressive opponent it may be driven to unite with other tribes to resist a common enemy.”
It is this residual tribalism that lies at the heart of the rejection of a proposed European Union constitution by voters this week in France and the Netherlands. To quote from this morning’s Baltimore Sun:
“I voted against it, of course, because I enjoy being Dutch and do not need to be Italian or German or anything else,” said Peter Van Der Meulen, walking his dogs on the cobbled streets of Amsterdam.
Political leaders are “disappointed” in what the majority of their voters decided. Those doggone referenda allow the proles to express themselves and aren’t they so terribly retrograde? Don’t they understand that the future belongs to Globalism?
What the proles understand is that the traditions, the conditions under which they live, work, and raise their families, are threatened by the reality of a Super State (The EU) that would rule them remotely, with no real accountability to any individual member of the union.
People of the political left and the hard right joined together in opposing a oui vote in France. The lefties see a strengthened EU as a device with which to dismantle hard-won social benefits and replace them with a free market dynamism they despise.
The folks on the right -- call them nationalists -- some of them followers of Jean Marie Le Pen, are anti-immigrant and unalterably opposed to the idea of a Europe without borders.
In an essay printed yesterday in the Washington Post, columnist Harold Meyerson ruminates about what would likely have happened here if NAFTA had been subject to voter approval 12 years ago. That was another of those ideas hatched by political and business elite, which those they rule correctly sense is for the benefit of the elite, and the elite only.
The border withMexico is no barrier to the wave of immigrants eager to make to the UnitedStates. As San Diego Union Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., reports after riding with the Border Patrol:
“You’ll never seal the border, the [Border Patrol] agent said, because Washington wants it open.”
“It was a refrain,” Navarrette reports, “I heard all day long, that our immigration policy is chaotic because the rich and the powerful benefit from the chaos.”
Imagine that our immigration policy was put to a nationwide referendum. What do you support the result would be? Most ordinary people know our society is being remade in ways they for the most part don’t like. They’d vote to slam shut the door.
Not that this will ever happen. We’re properly screwed in that regard, not having the machinery to allow a populist uprising to thwart the desires of the rulers, and when some rare exception like California’s Prop. 187 allows such expression to become law some federal judge declares the election result to be “unconstitutional” and throws it out.
The Judge in that instance ruled that controlling immigration is a federal prerogative and that states have no say in it even if they must pay for it.
I admit to rambling this morning, but let me just offer a tip of the cap to the French and Dutch votersfor giving their rulers this electoral wedgie. Any discomfort they suffer is both well-deserved and overdue.
http://wbal.com/stories/templates/commentary_smith.asp?articleid=31739
Guys, If we tried the referendum idea, some character{s} in robes would overrule US. Peace and love, George.
I think this could be applied to the illegal alien situation. Our teachers and principals may be required to learn Spanish and our tests may be given in Spanish. That is a threat to our "traditions and conditions" IMO.
Carolyn
“Our Betters” know what is best for us. That is why they are wealthier and in positions of leadership. < / massive sarcasm>
And yet I have known well-educated professionals from Eastern Europe who can't even get a visa to visit here for a couple of weeks...
Carolyn
Total agreement from me if you just take the word "residual" out of "residual tribalism." It is persistent, enduring, probably innate tribalism. Only the understanding, recognition and acceptance of it are residual, as your "elites" keep trying to eradicate it.
This would be a good moment to resume rocking my chair and drooling about "You can't change human nature." But of course, they will soon be able to do just that. So I guess I should just whisper significantly in young Benjamin's* ear, "Biomeds."
Liberals---shorting mankind for 2400 years.
*that's a "Graduate"** reference, for you youngsters. :)
**that was a movie.
“You’ll never seal the border, the [Border Patrol] agent said, because Washington wants it open.”
“It was a refrain,” Navarrette reports, “I heard all day long, that our immigration policy is chaotic because the rich and the powerful benefit from the chaos.”
If this is truly the case, then it is time for rebellion within the US.
They just realized that adding 100,000 bureaucrats to the tax burden was not worth the effort. The EUcrats add to the tax burden, produce no wealth, and run the peons lives. No wonder they said "NO."
please explain if you have a better answer to why we do nothing on our borders??
I can think of no better reason than the one you gave.
We need to take back our country by any, and I do mean ANY means necessary or we will have forfeited the birthright our forefathers paid for with their lives.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.