Paul Greenberg\u2019s last article proves what many of us have long known: neoconservatives are leftists by another name.<\/p>\n
Greenberg waxes orgasmic over President Obama\u2019s decision to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.\u00a0 However, like every other champion of amnesty, he unequivocally denies both that he favors amnesty and that Obama has granted any such thing.\u00a0 In fact, he enthusiastically seconds Obama\u2019s line that \u201cthe real <\/em>amnesty\u201d is our current system, a system \u201cthat hasn\u2019t stopped illegal immigration but just abandoned<\/em> those who managed to sneak across the border, sentencing them to a vague limbo somewhere beyond the reach of law<\/em>, offering them neither justice nor mercy\u201d (italics added).\u00a0 Greenberg is adamant that such a system is radically incompatible with \u201cthe America we know and still want to believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n The excessive, but all too predictable, use of bumper sticker sloganeering and emotional appeals aside, Greenberg\u2019s argument is shockingly bad.<\/p>\n First things first: Our immigration system is not<\/em> \u201cbroken.\u201d\u00a0 The chief problem with the system lay in the fact that those who are entrusted with its enforcement <\/em>refuse to discharge their duties.\u00a0 Talk of a \u201cbroken system<\/em>\u201d serves both Republicans and Democrats, for it deflects all responsibility from derelict politicians to some abstract, impersonal entity.<\/p>\n Secondly, Greenberg is no doubt correct that there are <\/em>\u201cgood hard working people\u201d who will benefit from Obama\u2019s and Greenberg\u2019s amnesty.\u00a0 However, judging from the fact that roughly one-third<\/em> of the federal prison population consists of illegal aliens, there is also a fair share of very bad beneficiaries of their \u201cmercy.\u201d<\/p>\n Thirdly, the fact remains\u2014even if he and his amnesty-loving ilk prefer that we ignore it\u2014that even these \u201cgood\u201d people to whom Greenberg refers are criminals.\u00a0 <\/em>Not only did they violate the law in entering this country; of necessity, they\u2019ve broken a host of other laws\u2014tax laws, driving laws, etc.\u2014once they arrived here.<\/p>\n Fourthly, Greenberg\u2019s and Obama\u2019s (and most other Democrats\u2019 and Republicans\u2019) description of the present situation as \u201cthe real amnesty\u201d is profoundly disingenuous for two reasons:<\/p>\n (1)As I said before, there are as many illegal immigrants as there are precisely because the amnesty lovers\u2014those who, for economic, political, and\/or racial reasons, wish to throw open the floodgates to Hispanics and others from the Third World\u2014have adamantly refused to enforce America\u2019s immigration laws.<\/p>\n (2)If we have a de facto amnesty because illegal aliens are \u201cin the shadows,\u201d then we have a de facto amnesty vis-\u00e0-vis drug users and drug dealers, rapists, murderers, child molesters, and every other sort of criminal.\u00a0 If a de facto amnesty regarding illegal immigrants is intolerable, something that needs to be rectified by legalizing <\/em>them, then, presumably, a de facto amnesty concerning all other criminals is intolerable and should be solved by legalizing them. <\/em><\/p>\n Finally, like all supporters of amnesty, Greenberg insists that no amnesty has taken place, for there are various \u201cstandards\u201d that illegal immigrants must meet before their status can change.<\/p>\n The world is ridden with bad ideas, but I can\u2019t think of any that more unequivocally convicts its holder of either scandalous gullibility or blatant dishonesty than this one.\u00a0 Think about it: The government can\u2019t fulfill its most basic Constitutional obligation by preventing millions of people from entering the country, but now that they\u2019re here, it expects for us to believe that it will <\/em>be able to make them comply with a bewildering battery of other laws!\u00a0 This is like a lame person who, while admitting that he can\u2019t walk, assures you that if you just give him the chance, he will become a marathon runner.<\/p>\n Also, if these illegal immigrants who are all \u201cgood hard working people\u201d deserve \u201cjustice and mercy,\u201d then isn\u2019t it unjust and unmerciful to impose any<\/em> standards at all upon them?<\/p>\n There is one last point that shouldn\u2019t be lost upon us: Greenberg argues his case\u2014and that of Obama\u2019s\u2014by way of the doctrine of \u201cAmerican Exceptionalism\u201d (AE).<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s speech last Thursday night, he says, \u201cwas\u2026a tribute to American exceptionalism, for this is a nation bound together not like others, by blood or class or party, but by shared belief and hope [.]\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, AE is a quintessential egalitarian doctrine.\u00a0 And like all such doctrines, it denies the variety of human existence by reducing human beings to a bunch of interchangeable rights-bearers.\u00a0 This is why it is ready made for leftist ideologues of both the neoconservative and the more recognizable varieties, universalists who want to remake the country\u2014and the world\u2014in the image of their ideology. After all, when ethnic, racial, religious, and every other kind of consideration that has ever distinguished people from one another are treated as if they don\u2019t really <\/em>exist, then the human species is regarded as a blank slate upon which the champions of Equality can scribble out their fantasies\u2014fantasies like Democracy, say.<\/p>\n The prevailing vision of immigration policy shared by neoconservatives, like Greenberg, and other leftists, like Obama, reflects this same bloodless, lifeless, egalitarianism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Greenberg\u2019s last article proves what many of us have long known: neoconservatives are leftists by another name. Greenberg waxes orgasmic over President Obama\u2019s decision to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.\u00a0 However, like every other champion of amnesty, he unequivocally denies both that he favors amnesty and that Obama has granted any such…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n