When I meet someone, I assume—like most other people—identifying where that person lives gives me some insight into how he or she thinks. Now I’m not talking about one’s geographic location; I’m looking to find out if they live in “Utopiana” or “Realville.” Occasionally, I run into someone living in “No Man’s Land,” but with a little more detective work I can usually deduce whether their neighborhood in “No Man’s Land” lies closer to the border of Utopiana or to the border of Realville.
Now admittedly, life in Realville can be tough because Realville is the one place where decisions are consequential and actions judged on the basis of results, not wishful thinking. The world of Realville provides the only known basis for Rationality, and Rationality is foundational for Virtue. Virtue, by its very nature, can exist only in a free society, one in which people are allowed to make choices for the achievement of satisfaction concordant with individuality and uniqueness.
Utopiana, on the other hand, can be quite a comfortable place in an altruistic sense so long as the resident utopian doesn’t have to actually endure the consequences of one’s “magic” solutions. Utopian solutions emanate from rigid ideology—not the individual choices of creative thinkers—and demand equality in a contorted context of uniformity, no matter how perverse the outcome or moral hazards consequent. Please read this slowly, “Utopian solutions never solve real problems.”
Utopian solutions are inherently universalistic, thereby being comprehensive in their nature. To implement a utopian solution the imposing power requires participation and submission in gradations of increasing coercion, ultimately blossoming into full-blown totalitarianism. In totalitarian systems, the solution (no matter what it is) can be either immoral or amoral (at best), but cannot in any way be characterized as virtuous because no individual is permitted freedom of meaningful choice. The watchword of all totalitarian systems is Altruism, albeit a bastardized form of what one generally regards as a good thing in its everyday word usage.
The above philosophical discussion summarizes a polemic that could be explored at length in another forum, but it’s sufficient as a prerequisite for where I am going here.
Politicians of any and every party from time immemorial have inhabited Utopiana. At sundry and various times politicians inhabiting Realville have been able to defeat some, even many, of the utopian solutions that would have been so very destructive of our society had they actually been enacted. Unfortunately, today at the federal level utopians in leadership positions of both the Republican and Democratic Parties are in the drivers’ seats, and their highest priority, if one judges by the amount of time they spend comparative to other issues, is how to legislate amnesty for immigrants who have broken at least one law by either overstaying their legal entry or by entering illegally into the United States. Our “leaders” all the while attempt plausible deniability through the use of euphemisms, non-sequiturs, circular reasoning, and ad hominem attacks. Note that both the Republican and Democratic leadership couch their proposal as sensible immigration reform, comprehensive reform, strong border security, blah, blah, blah. It is none of what they claim, but certainly everything they deny.
With the country‘s economy moribund in the sixth year of the Greater Depression; with true levels of unemployment shockingly scandalous; with NSA spying on everyone’s phone calls and carrying out unprecedented surveillance; with IRS oppressing those classes politically out-of-favor; with “healthcare insurance for all” the government’s slogan even as mounting numbers of formerly insured patients lose their insurance; with governmental agencies imposing a vast and incomprehensible avalanche of regulations (selectively enforced) on a virtually defenseless citizenry; with “terrorists” running amuck in both Iraq and Afghanistan to such an extent military victories since 2001 appear obscenely Pyrrhic; and with zero-percent interest rates impoverishing savers, retirees, and pension funds; why are those holding the reigns of government seemingly obsessed with passing and implementing schemes to grant amnesty to illegal aliens?
The answer lies in the utopian thinking of “the important people.” For utopian Democrats amnesty provides an endless stream of new voters predisposed to leviathan government. For utopian Republicans amnesty provides an endless stream of cheap labor to keep wage price levels depressed and in check. For utopians of both stripes, the ultimate goals are wealth and power, most especially through the vehicle of “State Capitalism.”
Their utopian solution “works” (for “the important people”) for the short term, but long-term the consequences for our country are nothing short of catastrophic. America’s shared language, culture, and standard of living are certain to decline precipitously if those who are here illegally are magically made legal through amnesty. Any so-called immigration bill will guarantee both low-skilled and high-skilled workers will face increased competition for the few remaining jobs in our collapsing economy. Your grandchildren and their children will for a certainty “enjoy” a living standard far below that which you and I enjoy today.
So who are the Congressional amnesty villains living in Utopiana? In the House of Representatives it’s the entire Republican leadership—Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Rep. Paul Ryan. Behind them in the shadows is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headed by Tom Donohue who cracks the big-money whip and calls the tune to get amnesty done, and get it done now. Mind you, all of the above utopians vehemently deny their reforms are amnesty, but I assure you they are de facto amnesty. Their promises to secure the border, penalize illegals with fines and back taxes, force the newly-legalized to learn English, and shove them to the end of the line for citizenship is nothing more than puffery—mere puffery to pacify critics and to provide cover for Republican rank-and-file congressmen needing to screw up their courage to vote for such absurd legislation.
Don’t think the Democrats are any less culpable in this amnesty fiasco. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has already ramrodded a 1197-page amnesty bill through the Senate. (Senator Pat Toomey voted against it and Senator Bobby Casey, Jr, voted for it.) Senator Reid regularly takes to the microphones to berate Speaker Boehner for failure to take up the Senate’s 1197-page monstrosity.
Speaker Boehner, for his part, is determined come hell or high water to pass an immigration reform bill (read: amnesty), but his cupidity and deviousness appear equaled only by his ineptitude and cowardliness—except, of course, when bad-mouthing members of his own party expose his delusional megalomania and actually insist decisions be made in Realville. Boehner conceded on February 6 that “it will be hard to pass an immigration bill this year,” but I noticed he in no way renounced his misguided determination to get it passed, even against the majoritarian will of Realville folks.
So I leave you with this last thought. With Senate action already taken, the nation’s fate lies with the U.S. House of Representatives. The battle between those living in Utopiana and those of Realville rages on. If you, dear reader, take only one action after reading this, call or email Representative Tom Marino at his district or capital office. Don’t be shy in letting him know where you live, and make sure you nail down his “address certain” should he claim residence in Realville. It’s always proper etiquette to let a politician know how you vote depends on where he stands.
Sincerely,
Kerri Ellen Wilder
Lanesboro, PA