Welcoming “Rudely Stamped” to the blogosphere
April 25th, 2007,Some weeks ago a new blog, “Rudely Stamped: Heterodox Views on Politics and Public Policy,” made its debut. Its author, Michael Blaine, offers valuable and incisive comment on politics and culture from a generally left-wing perspective, with an international outlook that is often missing in the United States.
Of the early posts, I especially appreciated one on immigration. Recently I’ve come to think of immigration as necessary to save our social safety net. That is, with fewer young workers supporting an increasingly elderly population, I believe we’ll need a healthy level of immigration to provide the tax revenue to support Social Security and Medicare. Anyways, here’s an excerpt from Rudely Stamped that puts Latin American immigration into the U.S. in a positive light:
In reality, the U.S. finds itself in a relatively fortunate immigration situation. The vast majority of our nation’s newcomers are Roman Catholic, capitalistic, zealously eager to work — that is why they come, after all — and family-oriented. These millions of Latin Americans speak a European language and are eager to become part of their new society, even if they also retain a foothold in their old one. Indeed, these people already are American in the sense that they have grown up in the Americas, the New World we natives are taught in school to cherish. Without them, our nation’s population would actually decline, a phenomenon that would produce difficult economic consequences.
Contrast this with Europe, where most new arrivals are not Christian, do not know Western-style capitalism or democracy, and do not join the social mainstream. These North Africans and Middle Easterners communicate using inscrutable languages, and frequently remain alienated from their host societies (by choice or not), while retaining loyalties that do not include their new countries. Europe thus confronts an enormous and ongoing immigration challenge, one that by most accounts it is not handling well.
By the way, the phrase “rudely stamped” comes from Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, I’ve been told. Richard calls himself “rudely stamped” - that is, ugly. Methinks Mr. Blaine is too hard on himself!
April 25th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Regarding immigration into the US: to the extent that newcomers are welcomed and given the tools to integrate themselves into the middle class, we will benefit from their contributions to Social Security and Medicare. The higher their incomes, the greater the support of social programs. Thus, it behooves our society — out of self-interest, if nothing else — to make sure immigrants are not marginalized.
As for the blog title “Rudely Stamped,” I actually was thinking that the world is often ugly, on the one hand, and that my opinions about it may be perceived — if I’m on the right track! — as ugly by many mainstream readers as well.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I like that understanding of “rudely stamped” better!