A political scientist does not have a physical lab and a white coat with safety glasses on as they aggregate informational flows, sifting through information, unearthing tangible ideas and opinions, analyzing these and the conclusions thereof they arrive to, but they are on the cusp of practicing informed, independent, open-mined critical thinking. Their focus is on an understanding of the interaction of weak and powerful systems, organizations and entities, political movement flows, local, national and global culture dynamics, and the relationships between governments and the people that constitute these.
What has happened in Germany? Unrestrained international compassion, as it would be, has overrun a nation’s capacity to bring the new culture into the pace of assimilation. The political strategy of purchasing the loyalty of an immigrant bloc can turn into a cultural Trojan Horse with unforeseen circumstances and loose ends, as the national security situation has shown to be in the Deutschland. In the United States of America, it is reported that about 16 million Central American people have entered the country over the last eight years. That is more than the population of most countries, and it begs for a pause in thought and reflection.
There seems to have been a concerted effort to bring about the current influx of immigration, which left unchecked, has the promise of becoming a voting bloc for the American political party under which the events have occurred. There is more to the story though…
Truth be told, political parties do not operate vacuums, but are part of a government, replete with Republican and Democratic counterparts. On both sides of the congressional aisle, the established center has traditionally limited political differences in deference for keeping the ‘status quo.’ In doing so, words that delineate traditional political party positions mean less, given that the actions deem keeping an established appearance of political give and take, compromise and negotiation.During all presidential administrations, varied forms of conservative and social-progressive elected leaders have had the opportunity to voice concern on the issue of immigration and have remarkably failed to do so in any meaningful, lasting way until recently with the beginning of President Trump’s directive on bringing resolution on how to best address the immigrant influx in America.
It certainly seems prudent that the individual must place country over politics, if worthwhile national achievement is to be had. Maintaining lock-step formation with established political party dictates reduces leadership to be effectuated discreetly from behind congressional doors by an elusive team grouping of center right and center left legislative leaders. These in turn are beseeched, harangued and followed by armies of special interest entities and organizations, who send people to ‘lobby’ or persuade the same through varied means, including direct and indirect political campaign networking and funding.
It is a miracle that anything beyond the scope of the center left/ right gets accomplished, and it seems clear, that these kind of accomplishments do not happen unless a strong individual resides in the Oval Office, or, alternatively, as it could be, a galvanizing individual who can sway moral conscious, if not hearts and minds… like a Frederick Douglass. As it is, sixteen million new people have entered the nation in less than nine years through illegal immigration, and this is certainly cause for concern. The pace of cultural assimilation gets outstripped and rendered futile if those entering bear limited historical, cultural and social association to the community fabric across the land. Public services become inundated, given that the majority of those entering have scarcely high school degrees, and not highly-skilled workers who can be more independent and self-sufficient. What is more, the lack of cultural integration due to the rapid influx of people in such short time, has created a political football framed in ratings-seeking political half-truths on national television and radio. Suddenly, the conversation on the matter is picked up by established media outlets, which are mostly center left (social-progressive), with viewers and listeners hearing stories of Guatemalan moms seeking refuge in churches and highly-skilled dreamers contemplating the embarrassment of losing their legal immigrant status after living in the country just about all their life. What brings all this to a head is the sheer number of immigrants in such little time. If only one million immigrants entered during they years of the last presidential administration, we would be having a different discussion (if at all) on immigration. This is simply so because, given enough time, the communities in our country would be able to integrate and accommodate these more easily. Sixteen million people in eight years though, is a whole different ballgame and creates a contentious crisis that cannot be left unheeded. It is then not simply a matter ‘compassion’ as the center-left framers of the national conversation place it before us, but one of a political voting bloc which threatens to change the face of the country within two generations. Just wait until those sixteen million create families and then these continue to create more families. In fifty years you are looking at a fifty million person voting bloc largely acquiescent to one political party.
What do we do?
- We build the wall and control the immigration flow. We make border security a priority and stop the Central American exodus in to the U.S.
- We practice individual compassion on those already here, including looking at their achieved level of education while in the U.S., what kind of work they are employed in, and what kind of family ties they have in America. Perhaps the original immigrant in the family could not get higher education, given they came in as adults, but how are their children and grandchildren assimilating?
- Immigrants not seeking higher educational achievement and productive work risk being extradited.
- Lottery immigration and chain-migration needs to be stopped. Chain-migration skirts the judicial system by tacitly allowing (based on political norms), immigrants to enter illegally and then work on getting the whole family over.
- Immigration is good for the United States. Yet, having everyone enter in such short time is not good.
it is not just about being compassionate on immigration. We are talking about an issue which is poised to change the ethnic face of America, and therein change our story fromthe inside out. We have to think more critically in order to discuss the issue appropriately and hold established media, our elected leaders, and academia more accountable as they present information of such nature to us.
The only practical way to do this is for teachers and parents to work with schools to call for an emphasis on studying at an age-appropriate level, an understanding and practice of verbal &written discourse through:
- Oratory and essay writing: how to speak publicly and express self in written form
- Developing social studies education to a greater extent, so that it bridges with political science.
Taking It A Step Further With Critical Thinking
Aside from correctly framing an understanding of the immigration issue that is fair and balanced, America operates in constant default of critical thinking as a whole with its acceptance of how established media outlets portray the truth of the matter. We allow the establishment media to frame the crux of the issue, if we remain silent. No one can hear you if you do not write it down and publish it, record it into a podcast, or broadcast out through radio and television. The need for armies of critical thinkers never feels so important because we are not enough of us are fully aware that creating critical thinkers is the way forward to spirited discussion and smart actions that strengthen democracy. Understanding that a nation of critical thinkers is an awoken nation of powerful outspoken thinkers leads the way to better national conversations with less drama, hyperbole and sensationalism and more common sensibility.
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