Well stated Ken! I assume the 65 million Latinos does not include any illegals, with estimates of an additional 20-30 million illegals living here - illegally! REALLY looking forward to the mass deportation process coming up as I'm sure most Americans are.
It is way past time that we stop pandering to new immigrants. Working as a poll worker for the election we saw people come in with valid driver's licenses who couldn't speak any English. The ballots were printed only in English, fortunately, so of course they had no idea who they were "voting" for. Until fairly recently, immigrants who didn't speak English were embarrassed about that fact and did everything possible to learn our language. Here in Nashville our schools are dealing with several dozen languages which is nuts. While some accommodation is certainly appropriate, a huge part of becoming an American is speaking the language.
I believe it didn't, but now that I write this I'm not 100% sure. It was from 2 years ago, so missed the recent surge. Done right, immigration is a huge benefit to this country, something I hope we can fix soon, because just throwing open the doors doesn't make sense.
Ken another great, sensible piece to “educate the masses”
If there were one addition I would love to have seen in this piece It would’ve been expanding the racial and ethnic aspect one more step; blacks in America,
Although unlike the Latinos, the Irish, the Italians and others who immigrated here, most blacks were born here. With all the talk about the need for reparations, etc. I would love to see a piece from you or an expansion on this piece about how Blacks in America fit into the demographic, the growth patterns, etc., and I think that will be a very revealing aspect of our culture to maybe demonstrate how “far behind“ blacks are compared to Latinos and Asians in both their integrating into our culture and becoming more a part of our culture. Still, Blacks seem to be still a mostly separate entity
Of course, the Democrats didn’t help that and kept segregating them as a monolithic voting block, but on the other hand, although lots of Blacks crossed the line to vote for Trump, a significant number did not and that’s what I’d love to hear your thoughts on
I guess long story very short, as other ethnic groups seem to progress, generationally, and in some cases, to considerable degrees, I don’t believe I see that same level of progression and acceleration in the black community
Looking at the black community is both fascinating and often depressing. They certainly came to this country in a unique and horrible way, and it'd be wrong to minimize that. Their progress -- which is real -- and their too-slow progression than other groups, like the immigrants I talked about in this piece, is a combination of forces.
Racists say their problems stem from genetics, which doesn't hold water to me. Liberals say their problems are all society's fault, especially the hidden systemic racism they can't quite point to. My tendency is to believe that from the awful condition of their early history, they've formed into a tighter American sub-culture than most others. It propagates both the good and the bad. Take violence, for instance, which is clearly a "black" thing with a 600% murder rate (both perps and victims) even when you account for factors like income and urban-centric living. It's enmeshed with economics, single motherhood, drug use (and sales), and "bad MF-er" attitudes celebrated by their music. There's no easy change to that.
Interestingly, the best book I read which helped me understand some of this was JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, whose insight into white Appalachia is a virtual mirror of lower-class black America in so many ways.
We ALL should consider ourselves Americans. The left tries to divide us up into different demographics hoping to show discord that only they have the power to set right.
People are finally starting to realize this and show more and more populism.
We are all tribal. I like to hang out with those that think like me and it doesn't matter what ethnic background my friends are.
This is very true. Another factor is the growth of Latino evangelicals, with charismatic conservative leaders like Samuel Rodriguez.
Latino evangelicals (including my MAGA dad) are just as solidly Republican as other evangelicals. They have conservative views on border security, abortion, gender issues, church/state separation, and school culture wars.
I sometimes ask my dad how, given his Christian values, he can support a guy who's basically a personification of the seven deadly sins, who unrepentantly banged a porn star while his third wife was nursing their infant son, who sells $60 Bibles with his name on them, and who's so biblically ignorant that he thinks 2 Corinthians is pronounced "two Corinthians." My dad will just text me back a meme of Harris making a stupid face. So much for a monolithic "Latino vote."
In 1985 my wife decided to close her antique shop which left us with a small building in a transitional block in an older part of Dallas. I put up a for FSBO sign hoping to avoid realtor fees.
A Latino man in his 30s approached me to lease the building with an option to buy. We worked a deal and he opened a used tire shop. Every month he stopped at my house, cash in hand to pay. If he was a day late he had called ahead to tell me. Twice each month he drove his rickety truck to Mexico taking old tires there, returning with questionable retreads to sell. His hand painted sign on the building only read “Llantas Usadas”. After three years he proudly informed me he had somehow obtained financing, had the down payment ($11k). I went to the closing at a title agent.
The ladies asked if he had a certified check. He shook his head but quickly produced a wad of cash: $11,000 for me and some amount for the title company.
His history was: 8 years earlier he had come to Texas, speaking no English and worked odd jobs eventually buying a cart selling cut up fruit cups on street corners. Five years later he had saved enough to rent my building selling used and retread tires. It was only then he moved his wife and children north.
I never knew, nor asked, about his immigration status. The last I saw him in 1990 he had closed the tire shop, sold the building and was opening another business in another part of the city. All I know is I’m certain he’s done well. I took some risk selling to him but far less risk than he had taken. Legal or not, by the book or not, he was living the American Dream. Why on earth would we ever imagine he would vote Democrat?
Not that it matters … but it is quite common now to see and meet people with Hispanic surnames, who have blonde hair and blue eyes, or have light brown hair and fair-skin complexion. Some have perhaps married into Hispanic families, but many more too are the children of such integrated families. As far as I am concerned, these Americans are just as American as those people who belong to the Daughters of the American Revolution societies or who can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower.
The Democrats and their leftist ilk keep trying to categorize and pigeon-hole Americans into these intersectional boxes and Darwinian classifications. This is nothing more than a power play … a classical divide and conquer strategy that pits people against each other so the Left can maintain its control on power. But we should all recognize this, denounce it, and thoroughly condemn this for what it is … 21st century apartheid. Scorn it, reject it, mock it and fight it at every opportunity.
The Democrat Party … the party of slavery, the party that instigated the Civil War, and whose members progenerated the Ku Klux Klan and racist Jim Crow Laws, are still the racialists who pit Americans against each other, whether based on race, class, or gender. The Democrats have been, and are still, a corrosive and destructive political force within American society.
Well stated Ken! I assume the 65 million Latinos does not include any illegals, with estimates of an additional 20-30 million illegals living here - illegally! REALLY looking forward to the mass deportation process coming up as I'm sure most Americans are.
It is way past time that we stop pandering to new immigrants. Working as a poll worker for the election we saw people come in with valid driver's licenses who couldn't speak any English. The ballots were printed only in English, fortunately, so of course they had no idea who they were "voting" for. Until fairly recently, immigrants who didn't speak English were embarrassed about that fact and did everything possible to learn our language. Here in Nashville our schools are dealing with several dozen languages which is nuts. While some accommodation is certainly appropriate, a huge part of becoming an American is speaking the language.
I believe it didn't, but now that I write this I'm not 100% sure. It was from 2 years ago, so missed the recent surge. Done right, immigration is a huge benefit to this country, something I hope we can fix soon, because just throwing open the doors doesn't make sense.
Ken another great, sensible piece to “educate the masses”
If there were one addition I would love to have seen in this piece It would’ve been expanding the racial and ethnic aspect one more step; blacks in America,
Although unlike the Latinos, the Irish, the Italians and others who immigrated here, most blacks were born here. With all the talk about the need for reparations, etc. I would love to see a piece from you or an expansion on this piece about how Blacks in America fit into the demographic, the growth patterns, etc., and I think that will be a very revealing aspect of our culture to maybe demonstrate how “far behind“ blacks are compared to Latinos and Asians in both their integrating into our culture and becoming more a part of our culture. Still, Blacks seem to be still a mostly separate entity
Of course, the Democrats didn’t help that and kept segregating them as a monolithic voting block, but on the other hand, although lots of Blacks crossed the line to vote for Trump, a significant number did not and that’s what I’d love to hear your thoughts on
I guess long story very short, as other ethnic groups seem to progress, generationally, and in some cases, to considerable degrees, I don’t believe I see that same level of progression and acceleration in the black community
Looking at the black community is both fascinating and often depressing. They certainly came to this country in a unique and horrible way, and it'd be wrong to minimize that. Their progress -- which is real -- and their too-slow progression than other groups, like the immigrants I talked about in this piece, is a combination of forces.
Racists say their problems stem from genetics, which doesn't hold water to me. Liberals say their problems are all society's fault, especially the hidden systemic racism they can't quite point to. My tendency is to believe that from the awful condition of their early history, they've formed into a tighter American sub-culture than most others. It propagates both the good and the bad. Take violence, for instance, which is clearly a "black" thing with a 600% murder rate (both perps and victims) even when you account for factors like income and urban-centric living. It's enmeshed with economics, single motherhood, drug use (and sales), and "bad MF-er" attitudes celebrated by their music. There's no easy change to that.
Interestingly, the best book I read which helped me understand some of this was JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, whose insight into white Appalachia is a virtual mirror of lower-class black America in so many ways.
Have been for Years those who come to work Hard
We ALL should consider ourselves Americans. The left tries to divide us up into different demographics hoping to show discord that only they have the power to set right.
People are finally starting to realize this and show more and more populism.
We are all tribal. I like to hang out with those that think like me and it doesn't matter what ethnic background my friends are.
This is very true. Another factor is the growth of Latino evangelicals, with charismatic conservative leaders like Samuel Rodriguez.
Latino evangelicals (including my MAGA dad) are just as solidly Republican as other evangelicals. They have conservative views on border security, abortion, gender issues, church/state separation, and school culture wars.
I sometimes ask my dad how, given his Christian values, he can support a guy who's basically a personification of the seven deadly sins, who unrepentantly banged a porn star while his third wife was nursing their infant son, who sells $60 Bibles with his name on them, and who's so biblically ignorant that he thinks 2 Corinthians is pronounced "two Corinthians." My dad will just text me back a meme of Harris making a stupid face. So much for a monolithic "Latino vote."
I'm glad your dad sees through your tortured logic. :)
This one was a banger, Ken! Well done!
In 1985 my wife decided to close her antique shop which left us with a small building in a transitional block in an older part of Dallas. I put up a for FSBO sign hoping to avoid realtor fees.
A Latino man in his 30s approached me to lease the building with an option to buy. We worked a deal and he opened a used tire shop. Every month he stopped at my house, cash in hand to pay. If he was a day late he had called ahead to tell me. Twice each month he drove his rickety truck to Mexico taking old tires there, returning with questionable retreads to sell. His hand painted sign on the building only read “Llantas Usadas”. After three years he proudly informed me he had somehow obtained financing, had the down payment ($11k). I went to the closing at a title agent.
The ladies asked if he had a certified check. He shook his head but quickly produced a wad of cash: $11,000 for me and some amount for the title company.
His history was: 8 years earlier he had come to Texas, speaking no English and worked odd jobs eventually buying a cart selling cut up fruit cups on street corners. Five years later he had saved enough to rent my building selling used and retread tires. It was only then he moved his wife and children north.
I never knew, nor asked, about his immigration status. The last I saw him in 1990 he had closed the tire shop, sold the building and was opening another business in another part of the city. All I know is I’m certain he’s done well. I took some risk selling to him but far less risk than he had taken. Legal or not, by the book or not, he was living the American Dream. Why on earth would we ever imagine he would vote Democrat?
Not that it matters … but it is quite common now to see and meet people with Hispanic surnames, who have blonde hair and blue eyes, or have light brown hair and fair-skin complexion. Some have perhaps married into Hispanic families, but many more too are the children of such integrated families. As far as I am concerned, these Americans are just as American as those people who belong to the Daughters of the American Revolution societies or who can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower.
The Democrats and their leftist ilk keep trying to categorize and pigeon-hole Americans into these intersectional boxes and Darwinian classifications. This is nothing more than a power play … a classical divide and conquer strategy that pits people against each other so the Left can maintain its control on power. But we should all recognize this, denounce it, and thoroughly condemn this for what it is … 21st century apartheid. Scorn it, reject it, mock it and fight it at every opportunity.
The Democrat Party … the party of slavery, the party that instigated the Civil War, and whose members progenerated the Ku Klux Klan and racist Jim Crow Laws, are still the racialists who pit Americans against each other, whether based on race, class, or gender. The Democrats have been, and are still, a corrosive and destructive political force within American society.