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May 29, 2004

Politics of the Internal Empire

Victor Davis Hanson asserts in a jumble of historical facts that multiculturalists are responsible for spreading a fog of victimology which has poisoned the American spirit and resolve. Ultimately he places blame at the foot of Marxism, which is a good thing because there is much to multiculturalism he refuses to understand in his current indictment. What he refuses to see is the extent to which multiculturalism is not internationalist politics but an expression of the desires of non-whites to have cultural influence and economic power in America.

I don't know if Hanson is the main exponent of this false nexus and have not read Mexifornia, but many who quote from it suggest a panicky loss of control and understanding of how America is changing. I find it difficult to believe that blacks, latins and asians are widely persuaded by Left academics' Marxist agenda, and I think that anyone credulous enough to take that as gospel is letting prejudice work. The Culture Wars are over, but this rearguard action is spoiling for a new fight.

The reason that it is important to recognize that multiculturalism isn't Marxist goes something like this to my mind. Multiculturalism calls for an internal empire. It demands access to markets for people of all ethnicities, and with the understanding that the best kind of ethnic diversity is a good thing, multiculturalists want a piece of American pie. An academia chock full of Leftist apologists are not going to bend the will of new immigrants to this nation. When Indians and Koreans came, they didn't check in with Anhuradi Roy to determine how they would stock the shelves of the stores they opened.

Anyone who does business in China knows that despite the fact that there are many Cantonese speakers, the power lies with Mandarin. It is foolish to suggest that Americans who speak Spanish are any threat to what America is all about. Even for those who are cynically concerned about keeping power away from Hispanics have few legitimate concerns. Masking tape is printed with instructions in Spanish, Bar Exams are not. Say what you will about bilinguilism but Telemundo is not a threat to Fox News, even though Telemundo has been here much longer.

Simply because Republicans have been relatively incompetent to recruit these people into their ranks, and for good reason considering the number of blood and soil nativists inspired by works like Mexifornia, doesn't mean they are part of a mass conspiracy to subvert the values of America. So conservatives need to watch out for how they alienate potential allies in ignorance.

Posted by mbowen at May 29, 2004 05:59 PM

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Comments

I think you're being unduly hard on a book you admit to having not read (Mexifornia). The book is most assuredly NOT the "nativist" treatise you think. Hanson makes this clear early in his close person relations with myriad of immigrants (both "good" and "bad").

No, he takes both the left to task for the racial hucksters that promote a "multicultural" experience that works fairly hard to promote a separatist mindset keeping the "multi-" (insofar as it includes AMERICAN culture) out of it.

Similarly, he takes the right to task for its refusal to admit that immigrants DO add a great deal to the economy/nation and the notion (among the anti-immigrant right) that you can simply "close off" the border is both naive and quite harmful. Further, the right's tendency to treat immigrants (illegals and others) as invisible citizens leads to a large transitory population of young men with no real attachment to America.

The problem on the left is the willful rejection of assimilation as a societal good and on the right the negligent refusal to accpet immigration as a net good to society.

People see "Mexifornia" and go ape-shyte about it when they're better served by reading the book. Depending on your political persuasion, about 50% of the book will piss you off.

Which is why it's such a good & honest book.

Posted by: Christopher Cross at May 30, 2004 06:36 PM

That's good to hear. This post was sitting around for a while and I lost the link to the original piece i was referring to. Looking at his other work, Hanson appears to be undismissable.

Still: there is this:
http://www.mdcbowen.org/cobb/archives/000725.html

Posted by: cobb at May 30, 2004 06:57 PM

Yeesh, I'm sure not going to defend bad photoshop (esp. unfunny and offensive bad photoshop)--but the full title of VDH's book is "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming" indicating the divergent directions the state is being pulled in--so that some jerkwad decides to use the term for their own purposes, I can't answer for, nor will I try. Except insofar as to acknowledge said jerkwadiness.

Posted by: Christopher Cross at May 31, 2004 12:44 AM

For the record, Hanson is...a Democrat:

http://www.vinod.com/blog/News/VictorDavisHansonBiograph.html

Not that I expect him to be pulling the D lever anytime soon, but interesting nonetheless.

Posted by: Anthony Perez-Miller at May 31, 2004 09:06 PM

Posted by: Cobb at July 1, 2004 12:48 AM