Obama's next push is amnesty

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By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Amnesty is back, and with a vengeance. This was the dominant theme I heard at this week's annual talk-radio gabfest in Washington sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the country's leading anti-amnesty organization.

"As we gather here in the nation's capital, another illegal alien amnesty bill has been introduced in the Senate," FAIR President Dan Stein said.

It is no surprise that, after passing health care "reform," President Obama plans to move on to his next big domestic initiative: granting citizenship to more than 12 million illegal immigrants. For decades, Beltway and business elites have championed a policy of open borders and unlimited Third World immigration. Amnesty is simply its logical culmination: the triumph of political and corporate interests over patriotism.

America has endured a massive invasion of millions of illegal immigrants. The southern border is a bleeding sore. Hospitals are overwhelmed, forced to provide free medical care to illegals. School systems must absorb the unnecessary costs of educating the illegal immigrants' children. Welfare rolls are swelling with illegal immigrants taking advantage of public assistance. Nearly one-third of the federal prison population is composed of illegal immigrants. Mexican cartels import drugs, crime and human trafficking. Washington has lost control of the nation's borders -- and with it, our national sovereignty.

Moreover, the waves of illegal immigration represent an onslaught on America's historic and cultural core. The great myth of our time, promoted by both the multicultural left and the neoconservative right, is that the United States is a creedal nation. They argue that the country was founded upon abstract ideas embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and that it is united by its commitment to universal principles such as democracy and equality. This is a historical fraud. The Founding Fathers were neither democrats nor believers in egalitarianism. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slaveholders. John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison deeply distrusted democracy.

"Democracy ... wastes, exhausts, and murders itself," Adams wrote. "There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

In other words, the Founding Fathers were not only republicans. They were nationalists who believed they had established a distinct and unique nation based on a common language, faith, heritage and culture. America is an outgrowth of Christianity and English civilization. Its roots are European. The previous waves of immigrants who came to its shores not only deliberately assimilated, but embraced a common national identity: They became Americans.

This is not the case with the army of illegal immigrants. The combination of uncontrolled immigration with multiculturalism is a recipe for balkanization -- the fracturing of America along racial and ethnic lines.

Already, many Hispanic radicals, including some in the advocacy group La Raza ("the race"), are calling for the annexation of the Southwest back into Mexico. They think amnesty will accelerate the process of reacquiring former Mexican territories. For them, demography is destiny.

Large chunks of California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida have become Spanish-speaking enclaves. They are part of the United States in name only. Immigrants are no longer required to learn English. The fastest-growing TV and radio stations are those broadcasting in Spanish. Everywhere one goes -- ATMs, restaurants, state motor vehicle departments -- Spanish is prevalent. Many urban schools in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York teach bilingualism. We are no longer one people who share the same language, culture, history, customs, heroes, literature and traditions. The bonds of national union are slowly being torn apart.

Mr. Obama already has shown he is the most leftist president in U.S. history. Not only have his statist policies and massive budget deficits crippled the private sector. He is erecting a corporatist state -- the amalgamation of big business, big government and big labor -- that represents a clear break from capitalist individualism.

Success in his drive for government-run health care would transform America into a European-style social democracy. This would permanently shift the political landscape to the left, fostering a culture of dependency and entitlement.

Mr. Obama is an internationalist socialist. His ultimate goal is to erect a liberal ruling class: to forge a Democratic majority coalition -- one that would dominate for decades. Amnesty would put millions of illegal immigrants into the voting booths -- and into the welcoming arms of Democrats.

Amnesty also would sound the death knell of traditional America. It would signify a cultural revolution, the establishment of a de facto bilingual, binational Tower of Babel. It would be Mr. Obama's most radical -- and destructive -- achievement.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington-based think tank.