The Republican View of Immigration and the Economy

With the Republican National Convention in progress, attention naturally turns to the things that are presented to the public in terms of what Republicans stand for. My son, Greg Weeks, noted today in his blog that:

Tucked into the Republican platform on immigration is the following:

"We recognize that for most of those seeking entry into this country, the lack of respect for the rule of law in their homelands has meant economic exploitation and political oppression by corrupt elites."

This is pretty remarkable because immigrants come overwhelmingly from countries the United States considers allies, e.g. Mexico. And Republicans were at the forefront of protecting corrupt elites in Honduras who overthrew the president in 2009, which in turn prompted more turmoil and emigration. If indeed corrupt elites are the problem, then perhaps we need to see less ironclad support for corrupt elites.

And a few days ago, Jack Goldstone was prompted in his blog to counter the Republican claims about what's gone wrong with the American economy.

If I had to sum things up, I would try to answer this question: How in the
world did Americans become convinced that the Federal government — which prior to 1980 cleaned up the environment, protected unions, prevented unscrupulous lending, promoted social mobility and expanded the middle class through support for college education while fighting discrimination, is the problem, while private sector CEOs — who drove down wages, offshored jobs, undermined pensions, watered down health care, shifted all benefits from productivity gains away from workers and into their own pockets, destroyed the solvency of our national banking system and then sought and gained huge government bailouts when their bets went bad — embody the solution.

And don't forget that the Democratic National Convention is coming right up, and it will have its own demographic food for thought, as well.