Cloward and Piven, immigration reform & 'nothing left to lose'

With apologies to Kris Kristofferson, “immigration reform” is just another phrase for “nothing left to lose,” and as Janis Joplin sang in her version of “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Nothing don’t mean nothing honey if it ain’t free.”

Let’s face it, whether you are talking about immigration reform by George W. Bush, immigration reform by John McCain, immigration reform by Barack Obama, or immigration reform by Marco Rubio, all you get is the same old “nothing left to lose.” And maybe, at long last, they are right — maybe we have sunk so low, there is nothing left to fight for.

I envision Sen. Rubio singing this new version of the old song, tweaking the lyrics just a bit, so that he can end up with “You know feeling good was good enough for me and you all/Good enough for me and my Bobby Jindal.”

Yeah, that Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, who just branded his party as “the stupid party” and in the process gave a pretty good demonstration of just why that is so. Jindal has been smart enough not to get involved in the immigration fight, but his arguments for an inclusive Republican Party are going to inevitably lead him the same direction as Rubio, McCain and Chris Christie — toward the votes of 10 million or more new American citizens you can expect under any amnesty program.

Heck, we’ve been told over and over by the national media and the political establishment that illegal immigration can’t be solved. So it’s no wonder that Republicans start to believe there’s “nothing left to lose” if they just give up and go along with Democratic plans to convert criminal intruders into legal voters. After all, the logic goes, Hispanics and other minority voters already hate Republicans, so maybe they will like them better if they abandon their core principles and sell out to expediency.

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Ultimately, the impending Republican surrender on immigration is nothing more than the latest variation on the same old “feel good” politics that has given us $16 trillion in national debt; tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded mandates for Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid; and a constant refrain of “you can’t do that” whenever a politician actually talks about spending restraint like a grownup.

OF COURSE it feels good for voters when the government gives them something for nothing, and it feels good for politicians when they get elected and then re-elected endlessly, which it turns out is just what happens when you give voters something for nothing.

And that “something” isn’t just a work permit, no matter what Marco Rubio claims. The work permit is the first step, but citizenship is the ultimate goal, and with citizenship will come all the perks of a welfare state — health insurance, food stamps, college tuition grants, unemployment insurance, Social Security — yep, even welfare.

Unfortunately, that means an already overloaded system of entitlements will become virtually unworkable. The only real question, at that point, is how long it will take the Democrats and their fellow traveler Republicans to bankrupt America. Nor is this merely a rhetorical question, but rather a historical one that dates back nearly 50 years.

The progressives’ plot to bankrupt the United States was formally presented in the May 2, 1966, issue of The Nation magazine. An article entitled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty,” written by the husband and wife team of Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, proposed collapsing the “feel good” government of the United States under “the weight of the poor.”

Adapting the philosophy of jiu-jitsu — where you use your enemy’s strength to defeat him — Cloward and Piven proposed taking advantage of the spirit of American generosity to crash our economy. The idea was to create an ever-growing demand for social services (“free stuff,” as Mitt Romney injudiciously but accurately called it) until the money ran out and the suddenly re-impoverished lower classes rebelled and demanded a new system of government that would “equitably” distribute the nations’ wealth in a Marxist utopian pipe dream.

Cloward and Piven foresaw that a “massive drive to recruit the poor ONTO the welfare rolls” would challenge the resources of even a wealthy nation like the United States, leading to “a profound financial and political crisis.”

That crisis is here now, and has been for at least 10 years. It goes under a number of names — most recently the “debt ceiling crisis” — but most importantly it is a crisis which can only be worsened by inviting anywhere from 11 million to 30 million illegal immigrants into an already unsustainable system. Don’t be fooled by “feel good” rhetoric about the “American dream” or about “a nation of immigrants” — what we are talking about is hastening the pending collapse of America in the name of “social justice.”

Forget about “immigration reform.” This fight has nothing to do with immigration, and it has nothing to do with reform. Virtually everyone is for immigration — if it is done legally and with reason. We still welcome everyone who can help our country become stronger — those who pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to protect and defend liberty and the Constitution of the United States of America.

But that’s not what Marco Rubio is talking about. That’s not what President Obama is talking about.

So, no, I don’t support their immigration reform. I support real immigration reform — the kind which will make sure that immigrants learn our language, share our values, and love our culture. If instead, you mean surrendering to an invasion of people whose hope and aspiration is to convert America into a less free, less safe, less glorious place than it has been for 200-plus years, then count me out.

But I am realistic. The America I grew up in — the America that honored George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, that inspired Martin Luther King and John Kennedy — that America is no more. If you are looking for the America of rugged individualism, of innovative entrepreneurship, of patriotic fervor — if you are looking for the America that trusted in God, then move along. There is nothing to see here. That America is gone.

Or as Mr. Kristofferson wrote: “Nothin’ left is all she left for me.”