Why 2012 Matters

But we're getting the poorest of the poor from Mexico & Central America, with high birthrate, very conservative stance towards women,

I've read about something like this happening before! Yeah verily, we should learn from history about the danger!

[....] Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish were never less than a third of all immigrants. [....]  By 1840, the Irish constituted nearly half of all entering immigrants, and New England found it self heavily foreign born. By 1950, the Irish consisted of one fifth of all foreign born in the originally homogenous region.

And thus the steadily scaling number of Irish who entered the U.S. between 1820 and 1830 skyrocketed in the 1840s, nearly 2 million came in that decade. The flow persisted increasingly for another five years, as the first immigrants began to earn the means of sending for relatives and friends. [....]

In 1845, the great potato rot touched off a mass migration [....]

Peasants arrived without resources, or capital to start farms or businesses. Few of them ever accumulated the resources to make any meaningful choice about their way of life. Fortunately for them, the expansion of the American economy created heavy demands for muscle grunt [....]

By the middle of the nineteenth century, as American cities were undergoing rapid growth and beginning to develop an infrastructure and creating the governmental machinery and personnel necessary to run it, the Irish and their children got their first foothold- on the ground floor. Irish policemen and firemen are not just stereotypes: Irish all but monopolized those jobs when they were being created in the post-Civil War years, and even today Irish names are clearly over-represented in those occupation [....]

Cultural events such as St. Patrick's Day were regarded by most Americans as evidence of the separateness of these immigrants, but helped hold the Irish culture together. Their desire for self-expression showed that the Irish understood their group identity. Poor as they were, they drew strength from a culture that explained their situation in the world and provided spiritual resources to face if not to solve the problem  [....]

About a century and a half later, a lot more of us regrettably have polluted our own alternate heritages by celebrating St Patrick's Day, what a horror, such a damn shame that no one stood up to our culture being altered so much. And hey no one was successful in keeping them from taking over many of our urban police forces until it was too late!

I see what you're saying Perhaps someone should get tougher about Taco Bell, ChiChi's and Casa Maria's having Cinco di Mayo promotions? Better safe than sorry, or our great great grand children will all be celebrating it if one doesn't draw a line No one but real Mexicans should be allowed to partake, to prevent the kind of unfair influence the Irish ended up having by virtue of their numbers.

More seriously-- I'm a big fan myself of balanced legal immigration (including class and education besides national origin,) BUT really, what the heck are you afraid of happening via Hispanic & specifically Mexican immigrants?

Rather than bringing papal rule to Congress, the Irish immigrants ended up as some of the progenitors of American-style-cafeteria Catholicism (far more than my Polish ancestors did, many who remained more holy roller Catholics for several generations.) And despite the Irish influence post-American-revolution, Americans by and large eventually became quite fond of the British again and even of their monarchy.

We do have a existent culture when "they" get here, who ever the unbalanced hordes are at the time, and they have to "melt" somehow to get along. Especially given that they are not in positions of power in the culture when they arrive, not exactly H1-B workers directly influencing our culture through their work, they are mostly real low on the totem pole: illegals, migrant farm workers, service, manual labor and often day labor at that. If their culture is "catching" and influencing, maybe it's because people of other heritage happen to like certain parts of it enough to adopt it. Meanwhile, when they get enough money to raise middle class children, those children are going to rebel against the old Mexican ways just like every other 2nd/3rd generation has before them because "but Mom, we don't live in Mexico, we're Americans"

Your equation of Mexican immigrants with illiberalism doesn't make any sense at all.  The liberal coalitions in Nevada and Arizona are a scattering of white libs and Mexican-Americans.  Take them away, and no Harry Reid, no Rep. Raul Grijalva, who is a first generation Mexican-American co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus who is more progressive than anyone you will ever get elected statewide in our 100 White People Senate descended from those liberal can-do gringos.  The white ranchers and suburban folks in Nevada and Arizona are very conservative.  Add to that that New Mexico is one of the most liberal states in the country, has a woman governor and is majority-minority.  It's a great place.  Mexico has enlightened attitudes about gay people, respect for extended family and social responsibility, all of which enrich us here.  It's just poor is all.  Poor people, as you may note, historically break liberal, not authoritarian-conservative.  That's for the rich folks who make money and tend to run the world.

In Tucson, there are Mexican-American women in political leadership, and great respect for women.  The Arizona legislature has promulgated some of the strongest restrictions on abortion anywhere -- through white conservatives, opposed by the white libs and Mexican-Americans.  But then, I live here and you don't, so this may not be obvious to you.

Your reaction to the scattering of Mexican immigrants in the South and upper Midwest is "Gee, the US of Mexico, I'm so thrilled"?  Seriously?  How many of those can-do Caucasians want to pick fruit in SoCal?  (Nada.)  We create the economics to staff our low-pay jobs with Mexicans and Mexican-Americans and conservatives lament that the slave wage labor doesn't look or sound like grandpappy.  That's not right.  More than that, you typically roll out all these often strident arguments against what you see as American imperialism.  But it's American money and weapons that have turned Mexico into a lawless narcostate.  Maybe your love for humane foreign policy should get acquainted with your annoyance at the exodus of Mexican immigrants our lack of one toward Mexico fosters.