Ron Unz asks Peter Brimelow a Question
Unzism - The (New) Doctrine of American Decline, by Steve Sailer
Ron Unz, the California political entrepreneur, has graciously distributed my VDARE critique of his pro-immigration / pro-assimilation strategy to his email list of supporters. This was an admirable gesture of open-mindedness and/or intellectual self-confidence. Either is a rare attribute among proponents of the current immigration system, whose first instincts are typically to stifle rather than encourage fresh thinking on the topic.
Here are Ron's introductory comments and his response to my VDARE column.
Dear Friends,
My "Race and Republicans" article in The American Enterprise [http://www.onenation.org/0004/0400.html] generated a considerable amount of response, mostly quite positive.
However, Steve Sailer replied to the article with a friendly but very skeptical analysis, suggested that my policy of "Unzism" (pro-immigration & pro-assimilation) was a defeatist strategy of American decline, similar to Henry Kissinger's approach to the Soviet Union, prior to the coming of Reaganism…
Mr. Sailer is a conservative intellectual of growing prominence, described by National Review as one of the leading "evolutionary conservatives" attempting to reconcile conservative doctrine with the implications of Darwinism. He is also the manager of the Human Bio-Diversity (h-bd) e-mail discussion group, whose members (including myself) range from liberals to conservatives, and engage in a free-wheeling discussion of controversial issues of evolution, race, ethnicity, and social policy.
His article appeared on the www.vdare.com web site, [among whose editors is] Peter Brimelow, whom I would describe as America's most prominent "respectable" white nationalist intellectual (unsurprisingly Mr. Brimelow is in very strong disagreement with my assimilationist arguments).
As for my response to Mr. Sailer's arguments, I would suggest that what he calls "Unzism" was actually the position of Pres. Ronald Reagan, the neo-conservatives, most old-line liberals, and probably the bulk of America's thinking elite since before I was even born—and was hardly regarded as "defeatism" by any of these individuals.
That few prominent Democrats or Republicans today maintain this position is a sign of their cowardice in the face of ethnic activists, rather than any change in the underlying facts.
Sincerely,
Ron Unz, Chairman English for the Children
Steve Sailer replies:
Ron's strategy of mass immigration mitigated by old fashioned melting pot techniques would certainly be better for America than what the two main parties are proposing to either greater or lesser degrees — mass immigration exacerbated by multiculturalism. But, as Ron implicitly admits, he's finding himself increasingly lonely in the middle. Why? It is now the general opinion of professional politicians that pushing Ron's assimilation agenda would be more dangerous to their personal careers than appeasing the diversitycrats. The politicos may not know jack about what's in the public interest, but they are the world's leading experts on what's in their own interest.
Why is "cowardice in the face of ethnic activists" growing at a time when fewer and fewer living white politicians bear any guilt for Jim Crow? One big reason is that immigration is multiplying the number and power (current and prospective) of the Army of the Professionally Resentful. They may or may not represent the minorities they claim to represent. But they are out there laying snares to catch Republicans in the high crime of making "insensitive comments."
Not even George W. "Family values don't stop at the Rio-Grande" Bush is immune. Take this extract from an April 19th AP story:
Bush appointee apologizes to lawmakers about remarks
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The state's health commissioner apologized a second time Wednesday for remarks about Hispanics and teen pregnancy that sparked outrage in Hispanic communities and prompted calls for his resignation….
Last week, he apologized in writing for his comments in The New York Times and Austin-American Statesman. He had been quoted as saying Texas has a high teen pregnancy rate because the state's Hispanic population lacked the belief "that getting pregnant is a bad thing."
He told the Times: "If I were to go to a Hispanic community and say, 'Well, we need to get you into family planning,' they say, 'No, I want to be pregnant,' it doesn't work very well…."
By the way, Hispanic 15 to 19 year old females give birth 2.66 times more often than non-Hispanic whites (see U.S. government statistics at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases
/00news/00news/nrbrth98.htm). But, of course, truth is no defense when the charge is Ethnic Insensitivity. In fact, the more truth you tell, the more unspeakable your guilt.
So, Ron, could it be that this epidemic of "cowardice" in the Republican establishment isn't based purely on hallucinations after all?
[Steve Sailer [email him] is founder of the Human Biodiversity Institute and movie critic for The American Conservative. His website www.iSteve.blogspot.com features his daily blog.]
April 20, 2000
