Understandably, it's doubtful that Elizabeth Warren would
endorse the recommendation of author David Frum in his article in The Atlantic
that the USA begin "reducing immigration, and selecting immigrants more
carefully." It's also unlikely that Senator Warren or any other candidate
seeking the Democratic presidential nomination would suggest an immigration policy which would
Not only was it a good choice and for very good reason, but
another reason to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt is embodied in this passage from
Frum's ("from Frum?") piece:
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enable the country to more quickly and successfully absorb
the people who come here, and to ensure equality of opportunity to both the
newly arrived and the long-settled—to restore to Americans the feeling of
belonging to one united nation, responsible for the care and flourishing of all
its people.
Nonetheless, when MSNBC's Ari Melber on Friday asked the Massachusetts
senator whom her "dream running mate" whether "living or
dead" would be, she picked Theodore Roosevelt
Because he was brave, and he took on the trust and he didn`t
care how many people were going to be mad about it, and he did
it. This is what`s amazing for the right reasons. It wasn`t just that they were big. It wasn`t just that they were dominating an economy. It wasn`t just that they were putting farmers out of business and competitors
out of business and small companies out of business, it was that they had too much political power.
Where once the nation’s cultural leaders condemned
“hyphenated Americanism,” today the hyphen has become a tool of cultural power.
Those white Americans who might not have a hyphen obviously at hand now
scramble to invent one. They have become “hardworking Americans” or “everyday
Americans” or “real Americans”—separating themselves from a shared destiny with
other Americans.
No American more eloquently deplored hyphenation than
Theodore Roosevelt. Read his words in full, and you see that Roosevelt’s
insistence on a singular national identity was founded not on any sense of
hereditary supremacy, but on his passionately patriotic egalitarianism.
The children and children’s children of all of us have to
live here in this land together. Our children’s children will intermarry, one
with another, your children’s children, friends, and mine. They will be the
citizens of one country.
That does not dictate a specific formula for determining the number and nature of individuals who should be admitted to the country. However, as Frum notes, "the challenge for today’s Americans
is to allow that new demography" of ever-greater ethnic diversity "to
develop in an environment of social equality and cultural cohesion." It is
a concept T. Roosevelt would have understood, Democrats should embrace, and by
which President Trump is appalled.
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