Hispanics are Not Lazy, Lawless or Stupid

As this week appears to mark the re-launching of the immigration/amnesty initiative, including the left-wing Obama-led effort to demonize opponents of amnesty as racist, we’d like to put on record our rejection of the political narrative that lies at the heart of the whole debate, and seems to be embraced to one degree or the other by both political parties: namely, that immigrants can be counted on to vote as a block for the party which gives them citizenship following amnesty for having violated the law.

We don’t buy this argument and never have, and believe the American people are ready, willing and eager to embrace the political leaders who will openly dispute it.

It is the nature of the human race and the individual human being to prefer a law-abiding society over a lawless one; to prefer that the valuable benefits and rewards and privileges that human beings have earned by their own hard work and personal responsibility also be earned and not just given to any other human being. The latter is a basic human concept of fairness; it is basic to the idea of integrity; it is fundamental to the heart and soul of being human.

It does not matter what the pigment of the epidermis is; it does not matter what the gender is; it does not matter what the language is. Human beings don’t want to live in anarchy; we want our own hard work and responsible behavior to be rewarded and we do not want those who do not work hard or who behave irresponsibly to receive the same reward; and we all know who is a cheat and who is a freeloader—and we don’t like them. No piece of legislation will ever change these basic truths of human nature.

To be specific to today, consider Hispanics as an example (though the issues are the same whatever the group identity might be). The subtexts of the leftist argument for blanket amnesty for Hispanic illegal aliens are first, that all Hispanics who are legal citizens of the USA think of themselves first and foremost as Hispanics as opposed to Americans or just human beings. Second, the argument is that all Hispanics desire that amnesty and citizenship be conferred on everyone who is Hispanic, regardless of whether any individual Hispanics have violated the law or are otherwise freeloaders. And third, the argument is that all Hispanics—whether having become US citizens legally or through amnesty—can be counted on as unwaveringly loyal voters for the politicians who engineer amnesty plus citizenship.

No. None of this is true. And it all springs from a godless, soulless view of men and women—in this case men and women who happen to be Hispanic.

The vast majority of Hispanic Americans work very, very hard for what they earn, and for that reason (1) know very well who is not a hard worker; and (2) have even less respect for lazy and irresponsible people—Hispanic or non-Hispanic—than many people do. Those Hispanics in the USA as a result of legal immigration are as attuned as anyone could be of the importance and value of playing by the rules—because the very reason that caused them to immigrate to the USA in the first place has much to do with the fact that their primary home country, Mexico, is NOT a place where society is governed by the rule of law. It is a society rigged by the elitists, where the path to success is shaped by graft and corruption and party loyalty and not by hard work, personal responsibility and following the rule of law. America offered a major difference from what they had known, and they wanted the benefits of that difference enough to play by the rules to get access to them.

But now, we’re supposed to accept the narrative that all aspects of human nature and character are thrown out because what matters is skin color or ethnicity. If I’m a Hispanic American who works hard, I want my lazy Hispanic friends to get handouts, because they are Hispanic. If I’m a Hispanic American who played by the rules, I want my cheating Hispanic friends to get for nothing what I had to earn, because they are Hispanic. This is nonsense, and American people of all types know it. Try it on yourself—however you might define your ethnicity. Do you want the cheat or the freeloader to have everything you have just because he or she shares your ethnicity? Of course you don’t.

It’s been good to hear reports that Arizona Senatorial candidate J.D. Hayworth has been on record rejecting the myth of the monolithic Hispanic vote. We hope he keeps it up and expands the message. There is no reason in 2010 for any American to accept the premise that skin color defines thinking. Thinking is an individual activity, available to all, and driven within by the heart’s inherent attraction to the American founding ideals of one Creator and Creator-endowed inalienable individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This does not mean and has never meant that Americans do not want others to have access to the benefits and rewards and privileges that go with being a citizen of the greatest nation in the history of humanity. They do. They just want that access to be earned, and the desire for it to be characterized and proven by a shared love of freedom and the rule of law upon which America was built.

So let’s affirm—openly, vigorously, consistently and relentlessly—the premises that living under the rule of law (including the immigration laws), and structuring American citizenship as a reward to be earned, are human ideals universally embraced by everyone.

Let’s deny—firmly and unequivocally—the crass and cynical political view that the votes of Hispanics (or any other ethnic group) can be bought via a message that Hispanics desire and approve of a lawless, freeloading society so long as the lawless freeloaders are Hispanic. What garbage.

We are all members of the same race: the human race. It’s time we had leaders who say so and refuse to be drawn into group identity stereotypes that deny our common humanity and human nature.

Paul Gable

April 26, 2010