Mickey Kaus discusses the threat of irredentism as one of the reasons that we should all be threatened by protesters waving Mexican flags. Of course, I had to look the word up to know what the heck he was talking about. Once I did, I was amazed. Does anyone seriously believe that someone who travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles to sneak across a largely desolate and dangerous desert border in order to work 12 hour days at hard labor on a farm, in a restaurant, or on a construction site because the opportunities here are so much greater than they are in Mexico, wants to undo all that by stealing California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas back? Does anyone think that person’s children or grandchildren who were born and raised her feel that way? Puleeze. If they wanted to work and live in Mexico they could have just stayed put. No need for them go to all of that trouble.
There are some good reasons to regulate immigration, but there is a dark heart of racism that is driving much of this debate for a large number of people. I grew up in West Texas where hispanics were routinely referred to as spics and wetbacks in what passed for polite conversation amongst anglos. The times have changed and that kind of talk is no longer considered polite, but the underlying attitudes are still strong in many people. When I read this kind of over the top rhetoric, it sounds to me like anglos trying to find a new polite language for the same old racism.