America’s Founding Fathers were nothing short of extraordinary. Never before had a group of men come together to do things that would so change the arc of human history. To a man it’s likely that they agreed with Sir Isaac Newton’s adage from 1676: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." This particularly applies to the two men most responsible for the nation’s founding documents, Thomas Jefferson & James Madison.
Jefferson, whose extensive library was the basis upon which
the Library of Congress is built, was extraordinarily
well read. From Plato and Plutarch
to Chaucer and Shakespeare to Blackstone and Burke, he was a voracious reader. Perhaps
none more so than the giant of the enlightenment’s, John Locke. In addition to
the intellectual arsenal all of this gave him, there were specific documents he
drew upon in writing the Declaration of Independence. Among these were his own draft of the Constitution
of Virginia, George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights as well as the
English Bill of Rights and its antecedent, the Magna Carta.
Madison
shared Jefferson’s familiarity with Montesquieu, Locke, Blackstone and crafted
the Constitution with many of the same sources in mind. Given the different
functions of the documents, Madison focused the Constitution on the fundamental
nature of man and the need to constrain men’s most based instincts while Jefferson’s
Declaration was focused on the passions that impel men to act.
The nation they bequeathed to us is of course, imperfect,
but it is extraordinary nonetheless.
Based on these documents and the 2000 years of western civilization that
preceded them, it has evolved with principles that have been, in aggregate, the
most providential in all in human history. Fundamental elements such as freedom
of speech, press, religion, the rights to a fair trial and to be free from
government molestation in your home created an almost crystal clear limitation
on the powers of government and the tyrannical nature of men. At the same time,
outside of the explicitly government sphere you have things like private
property, Capitalism and the Judeo-Christian tradition that reinforced the
framework of the nation.
As everyone knows, America had extraordinary challenges from
the beginning, starting with her Original
Sin. But throughout she has had at her disposal in the form of the
Constitution the tools to evolve and overcome her imperfections and advance.
The culture Americans have today, or at least did until recently,
focused on things like community, church, freedom of speech, limited
government, private property, merit & individual achievement.
All of that took generations to build. It took patriots standing on the shoulders of
giants to build… And the result has been nothing short of spectacular. For most of the last century the United
States has been the most powerful nation in the world from both a military and economic
perspective, and perhaps most of all, from an opportunity perspective. From universities to Silicon Valley to Wall
Street to main street, America has led the world in scientific advances,
economic advances and, again, opportunity.
This is nowhere more clear in the fact that of the 954 Nobel Prizes
awarded since its inception in 1900, over 404 of
them (42%) are Americans, and of those 404, approximately 35% are
immigrants. And it’s not just
intellectuals. There’s athletics. Of the 21,000
Olympic medals awarded since the revival of the Games in 1896, Americans have
won over 3,000 or 15%. In this year’s games, approximately
10% of the American team was made up of immigrants or children of immigrants.
And money. Of the world’s 2,781
billionaires in 2024, 29% of them, or 813 are Americans. Of those 813, approximately
11% are immigrants.
Unfortunately what we have seen over the last 30 years has
been a flood of illegal immigrants from nations with no concept of the basics
of American culture. The breakdown
of the countries of origin tells the tale. The top ten nations from which
illegals hail are as follows: Mexico,
Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Columbia, Ecuador &
El Salvador. Together they make up 80% of the illegals crossing our border. Those
nations have no sustained history of free speech, limited government, private
property, free elections or Capitalism. Contrast that with the previous waves
of migration (1840-1889
& 1890-1911) when 89% of immigrants came from fellow European nations
with overlapping western values.
It is simply not sustainable for a nation to import tens of
millions of people from nations with cultures that are anathema to its own.
Indeed of the top ten most dangerous cities in the world, eight
are in the countries listed above. The basic elements of western culture,
of American culture are not found in DNA, they are found in communities, in the
shared history of the citizens and in the laws of the nation. Large numbers of
immigrants from nations with different mores can be destabilizing. From crime
to the hundreds
of billions of dollars necessary to support illegals to the strains on
services such as education
and healthcare
to the dollars
sent back home, illegals do harm to America. Just this past week we’ve seen reports of
Venezuelan gangs taking over neighborhoods
in Colorado and unleashing chaos
in Dallas while 75%
of arrests in midtown Manhattan are illegals.
The only solution is deportation. By the millions. It will
be ugly, it will be difficult, it will take courage in the face of withering
media assaults and Democrat lamentations, but it is necessary. If we do not build a wall and send the
illegals home, it will be seen as an open invitation to the entire world to
cross our border… and as Roy
Beck explains with gumballs, that’s not sustainable.
Culture matters. The reality is, not all cultures are equal.
If they were there wouldn’t be millions of people seeking to cross our borders.
Western civilization in general and American culture in particular has taken
centuries to develop, and a quick look around the world will demonstrate that
cultures and civilizations that maintain themselves for centuries are few and
far in between.
If Americans don’t recognize that what we have is a gift and
is something to be valued and protected, our shining city on a hill will soon
devolve into the morass of chaos, violence, scarcity and tyranny where much of
the rest of the world resides. If we really want to show compassion to those
longing for what Americans have, the solution is not to open our borders and
let them in, but rather seek to export the basic elements of freedom which are
at the foundation of our success. There’s an adage of much disputed origin
that perfectly articulates the idea: Give
a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach
a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. Our goal should not be to suckle
the millions of illegals who swarm our borders and overwhelm our cities, but
rather we should be to export the fundamental tenants of freedom and prosperity
to the billions around the world so they can build their own shining cities on
their own hills…
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