Libertarianism and multiculturalism

I was very young in 2000, a year which helped to greatly shape my political committments now, nearly ten years on.

I remember at the time being something of a young 'Dittohead': I'd lay in bed next to my grandfather (a man who by virtue of his age missed both the Second World War and Vietnam) while listening to the Rush Limbaugh show on his old transistor. I remember his bellicosity regarding the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal; his utter distaste for Clinton's alleged heresies during his time studying in England; and --

-- his vocal support for Elian Gonzales, and his hatred for Janet Reno for sending the boy back to Cuba.

Now, there are many things I believe my grandfather was wrong about. I have very little respect for his positions on race relations or on gay marriage. I believe that both are integrally tied into the philosophy of individual liberty I espouse - while it is immoral for the government to force religious organizations to marry homosexuals, for instance, it is equally unethical for religious groups who would be open to the concept to not be permitted to wed those who love one another. I also am vastly more tolerable to the concept of drug legalization than he happened to have been; I distrust almost instinctively that politician who does not admit to drug use in some form or another.

And yet there are areas in which my political convictions do not differ from his, and among them is my belief that the forced resettlement of Elian Gonzales in Cuba was reproachable. Especially damaging to those who agree with Janet Reno's position is the fact that now, ten years on, Gonzales has joined Cuba's Communist Party. This sickening turn of events, so disturbing to me (who identified strongly with Elian in my youth), has led me to consider the plight of others in similar situations.

There are some among us who call for a total shutdown of the American border with Mexico, who argue that, for the sake of preservation of American job and the American culture, we ought to protect ourselves pre-emptively by closing down what is, for many, the only opportunity they have to make something of themselves.

I reject this. I reject it because many of these immigrants - and no immigrant, no human being is ever 'illegal' - are simply escaping from the turmoil and tribulations of a life lived under the reign of statist dictators and other collectivists in the fetid political jungles of South America. And so to Mr. Pat Buchanan and his ilk, I say: how many of you protectionists would consign freedom-seekers to the abyss that so often is South and Central American economies to make things easier on yourselves?

I am unwilling to do so, and I am unwilling to a part of any Party that insists on it. For too long have American's institutions been constantly refreshed by streams of immigrants looking to make lives for themselves in peace and harmony; we must not make the mistake of closing our borders to ward off another 'Yellow Peril'. We did much the same in the first decades of the last century, which brought Europe to the brink of overcrowding and harmful ethnic and which, led almost directly to the rise of fascism and the Second World War.

We must have this debate now, while we are on the political outs; we cannot return to the old way of doing business, that is, to the way that says that it's alright to play up to the prejudices of the masses in order to seize the reigns of power and use them for our own ends. Let us be clear: I am not a proponent of forced or coerced multiculturalism. I do not believe that much of anything can be solved by forcing two people to sit down together who genuinely dislike one another and forcing them to share the same slice of the political pie. All the same, I am not prepared to abanadon one-fifth of humanity to despots who seek to deny to their subjects the basic liberties to which all life is entitled.

We must remake America to be the envy of the world and the destination for freedom seekers the world 'round once more. There must be no more Elian Gonzaleses.