{"id":692,"date":"2012-11-12T04:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T04:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=692"},"modified":"2014-02-09T04:58:37","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T04:58:37","slug":"show-me-your-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2012\/11\/show-me-your-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Analysis: “Show Me Your Papers!” – Article by Charles N. Steele"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Charles N. Steele
\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
November 11, 2012<\/big><\/span><\/div>\n
Recommend this page<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
******************************<\/div>\n
In my haste to let the religious right have it<\/a>, I missed something important that suggests the GOP problem is deeper than just religious nuttery: the GOP has systematically refused to address immigration issues seriously. \u00a0Worse, they’ve adopted nativist hostility to immigrants and treat immigration as purely a law enforcement issue, one in which “suspicious-looking people” need to be ready to show their papers at any point.<\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
Hispanics voted almost 3 to 1 for Obama over Romney. \u00a0Anyone surprised by this wasn’t paying attention. \u00a0In a number of Republican forums this past year Hispanic politicians and party activists — all GOP members — voiced frustration that the primary campaigns were making it difficult for them to feel they had a place in the party. \u00a0Recall that the one and only intelligent thing Rick Perry said in his entire campaign was that children of illegal immigrants ought to be able to attend college<\/a> at in-state tuition rates, since it was better that they be educated and productive rather than welfare cases. \u00a0It’s also the only thing for which conservatives raked him over the coals.<\/div>\n
*<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Hispanics are about one sixth<\/a> of the U.S. population and account for more than 50% of population growth. \u00a0Good luck selling them on the idea that Spanish accents and not-quite-white skin are cause for further police inquiries.<\/p>\n

In fact, illegal immigration ought to be something conservatives support. \u00a0The primary reason people enter the country illegally is to work. Serious academic work dating at least to Julian Simon’s excellent book (available here for free<\/a>!) have found that immigration, including illegal immigration, is on net beneficial for an economy. \u00a0Immigrants work harder and take less in government benefits. \u00a0Their work raises wages for non-immigrants. \u00a0They have higher rates of entrepreneurial activity. \u00a0In the recent financial crisis, illegal immigrants who were subprime borrowers had far lower rates of mortgage default than citizen subprime borrowers. \u00a0One would suppose that these would be the sort of people one would want to welcome, not drive away. \u00a0One would think these people would be prime constituents for a free-market message.<\/p>\n

Certainly there are problems of crime, of crowding of public services, etc., associated with immigration, but many of these are at heart problems of the welfare state, rather than immigration. \u00a0Fixing these makes sense; fixating on immigration doesn’t.<\/p>\n

If the nativists got everything they wanted on immigration — iron control over impervious borders, strict limits on who can enter, and deportation of 100% of all illegals — no important economic or social problem would be solved and the economic situation would be worse, not better. \u00a0But this wish list is impossible; economic forces cannot be legislated away, and neither can the human spirit.<\/p>\n

The current Republican position on this issue is best described as stupidity, and one more reason they drove away potential voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
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Dr. Charles N. Steele is the Herman and Suzanne Dettwiler Chair in Economics and Associate Professor at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.\u00a0His research interests include economics of transition and institutional change, economics of uncertainty, and health economics. \u00a0He received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1997, and has subsequently taught economics at the graduate and undergraduate levels in China, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States. \u00a0He has also worked as a private consultant in insurance design and review.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Steele also maintains a blog, Unforeseen Contingencies<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles N. Steele November 11, 2012 Recommend this page. ****************************** In my haste to let the religious right have it, I missed something important that suggests the GOP problem is deeper than just religious nuttery: the GOP has systematically refused to address immigration issues seriously. \u00a0Worse, they’ve adopted nativist hostility to immigrants and treat immigration as purely a law enforcement issue, one in which “suspicious-looking people” need to be ready to show their papers at any point. * Hispanics voted…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[76,1336,1258,1541,880,18,69,815,1087,336,227,1267,1536,1148,876,836,1540,74,1537,1538,72,1539,843,1349,1146],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-barack-obama","tag-charles-n-steele","tag-charles-steele","tag-conservatism","tag-conservative","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-employment","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-financial-crisis","tag-free-market","tag-gop","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-jobs","tag-julian-simon","tag-mitt-romney","tag-nativism","tag-open-borders","tag-republican-party","tag-rick-perry","tag-vote","tag-welfare-state","tag-xenophobia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}