E pluribus unum, now more than ever

“Minority Babies Are Now Majority in United States,” read the headline in the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago. And one thing that an increasingly multiracial and multiethnic United States cannot have is a system in which its institutions treat people differently according to skin color and what country someone’s ancestors came from—where, for example, public universities, government employers, and public contracting officials give preferential treatment to some and discriminate against others on the basis of race and ethnicity. Such division was never a good idea and is now simply untenable. E pluribus unum—now more than ever.

Read more...

Loose Lips Endanger Lives

The U.S. dodged another terrorist bullet when a would-be "underwear bomber" turned out to be a double agent. The news became public this week after rumors had circulated in April that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemini-based group that is now the chief terrorist threat against the U.S., had been planning a spectacular attack to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May 2.

Read more...

Overreach by Unions in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin recall election of Republican Gov. Scott Walker is not going quite like the unions and the Democratic Party expected. Back in 2011, many pundits thought that the governor had overreached when he took on public employee unions, restricting -- though not eliminating -- collective bargaining rights. But he did so because he inherited a state in dire financial shape with a deficit of $3.6 billion and public employee pensions and benefits that threatened to bankrupt the state.

Read more...

Proof of Color, Please?

Our friend Jennifer Gratz—of Gratz v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court case that struck down racially preferential undergrad admissions at the University of Michigan in 2003—passed along to usthis interesting news story from Detroit.  It’s about one Jerome Morgan, who is being asked by the city to prove he is black and, therefore, truly eligible for a contract preference that allegedly the mayor would rather give to someone else for political reasons.

Read more...

Family Mysteries

Like many Americans, genealogy has been a keen interest of mine. I've had a good sense of where my family came from -- Spain on my father's side and the British Isles on my mother's. But what I knew was only part of the story. And this Sunday, May 20th, what I subsequently learned will be aired on the PBS series "Finding Your Roots."

Read more...

Obama Fails on Human Rights

The Obama administration's record on human rights, never strong, just got a whole lot worse. This week's dramatic saga of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng's escape from house arrest in Shandong province to safety inside the U.S. Embassy to the embassy's role in handing him over to Chinese authorities is a disgraceful tale. Once again, the Obama administration has chosen to put human rights violations on the back burner, as it has nearly every time it has been asked for help, whether from Iranian protesters in 2009 or Syrian freedom fighters today.

Read more...

Pepsi and Political Correctness

Last week, I noted that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued new “Enforcement Guidance” designed to make it much riskier for employers to consider arrest and conviction records in hiring decisions, on the grounds that such considerations can have a “disparate impact” on the basis of race.  But later last week, with some help from the Center for Equal Opportunity, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote an appropriations amendment that will forbid the EEOC from using any of its funds “to implement, administer, or enforce” this guidance. Kudos to Representative Ben Quayle (R., Ariz.), who introduced the amendment, which was sponsored by Representatives Steve Scalise (R., La.), Cliff Stearns (R., Fla.), and Rob Woodall (R., Ga.).

Read more...

Romney Should Show He's a Leader, and Here's How

If Mitt Romney is to have any chance of beating President Barack Obama in November, he must win a larger share of the Hispanic vote than current polls suggest he will. And he won't unless he solves his immigration problem.

It's a problem of his own making. He decided that beating up on illegal immigrants would boost his popularity among those suspicious that he was really a moderate Republican. In doing so, he injected an issue into the campaign that had largely fizzled -- and for good reason. Illegal immigration is down to historical lows -- primarily because the U.S. economy continues to be sluggish, so fewer people want to come here.

Romney has plenty of advisers trying to figure out how best to soften his negative image among Hispanic voters. We can expect to see him wolfing down tacos and mumbling a few phrases in Spanish in the days ahead. But neither tactic will do anything but make him look foolish.

What he should do is rid his campaign of the likes of Kris Kobach -- the zealot behind several state anti-illegal immigrant laws being challenged in the courts right now. The Romney campaign already has started to back away from its association with Kobach, but that's just the first step. The next thing he needs to do is to speak honestly and openly to the American people about the true state of immigration to the U.S. -- legal and illegal.

Here's my suggestion for what he should say:
"My fellow Americans, I know I've spent a lot of time talking about illegal immigration during the primaries, and I've used some pretty tough rhetoric. I've suggested that 11 million people who are here illegally -- many of whom have lived in this country for decades -- should self-deport.

"But when I think about what those words really mean, I've come to understand that it would require parents to leave behind their American-born children or else force them to go to a country they've never known and whose language they may not even speak. It would separate husband from wife, brother from sister, and lead to family breakdown and instability in many communities.

"It also would shutter many local businesses, not just those that depend on immigrant labor but those where illegal immigrants buy their food, clothes, cars and washing machines. It would deepen the housing crisis as they left behind mortgages that never would be paid and abandoned rental units that would not be filled. Church pews would be emptier, as would federal, state and local tax coffers.

"It's true that there would be fewer tax dollars expended on educating the children of illegal immigrants or treating them in local emergency rooms. But every careful study that has factored in what illegal immigrants and their adult children ultimately pay in taxes over their life spans and what they take out in services shows a net positive, although a small one.

"So we need to figure out a humane and practical way to deal with this problem -- not one that makes a good sound bite but has no chance of success. I am committed, if I become president, to get the best minds available to come up with some alternatives. I know that most Americans don't like the idea of rewarding law-breakers, so whatever solution we come up with will have to carry heavy penalties for those who've broken the law.

"But we also have to realize that the only way to prevent this problem from recurring when the economy starts booming again -- as it will on my watch -- is to fix our legal immigration laws. Our legal immigration system is broken. The reason so many people have sneaked into the country illegally or remained here after their temporary visas expired is that there are no legal avenues for them to come.

"We need a legal immigration system that is market-based, not one created by a bunch of bureaucrats and anti-population lobbyists. We need to make sure American workers get first crack at jobs -- but when they won't take certain jobs or can't meet the qualifications for others, employers need legal access to workers who can and will. And we need whatever system we create to be flexible enough to accommodate the business cycle, with visas going up during boom times and down during recessions.

"What I promise, my fellow Americans, is to stop pandering to ideologues and hatemongers and come up with a system that is good for America and Americans and reflects the principles and values that have made this country great."

If he had the courage to give such a speech, he'd do more than improve his standing with Hispanics. He'd show leadership befitting a president.