By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net) The bottom line on immigration is that the Progressives wish to import 35 million poor people to vote Democratic. This would give the Progressives absolute control of the country. And as happens in most situations like this, once the Progressives gain power by the ballot, they will change the rules to make their grasp on power permanent. Hitler did this with his “Enabling Act” and so did Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. All it would take is a Progressive-packed Supreme Court that would reinterpret the First Amendment to make criticism of government officials felonious prohibited “hate speech”. Then, opposition parties, talk show hosts, newspapers and TV stations, and websites that didn’t hold the Progressive view could be suppressed.
This also gives the Progressives a 35-million-member constituency with no history of democracy. They would think nothing of an America ran by a Hugo Chavez in a pants suit! Rather than the immigrants building a better life in America, they would basically be bringing with them their one-party system with its tendency to corruption, extortion and violence. Police departments become gangs run by sheriff strongmen who prey on the populace. Nothing gets done in local government without the payoff under the table as is the Latin American norm. Small businesses would be destroyed by excessive taxation, police protection rackets and gang extortion. And as is in Latin America, the only good job would be in government.
The next step is the destruction of the middle class to make the income distribution pyramid conform more closely to Marxist theory. Exorbitant property taxes (how does $40,000 a year on a $400,000 house sound?), raised to build public housing for this new immigrant clientele, will soon lead to most homes escheating to the local housing authority. Any home with more than one level would have each floor cut into a separate apartment with a different family living in each. Neighborhoods like Highlands Ranch would have their population quadrupled with gangs vying for control of various sections. But with no one responsible for maintenance, the community becomes a shabby third world slum. Extremely expensive neighborhoods would be preserved for housing government officials (of course).
And if depriving the middle class of their homes weren’t enough, their retirement funds would be next. A rich source of wealth redistribution for this immigrant clientele will be taxes on IRA’s and 401k’s. At an annual tax rate of 15 to 20% on the capital base, it wouldn’t be long until everyone’s funds were gone. The middle class automobile would follow:
In the Progressive view, cars are bad, but public transport good. Thus, taxing automobile ownership (say to the tune of $25,000 a year as they do in Singapore) to fund public transport would soon mean only the extremely wealthy or government officials (of course) would have cars. The contraction of the economy with the business and job losses would be staggering.
But how would the deficit in Social Security, the handicapped and the mentally retarded be handled in a Progressive America? By invoking quality of life and a concept of “longevity fairness”! Living too long would be deemed “unfair”. Being a burden on society would be unacceptable. Thus, a panel of government officials and doctors would judge if your age and/or “quality of life” is at a point where it was time to revoke your social security benefits and check you in to a government hospice for a lethal injection.
This would complete the Progressive vision for American society: “justice”, where everyone’s equally poor, equally dependent on the government, and waiting for the bus -- or for Dr. Kevorkian.