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发帖数: 2018 | 1 http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-truth-in-trumps-vulgarity-1517175367
In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office on Jan. 11,
President Trump is alleged to have used a vulgarity to describe the origin
countries of some immigrants, including Haitians and Salvadorans. Or so Sen.
Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) claimed, in an obvious attempt to embarrass
Republicans.
Mr. Trump denies having used the expletive. Yet the gist of the remark is
grounded in fact: A great many migrants to the U.S. are fleeing insufferable
conditions, driven by poor governance. People vote with their feet.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 16, New Jersey’s Sen. Cory
Booker ranted for 11 minutes at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen
because she would not corroborate Mr. Durbin’s claim that the president
had used a bad word in the meeting.
Mr. Booker’s histrionics bordered on parody. But the real trouble with all
the righteous indignation from him and others about the alleged Trump insult
is their cluelessness.
It should be obvious that when there’s no rule of law or property rights or
strong civic institutions, daily life often degenerates into chaos. What is
more, there is a long history in Mr. Booker’s party of supporting the
ambitions of power-hungry, corrupt demagogues and left-wing populism in the
Western Hemisphere.
It’s silly to ask why there are not more migrants to the U.S. from Norway,
which has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Economically
secure nations do not generate large waves of emigration.
The irony of Mr. Booker’s outburst is that most migrants, by pulling up
stakes, have shown that they agree with Mr. Trump—whether they admit it or
not. They feel so strongly about it that they’ve left loved ones, gambled
life savings and set off on precarious journeys to find better lives. The
squalor of their homelands is not for them. They think they can do better.
Yet if Mr. Booker doesn’t understand the hell that migrants often leave, Mr
. Trump doesn’t understand the value they bring with them. The president
doesn’t want the U.S. to take in so many “huddled masses yearning to
breathe free” as Emma Lazarus called them in her famed 1883 poem, “The New
Colossus.” He prefers a merit-based system that would award points for
attributes like education, skills and English-language proficiency.
This is not racism, and providing that Mr. Trump doesn’t sharply cut
immigration at the same time, it is not nativism. But it is likely a mistake
. The U.S. has been built on the hard work of hungry migrants willing to
make sacrifices for a future generation. They are ambitious risk-takers like
none other.
It is doubtful they will be stopped. The U.S. has a large number of illegal
workers because the labor market absorbs them. Most Americans don’t think
it should be a crime to work, so employers ignore the law and hire them. The
underground economy swells.
I’ve never met an immigrant delivering fast food on a bicycle in the middle
of winter in New York City who wouldn’t rather be home in the village
where he was born and raised—if it offered him a future. The most
humanitarian thing people like Mr. Booker could do is to support U.S.
policies that encourage more Norways and fewer Haitis. That is to say,
policies that promote open markets, limited government, low taxes and
reliable legal systems.
The secret to this is not something that can be bottled and exported, and
nation building has a dismal record. But rich countries like the U.S. might
help if they would take a Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm.
Mr. Booker’s “tears of rage,” which he professed to have felt upon
hearing Mr. Trump’s alleged characterization of migrant homelands, is
especially rich given the history of his party.
Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a corrupt tyrant. But he shared the
wealth with Democrats, going into business with Joseph P. Kennedy II and
Clintonista “Mack” McLarty in a telecom scam that I documented in a 2008
column. The partnership happened to coincide with the years when President
Clinton protected Mr. Aristide, even as he pillaged Haiti.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd threw a hissy fit when the Venezuelan military
tried to force Hugo Chávez from office for his violations of civil
liberties in 2002. More recently, the Obama administration insisted on
pouring millions of dollars into El Salvador, while the ruling FMLN party,
made up of former guerrillas, tore up contracts and threatened its political
opponents.
Competition through free trade is one of the best ways to force countries
into reform. But Democrats have long resisted open commerce with Latin
America, most recently with the Colombia free-trade agreement signed in 2006
. Now Mr. Trump has joined them.
Millions have fled these countries. Their migration is a familiar American
story. Caring about them includes admitting that they left for a reason. |
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