The anti-amnesty movement's underbelly

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to oppose immigration reform. But it's time to be honest about one big bad reason driving some of the most passionate, if less high-profile, opponents: Fear that whites are losing their country.

I do not bring this up cavalierly. Such charges are thrown around far too casually. Just yesterday, for example, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on the Voting Rights Act, an overwrought Rev. Al Sharpton declared that the ruling "really revoked a lot of what Dr. King's dream was all about."

But it has become very clear to me that beneath the surface lurks the fear some whites have of losing majority status. It is an underlying force behind some of the most vehement opposition to immigration reform.

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My colleague at The Daily Caller, blogging pioneer Mickey Kaus, recently challenged his readers to create videos attacking amnesty. (It should be noted that Mickey — who happens to be a Democrat — opposes immigration reform for the simple reason that he believes more immigrants will hurt American workers who are already struggling. His brand of populist/protectionist politics isn't my cup of tea. I prefer Reagan/Kemp/Ryan/Rubio optimism as opposed to a Malthusian worldview that says we live in a limited world and are fighting for scraps. But I think we can all agree that Kaus' argument is a perfectly legitimate concern, especially considering the high unemployment rate.)

The very first video submitted was premised on the notion that immigration reform should be stopped because otherwise whites would become the minority in America.

I pushed back. Paraphrasing what the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez had said at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference a few days earlier, I wrote that conservatism isn't about conserving pigmentation, it's about ideas. And that as long as America is free and virtuous, honors the rule of law, and advances the values of Western civilization, I couldn't care less about the racial makeup of America. (I also noted that if whites are concerned about losing majority status, there is a simple remedy: Start having kids at a faster rate than you're dying.)

This didn't go over very well. The person claiming responsibility for the video and I went back and forth a few times, culminating with his claiming that certain "proclivities" lead one to freedom and democracy, and that they are "genetically determined."

I responded, noting that in the book Why Nations Fail, economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson point out that North and South Koreans are genetically identical, and yet South Korea is one of the richest counties in world, while the North "grapples with periodic famine and abject poverty."

He wrote this:

Clearly there is a sense among some anti-immigration-reform proponents that whites are genetically superior, and thus, uniquely suited to living in a free society.

Now, the obvious way to attack this column is to say that I am citing an anonymous person who does not represent the mainstream of anti-immigration-reform thought. But look: I have been around politics long enough to know when something is a complete anomaly versus when something represents a certain strain of thought, even if it is repressed below the surface. This is not to say that the majority of opponents of reform — let alone this particular bill — harbor such thoughts. But some of the most passionate opponents of immigration reform do feel this way. It's possible some people who have these latent fears aren't even aware of it. (And, to be sure, the most prominent voices on TV either don't believe this garbage — or are simply smart enough to know better than to publicly voice these opinions. But many of their supporters are animated by this fear.)

It is telling that the very first video submitted to Mickey raised this issue as a primary argument. This is consistent with dozens of emails I have received since I started voicing my support for immigration reform.

Here's one I got Tuesday morning:

Here's the political problem. These people are out there. They are tweeting and emailing and blogging. And — maybe more concerning — they are cheering on more mainstream commentators who are using increasingly harsh rhetoric, which, of course, makes it easier to paint Republicans as xenophobes. And for those of us who care about advancing conservative ideas, that could have some dire unintended consequences down the road.