So the big May Day protests came and went and the major impact discovered here is that apparently you can't run a Chipotle without illegal immigrants. But it was different other places.
The headline/question in the paper was - how to turn the power in the streets into votes? It's an excellent question, since non-citizens can't vote. Here's an easy answer - you can give non-citizens driver's licenses, and you can allow same day voter registration, and allow driver's licenses to be proof of citizenship, even though the election judges are much too polite in Minnesota to ever ask for a driver's license. In fact, I would imagine that you could get nearly everyone in that crowd fitted for a Mike Hatch t-shirt in a matter of days. Si, se puede.
The longer this debate goes on, the more disheartening it is. I really want to be sympathetic to immigrants; as I've said here many times before, I am the great-grandchild of immigrants and it's perfectly understandable and reasonable to imagine that distressed people will want to follow in the footsteps of Great Grandpa Joe and Great Grandpa Peter, among others. But all I am asking is that people who come to America be willing to accept the notion and ideal of America that my ancestors accepted. Multiculturalism leads to Quebec (in the best case) and Kosovo (in the worst). And neither Quebec nor Kosovo is America.
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