May
21

Roosevelt and McClintock, My Heroes

As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Mexican President Calderon recently gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he tried to school us about Arizonan/American immigration law. This guy’s got cajones grandes, considering his own immigration laws are stricter than ours. And, he probably likes that Mexico’s poor, not to mention many criminals, keep coming over here. Let the U.S. worry about ’em!

In response to Calderon’s speech (which got a standing ovation from the Democrats and maybe some Republicans, too), Representative Thomas McClintock (R-CA) gave a short speech of his own, in which he explained why Calderon should mind his own business! He also explained what sets American immigration law apart and how & why it works — when enforced, that is. Give a listen…

Nicely done, Congressman! At least one person in Congress gets it.

I’m not going to get into this whole issue much, tonight. I think McClintock said what needed to be said, and quite eloquently at that. But, I did want to reproduce the quote he gave from Teddy Roosevelt. It’s a great quote that touches on many issues in the debates over immigration in general, naturalization, and multiculturalism.

In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, from a letter written shortly before his death in Jan. 1919

Photo portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt

I may not agree with everything TR said or did, but on this, I say, “You tell ’em, Teddy!”

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Tags: American immigration law, Arizona immigration law, assimilation, Congressman Tom McClintock, illegal immigration, Mexican President Calderon, multiculturalism, naturalization, President Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt quote on immigration, Thomas McClintock, video of McClintock

Posted in Politics
4 Comments Posted by sirrahc

LD Jackson says:

May 22, 2010 at 6:01 am

I was very impressed with McClintock and what he had to say. In five minutes, he explained what the problem was with our immigration system and how it should work. He even managed to tell Calderon why he should be minding his own business.

Can you imagine what the response would be if one of our leaders went to Mexico and tried to lecture them on one of their domestic policies? Very much of a double standard here, if you ask me, and America is coming out with the short end of the stick.

pastorjeffcma says:

May 22, 2010 at 6:54 pm

Thanks for your post on a very important issue. I had not heard Mr. McClintock but it certainly was worth seeing and hearing. I will not write much on this comment but you might be interested in reading my most recent post which your post prompted me to write–you may differ with some of my thoughts–but that’s ok too.

Steve Dennis says:

May 23, 2010 at 9:15 am

I was horrified to see so many members of congress stand and cheer on Calderon, and yes, I do believe that there were republicans standing as well. McClintock’s speech was perfect, it is good to know that there is still somebody in congress who represents the people, it seems as if there are less and less every day.
I love that TR quote, it is part of a larger letter that he had written about the problems with people being hyphenated-Americans rather than just Americans.

sirrahc says:

May 23, 2010 at 6:43 pm
There are some other great quotes on the subject by some of our Founders, as you probably know — e.g., Washington, Hamilton, Madison. Here’s one by Hamilton: “[T]he safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of citizens from foreign bias and prejudice; and on the love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education, and family.”