Brooks: Immigration and Multi-Culturalism

 In his recent column, David Brooks praises diversity and multi-culturalism as the saviors of the American nation. He writes:

Wednesday night I had the chance to walk around Lower Manhattan where my ancestors immigrated and built new lives, and to talk with some more recent immigrants whose experiences were similar to my family’s, though separated by decades and origins.

I thought about what a large role humiliation has played in American history: The pogroms and the Holocaust that terrorized Jews and sent them fleeing. The degrading poverty of the Irish famine. The religious persecution of the Puritans. The horror of the slave ships and bondage. The dehumanizing treatment of asylum seekers on the southern border. Give me your “wretched refuse,” Emma Lazarus wrote. Very few grandees came here bathed in adoration.

David Brooks, New York Times

I think Brooks l;oses sight of the importance of the unifying contrubution of the relatively rich, priviliged “Founding Fathers” whobroke with England and wrote the Constitution. They had similar cultural heritages from Western Europe. These ideas served America well for 200 years. I think Brooks recognizes the value of their contribution, even if he does not mention it in this column.