Wanneer in die politiek aan Amerika gedink word, word die suidelike state met slawerny en verkramptheid en die noordoostelike state met progressiwiteit en verligtheid geassosieer. Florida, in die suidooste, staan as die Sonskynstaat bekend. Toe Fidel Castro in 1959 die politieke beheer in Kuba oorgeneem het, was daar in Florida ‘n groot invloeiing van Kubane, waaronder baie blankes. Deesdae is meer as 20% van Florida se inwoners Spaanssprekend. Die bevolking is sowat 20% swart met 65% nie-Spaanssprekende blankes. In die noordooste is New York City 44% blank en meer as ‘n kwart swart. In Washington DC is meer as die helfte van die inwoners swart. Hierdie oorwig van swartes in die wetgewende hoofstad van Amerika en die groot teenwoordigheid van swartes in New York City bring mee dat lede van die Kongres en Senaat in ‘n atmosfeer werk waarin swart teenwoordigheid meer oorheersend as in die res van Amerika is.
Die westelike state is lank as die nuwe Amerika beskou. Tot die jare sestig was Kalifornië die toonaangewende Amerikaanse staat; dus waar eerste verwerklik word waarheen Amerika tot pad is. Kalifornië het as die Gouestaat bekend gestaan. Die burgerregtebeweging het die begin van Kalifornië se ontaarding en agteruitgang ingelui. Die regte wat swartes suksesvol geëis het, wat insluit dat hulle beter as die blankes behandel moet word, dus regstellende aksie, is na ander “benadeelde” groepe uitgebrei; nie net ras- en/of kultuurgroepe soos die Meksikane nie, maar ook na vroue en diegene wat seksueel anders as die tradisionele norme is of wil wees.
Die nabyheid van Meksiko het die daaglikse en onontwykbare werklikheid van die suidwestelike Amerikaanse state geword. Die state wat aan Meksiko grens is van oos na wes Texas, Nieu-Meksiko, Arizona en Kalifornië. Laasgenoemde is by uitstek ‘n trekpleister vir inkommers omdat dit ‘n voorspoedige staat was en in ‘n mate steeds is, met ‘n aangename, gematigde Meditereense klimaat, veral aan en naby die Weskus. Van hierdie grensstate af het Meksikane en later ook al hoe meer migrante uit ander lande in Sentraal- en Suid-Amerika die hele Amerika binnegedring. Kalifornië is die voorkeurbestemming, maar (onwettige) inkommers het ‘n landswye probleem geword. Dit het Kalifornië onherkenbaar verander, soos die radikale verandering wat Suid-Afrika sedert 1994 ervaar. Maar in Kalifornië was daar geen staatkundige revolusie nie, bloot – soos in Suid-Afrika – ‘n geleidelike maar absoluut sekere agteruitgang.
Die tragedie is dat hierdie migrasie van Spaanssprekendes grootliks onwettig geskied. Dit is waarteen Donald Trump walgooi en waarvoor hy in linkse geledere verkwalik word. Diegene was plaaslik geen goeie woord vir Trump het nie, soos Leopold Scholtz, toon enersyds ‘n onvermoë om tussen Trump as persoon en sy beleid te onderskei en andersyds totale onbegrip vir die omvang en erns van die probleme wat onwettige immigrante veral in die suidweste van Amerika veroorsaak. Die grens met Meksiko is dié plek waar terroriste in die ná-9/11-era Amerika die maklikste kan binnedring.
Trump het in Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, president 1981-1989) ‘n gevierde konserwatiewe voorganger. Reagan het as goewerneur van Kalifornië (1967-1975) die inkommerprobleem eerstehands ervaar. In 1986, toe hy president was, is die immigrasiewet hersien en is die indiensneming van onwettige immigrante onwettig verklaar. Terselfdertyd is daar egter amnestie verleen aan al die onwettige immigrante wat vóór 1982 die land binnegekom het. Dit dien steeds as aanmoediging vir onwettige inkommers. Hulle veronderstel dat Amerika deur linksgesindes tot mensliewendheid verplig word en gevolglik herhaaldelik amnestie aan onwettige migrante sal verleen.
Mexifornia
Victor Davis Hanson (gebore in 1953) is van Sweedse en Walliese oorsprong, maar sy kinders is reeds die sesde geslag wat in Amerika ‘n tuiste gevind het. Hy woon en boer op die oorspronklike familieplaas by Selma in die sentrale San Joaquin-vallei in Kalifornië. Van 1984 af was hy ‘n dosent in Grieks en Latyn aan die California State University in die nabygeleë Fresno, asook ‘n besoekende professor aan die konserwatiewe Hillsdale College in Michigan. Hanson het, soos sy voorgeslag, sy lewe lank in Kalifornië gewoon en waargeneem hoe hierdie staat transformeer. Sy ideaal is dat die inwoners van Amerika almal Amerikaners moet wees of word ingevolge die smeltskroes- (“melting pot”) idee van integrasie, assimilasie en rasvermenging.
Hanson se konserwatisme blyk uit sy boek oor Donald Trump, The case for Trump (2019, 389p; Kindle $10,42). In hierdie rubriek bespreek ek die volgende boek van Hanson: Mexifornia: A state of becoming (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003/2007, 179p; Kindle $11,49). ‘n Bygewerkte weergawe sal op 13 Julie 2021 gepubliseer word (Kindle $21,84). “California … is the most liberal and affluent area of the Southwest, as well as America’s largest and most forward-looking state” (Kindle 525). Wat Hanson wil belig, is: “What is the nature of California, traditionally the early warning sign to the rest of the nation” (193). Die verwording wat in die nuwe Kalifornië plaasvind, toon talle ooreenkomste met wat in die nuwe Suid-Afrika gebeur, maar ek gaan dit nie telkens uitwys nie.
“Mexifornia is about the nature of a new California and what it means for America – a reflection upon the strange society that is emerging as the result of a demographic and cultural revolution like no other in our times” (215). Hierdie Meksikaanse inkommers het ‘n nasionale probleem geword. Daar is dus ook, ten minste teoreties, ‘n Mexizona, Mexichusetts, ens (225). Die outeur som sy voorstelle ter verbetering van Kalifornië soos volg op: “Close the borders, return to the melting pot, offer citizenship to most aliens in exchange for acceptance of English and American culture” (39). Daar is na raming sowat 12 miljoen onwettige immigrante in Kalifornië. Dit is nie net inkommers wat vryelik oor die grens beweeg nie, maar ook smokkelware soos dwelms (50).
Van die beste insigte waarmee Hanson vorendag kom, is enersyds dat Meksikane en ander Spaanssprekende inkommers deesdae, soos swart Amerikaners, nie meer wil integreer en assimileer nie maar verkies om in aparte enklaves saam te woon. Hanson noem dit “apartheid communities” (61) met as resultaat “the multicultural salad bowl” (98). Op hulle aandrang word daar bv aan Hanson se universiteit aparte gradeplegtighede vir Latynse Amerikaners gehou (563, 1338), asook aparte koshuise bedryf (1926, 2077); iets wat skynheiligheidshalwe nie meer in Suid-Afrika mag voorkom nie. In Amerika, soos tydens apartheid in Suid-Afrika, “most past segregation was cultural rather than racial” (1435). Andersyds verskil Meksikane van ander immigrante omdat hulle in Kalifornië nie afgesny voel van hulle land van oorsprong nie. Meksiko is oorkant ‘n grens wat hulle oor en weer kan oorsteek. Hulle behou kontak met hulle familie en vriende in Meksiko en gebeure aldaar. Baie leer nooit Engels praat of selfs verstaan nie. “Even legal immigrants from Mexico rarely become citizens: of all those admitted legally to the United States since 1982, only 20 percent had become citizens by 1997” (514).
Hulle verheerlik Meksiko, die land wat hulle verkies het om te verlaat, en bly krities en dislojaal teenoor Amerika, wat aan hulle ‘n beter lewe bied. “At the gas station … almost every car of immigrants that pulls in displays a Mexican flag” (514). Dit kom neer op die openlike aanhang van ‘n “expatriate culture” (606). Hulle verwag dat Amerika, spesifiek Kalifornië, by hulle moet aanpas eerder as andersom. Linkse politici doen alles in hulle vermoë om die Meksikaanse inkommers ter wille te wees. Hanson kan dit nie kleinkry dat onwettige immigrante toegelaat word om wettig voertuigbestuurderslisensies te bekom nie (23); “millions of illegal aliens who not only were unapologetic about their unlawful status, but were demanding that their hosts accommodate their own political desiderata” (103). Kalifornië het al in so ‘n mate ontaard dat veral ingesete blanke inwoners in groot getalle wegtrek om ‘n meer eg Amerikaanse heenkome in ‘n ander staat te vind. Meksikaanse Indiane en Mestizos neem hulle plek in. (Mestizo, van blanke en Indiaanse oorsprong. Mullato, van blanke en Afrikaan-oorsprong.) “For the most part it is not light-skinned Mexicans of Spanish heritage who are coming to the United States, but rather the poorest and brownest, largely Indian” (714).
Die onbetroubaarheid van agtereenvolgende sosialistiese Meksikaanse regerings grief Hanson. Van owerheidsweë word Meksikaanse inwoners ingelig hoe hulle ten beste die grens na Amerika kan oorsteek. Amerikaanse wette word opsetlik ondermyn. Diegene wat aangemoedig word om Meksiko te verlaat, is ongeskoolde, ongeletterde werkloses wat ‘n las vir die samelewing is. “Mexico … deliberately exports its unwanted” (665). “They count on generous American health care and food subsidies while they send nearly half their modest wages back to the motherland” (124). Op skool vaar die onwettige inkommers swak. Hulle veroorsaak ook ‘n skerp styging in misdaad. “Almost one-quarter of California’s [prison] inmates are from Mexico, and almost a third of recent drug-trafficking arrests involved illegal aliens” (456). “Since 1990, the number of poor Mexican-Americans has climbed 52 percent, a figure that has shewed overall US poverty rates” (140). “Half of all births to Hispanics of all statuses are illegitimate, which is 42 percent higher than the illegitimacy rate for the American population as a whole” (145). “At many campuses of the California State University system, almost half the incoming class each year must take remedial courses” (151). Die inkommers het groot gesinne terwyl die blanke inwoners kinderloos is of klein gesinne het (188). “The present tragedy evolves into a catastrophe” (162).
Soos in Suid-Afrika is een van die kernprobleme dat blankes verkies om nie hande-arbeid te verrig nie, wat hulle afhanklik van die goedkoop arbeid van inkommers maak (177). Indiensneming van onwettige immigrante, met of sonder vervalste dokumente, kom dus algemeen voor (241) en word om misplaaste menslikheidsredes ooglopend toegelaat. Linkse politici pas nie bestaande wetgewing toe nie omdat die Demokrate daarop staatmaak dat die hedendaagse onwettige immigrante vorentoe as kiesers vir hulle party gaan stem. Sake het die afgelope dekades tot die punt gevorder dat geen Republikein meer ‘n verkiesing in Kalifornië kan wen nie.
Dit is duidelik dat daar verskynsels soortgelyk aan dié in Kalifornië in Suid-Afrika aangetref word. Nieu-verligtes soos FW de Klerk en Leon Wessels poog om hulle verligtheid so ver moontlik terug te dateer. Hulle roem daarop dat hulle as kinders klonkies as speelmaats gehad het. Hanson vertel dat die blankes in die minderheid was in die skole wat hy in Selma bygewoon het (236). Hy anker sy verligtheid, of ten minste sy status as nie-rassis, soos volg: “I have Mexican-American nephews, nieces, sisters-in-law and prospective sons-in-law as well as neighbors. My older brother married a Mexican-American; my twin brother married a high school friend who was divorced from a Mexican illegal alien … The neighboring farmhouse to the west is home to resident Mexicans; so is the one immediately to the east. My two daughters are going steady with Mexican-Americans … The people I eat lunch with, talk with and work with are all either Mexican or Mexican-American. And so I have come to the point where the question of race per se has become as superficial and unimportant in my personal life as it has become fractious and acrimonious on the community, state and national levels” (246). Hy is nostalgies oor die “multiracial but unicultural flavor of the old [Selma/California]” (296). Hy het dit nie teen Meksikane as sodanig nie, maar teen Meksikane wat nie integreer en assimileer nie, dus nie veramerikaans nie. Hy beklemtoon “the critical distinction between a multiracial and a multicultural society” (1921).
“As recently as 1970 there were only 800 000 Mexican citizen immigrants in the United States” (740). “California … is now home to 40 percent of America’s immigrants” (328). Dit is veral te wyte aan “the porous 2 000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. For over a hundred years, Mexicans have easily fled into California and the wider American Southwest … Yet something has changed since 1970 – and changed profoundly” (328). Dit het te make met die Amerikaanse burgerregtebeweging, dus met nieblankes wat suksesvol allerhande regte sonder teenprestasie eis en gewelddadig – of ten minste anti-sosiaal, bv krimineel – raak as daar nie aan hulle eise toegegee word nie. “Hispanic students accept that they are being given opportunities and advantages unknown to middle- and lower-class whites” (1348). Hanson identifiseer die rede vir die afdwing van sogenaamde regstellende aksies korrek: “a particular minority’s failure to match the perceived economic performance of whites” (627). Donald Trump wil die hele grens met Meksiko met heinings en mure ondeurdringbaar maak. Hieroor word hy heftig deur linkse elemente gekritiseer. Maar Hanson kom met ‘n raak opmerking vorendag: “Walls historically bring a painful honesty to problems” (692).
Weens die linkse politici wat beheer in Kalifornië uitoefen, het hierdie situasie gelei tot “de facto open borders, bilingual education, new state welfare, the affirmation of a hyphenated identity, a sweeping revisionism in southwestern American history … Almost everything … that for two centuries has helped other immigrants to the United States – language immersion, autonomy from government assistance, rapid assumption of an American identity, and eager acceptance of mainstream American culture – has either been discounted as passé or embraced only halfheartedly” (344). “Aliens cost the United States over $40 billion a year … In California each illegal immigrant will take from the state $50 000 more in services than he will contribute in taxes during his lifetime … The average California household must contribute at least $1 200 each year to subsidize the deficit between what immigrants cost in services and pay in taxes” (381).
“Mexicans are … the largest ethnic group in the state of California and the largest minority in the nation” (1862). “Half of all legal immigrants to the United States come from Mexico. Three million were admitted legally into the country in the decade between 1986 and 1996. But no one has an accurate idea of how many arrived illegally … The total number of residents of Mexican heritage has increased tenfold in the last thirty years” (397). “The US Hispanic population – of which over 70 percent are from Mexico – grew 53 percent during the 1980s, and then between 1990 and 1996 another 27 percent. At present rates of birth and immigration, by 2050 there will be 97 million Hispanics who will constitute one-quarter of all Americans – and well over half the population of California” (408). Soos in Suid-Afrika word geboortebeperking (“family planning” – 413) polities byderwets nie deur die owerheid aangemoedig nie. “Over 70 percent of Americans wanted immigration reduced” (499) maar in die praktyk is dit jare lank nie gedoen nie; ‘n aanklag teen die doeltreffendheid van demokrasie.
“California … really is a hybrid civilization … Entire communities are Hispanicized. At present, 70 percent of the Los Angeles public school enrollment is reportedly Latino; only 10 percent is white – in large part because an entire middle and upper class has simply fled to private schools or more upscale public districts in the suburbs, practising a self-interested apartheid even as it professes ideals of selfless liberality” (2488).
“58 percent of [America’s] Mexican citizens believe that ‘the territory of the United States’ Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico’” (746). Die betrekkinge tussen Amerika en Meksiko word steeds deur die 1846-1848-oorlog versuur. Meksiko het as gevolg van hierdie oorlog die huidige suidwestelike Amerikaanse state wat aan Meksiko grens, insluitende Kalifornië, afgestaan. Vandaar ‘n Meksikaanse redenasie soos die volgende: “[The] gringos [foreigners] once invaded the country, stole the land and rigged the border to harm permanently the Mexican people, who, through no fault of their own, are now crowded into too little space and find themselves oppressed by el Norte and the evil Anglos” (687).
Maar dislojale, linkse Amerikaners doen ook hulle deel om Amerika te ondermyn, bv dié in die onderwyssektor (skole en universiteite). “Rarely now do southwesterners express a confidence in our culture or a willingness to defend the larger values of Western civilization. The result is that our public schools are either apathetic about, or outright hostile to the Western paradigm” (1567). “Through multiculturalism, cultural relativism and a therapeutic curriculum our schools often promote the very values from which new immigrants are fleeing” (1584). Hanson verwys tereg na “the fiction of cultural equality” (1921). Aan Kaliforniese universiteite “there are dozens of classes on Chicano [Mexican] pride, but scarcely any on the seminal events of American history” (1847). “Patriotism, pride in one’s culture and national solidarity have no place in a postmodern, postheroic West” (2408). Hanson verwys na “a watered-down, feel-good curriculum” (2472). Hy bepleit tereg ‘n terugkeer na “a core curriculum that emphasizes the American heritage and unifies us through civic responsibility” (2456).
In sy boek noem Hanson rasseskeiding apartheid en hy keur dit af. Hy is ‘n geswore integasionis, al erken hy dat assimilasie moeilik verwerklik word. In sy laaste hoofstuk skryf hy: “African blacks flock into a once racist South Africa still replete with tough and hateful Afrikaners” (2399). Dit is ‘n afkeurenswaardige etikettering van Afrikaners, maar hy doen dit om homself, gedagtig aan sy karakterisering van Meksikane, teen klagtes van rassisme te probeer vrywaar. As op die huidige trant voorgegaan word “this new Mexifornia … would turn into an apartheid state that even the universal solvent of popular culture could not unite: an entrenched though shrinking white and Asian middle and upper class; a buffer group of assimilated and intermarried Mexican-Americans, whites and blacks; and dwarfing both of these, a large, unassimilated and constantly growing younger cohort of Mexicans, at odds with inner-city African-Americans” (2510).
Californication
‘n Mens is die hele tyd bewus daarvan dat iemand soos Hanson, hoewel in ‘n mate konserwatief, nie naasteby ‘n Afrikaner is nie. Afrikaners begeer immers nie rasse-integrasie en rasgemengde huwelike en geboortes nie. In ‘n helder oomblik het Hanson darem erken: “We have exchanged standards and taste for raw inclusiveness” (2392). Hy verwys selfs na “natural apartheid” (2393). Iemand wat polities veel meer voorbeeldig as Hanson is, al het hy hoë lof vir Hanson, is Michael Anton (gebore in 1970). Hy verwys na diegene wat Kalifornië so opdonder as Californicaters.
Anton het in 2016 bekendheid verwerf met sy standpunt dat daardie jaar se presidentsverkiesing die laaste kans aan konserwatiewe Amerikaanse kiesers gebied het om die golf van politieke linksheid te stuit. Hy het sy standpunt later in ‘n boek belig: After the Flight 93 election: The vote that saved America and what we still have to lose (2019, 96p; Kindle $11,35). Die hooftitel verwys na die vliegtuig wat op Vlug 93 deur terroriste geskaak is en op 11 September 2001 in Pennsylvania neergestort het. Anton het in 2017/18 as ‘n nasionale sekuriteitsbeampte in die Trump-administrasie gedien. Sedert 2018 is hy ‘n dosent en navorser aan Hillsdale College in Washington DC, waar ‘n studie van “the Great Books” hulle ereplekke behou het.
Een van Anton se talle gesonde insigte is dat die kinders wat deur onwettige immigrante in Amerika verwek word nie wettig op Amerikaanse burgerskap aanspraak behoort te kan maak nie. Hanson het in sy Mexifornia-boek geskryf: “Bizarre is the American policy of granting instant citizenship at our hospitals to infants of illegal aliens … The birth is a miraculous event indeed, for in theory the infant instantaneously can anchor a new American existence for a full array of parents and assorted relatives of illegal status” (1287).
Anton se jongste boek is The stakes: America at the point of no return (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2020, 500p; Kindle $17,24), waarin hy die tema van sy vorige boek voortsit. Dit is immers van die uiterste belang dat Trump eerskomende November die presidentsverkiesing moet wen. Die eerste hoofstuk handel oor Kalifornië ter verduideliking van wat nie met Amerika moet gebeur nie, maar onder ‘n Demokratiese president soos Joe Biden, met Kamala Harris as visepresident, sal gebeur. Die teks van Anton is 17 jaar ná Hanson se oorspronklike teks gepubliseer en bevat dus inligting oor die huidige situasie. Ek poog egter om nodelose herhaling van wat ek hier bo na aanleiding van Hanson se boek geskryf het, te vermy.
Kalifornië is die toonbeeld van verwording. “My parents’ and grandparents’ California – the California of my own youth” (Kindle 85) was heeltemal anders. Dit het gehad “the nation’s highest standard of living, incomes, educational attainment, health, and general well-being” (117). “California was … transformed into a left-liberal one-party state” (85). “In California, Republicans are irrelevant (and in San Francisco and Los Angeles nonexistent)” (488). “The transformation of California … was pushed along by deliberate policy – often including a willful refusal to enforce certain laws” (148). Hy noem dit “woker-than-thou ‘progessivism’” (164). Hierdie “New Sodom” (222) “[is] the New Normal” (196). Daar moet nie toegelaat word dat hierdie staat die leiding in die verval van die res van Amerika neem nie. Diegene wat tradisionele Amerikaansheid ondermyn, word Californicaters genoem.
“‘Hispanic’ … meant today: non-white and therefore good … The mission of [California’s] founder … Saint Junipero Serra [1713-1784] stand in stark contrast to the ethos of modern California. He and his fellow Franciscan friars were … unapologetically ethno-nationalistic. No wonder, then, that … statues of Father Serra (and of many others) are falling to woke mobs all over the state” (186). Anton noem hulle die Wokerati (191, 404). “Welcome to New California, where services less than half as good cost more than twice as much; where half of what you pay for in taxes you’d be a fool to use and the other half is either worthless or a guided missile targeted right at your nose; where infrastructure and quality of life crash through the Valley floor while crime soars; where your daily commute time quadruples along with the price of gas; where ‘middle-class’ homes cost $800 per square foot; where – if you’re dumb enough to stay – you live far worse than your parents and pay multiples for the privilege” (244).
Kalifornië is erg oorbevolk met meer as 40 miljoen inwoners (254), waarvan tweederdes binne 50 myl (80 kilometer) van die see woon (260), veral in en om San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles en San Diego. “In San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles, the median home price is ten times the local average yearly wage” (292). Die prys van brandstof (“gas”) “averages one and a half to two times higher than anywhere alse in America” (393). “In 2017, an estimated fifteen thousand households – in a state whose population is supposed to be forty million – paid 46 percent of all state income tax” (580). “While California holds 12 percent of the nation’s population, it is home to anywhere between one-third and half of the nation’s welfare recipients … It means that welfare recipients are overrepresented in the state by a multiple of almost three” (662). “The state is ‘home’ to a quater of the nation’s entire ‘homeless’ population … They’re mostly people who choose to live on the streets, in a park, in a van – wherever – and most of them are unemployed either by choice or necessity” (667). Die minimum word aan infrastruktuur bestee – ‘n geval van “BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone)” (591).
Misdaad neem epidemiese afmetings aan te midde van ‘n “soft-on-crime crusade” (334). Hierdie misdaadvlaag het sy oorsprong in die 1960’s se “liberal reforms” (500). Diefstal onder $950 is gedekriminaliseer (504). Daar word vermoed “three-fourths of the crime … goes unreported because residents assume, from experience, that the police won’t even try to bring perps to justice or recover stolen goods” (504).
“Hugh swaths of San Francisco and Los Angeles … contend with public urination and defecation at levels exceeding the worst slums of Calcutta” (477). “The elected San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin – biological son of two New Left terrorists, adopted son of two others – announced, several years into the city’s ever-worsening ‘defecation crisis’, that his office will not prosecute any ‘quality-of-life crimes’, including public pooping” (483). “Boudin … favors babying the violent with so-called ‘restorative justice’ … It’s easier to say what [restorative justice] is not: punishment or deterrence” (510). “On his second day in office … [Boudin] fired his seven most-experienced prosecutors – because they were too good at their jobs. Which, as he has redefined, is no longer to convict criminals but to further ‘social justice’. Similar stories can be told throughout the state” (521). Soos in Suid-Afrika wend die inwoners hulle tot privaat sekuriteitsondernemings (521).
Baie woonbuurte het onherkenbaar in vreemde enklaves verander, “many monolingual (but not English!) and monocultural (but not American!) … But it’s human nature to prefer to live among one’s own, with some semblance of community or at least familiarity” (404) – iets wat blankes ook al hoe meer in die nuwe Suid-Afrika ontsê word. “On top of not being able to afford living anywhere near one’s job, people also move – far – in order to live where they understand the language and feel at home in the culture” (409). ‘n Gewilde opsie is om uit Kalifornië te trek. “The state already suffers from the highest out-migration rate of any in the nation, yet its political class can’t stop working to make things worse” (537).
“Nothing illustrates better California’s pathological altruism than its wide open arms for any and all illegal immigrants. This is the trend that contributes most to of all the others: overpopulation, punishing costs, crumbling infrastructure, overwhelmed public services, rapacious taxation, and two-tiered law enforcement” (700). “Today, 55 percent of immigrants – legal and illegal – receive state benefits, compared with just 30 percent of natives” (705). “State law actually prohibits officials and agencies from distinguishing legal from illegal immigrants and mandates that welfare … be granted equally to both. California pioneered the concept of ‘sanctuary cities’ – nullification zones where federal law is openly flouted – and then took it to the next level by making the entire state a ‘sanctuary state’” (711). “Stay and pay, suffer and be ignored – or leave” (847).
“The essence of California-ism is to care – ostentatiously – about everyone but Californians. Except there are no ‘Californians’ anymore; the term denotes only residency. The state has no common culture or civic identity. It is rather a polyglot economic zone dotted with myriad little ‘communities’ that at best don’t care about or understand one another, in many cases can’t even talk to each other, and at worst hate one another” (748). Die politici verwag dat hierdie soort diversiteit gevier moet word “as they ride … into gated sanctuaries” (758), “wall themselves off from the dysfunction they cause” (810). Massas uitgeworpenes kom na Kalifornië “for the sunshine, welfare, and – in some California cities today – government-provided drugs and booze” (790). “None of this – not one iota – is an accident. The Californiarati want things this way, like them this way” (794). “Californication is what the broader left wants for America” (890).
Nasie is basies ‘n politieke begrip. Volk is basies ‘n kulturele begrip. In Wes-Europa was die nasiestate voorheen oorwegend ook volkstate omdat daar ‘n groot mate van kulturele homogeniteit of eensoortigheid was. Hierdie situasie het sedertdien – veral in die onlangse verlede – in beduidende mate verander weens miljoene inkommers. Dit het nodig geword om tussen bv die Duitse nasie en die Duitse bevolking te onderskei. Anton beskryf nation (streng gesproke eerder volk, hoewel daar nie so ‘n Engelse woord is nie) as “a united people with a common lineage, language, and history” (864). In die geval van Kalifornië “it has been deliberately reengineered to resemble a nation as little as possible” (864).
In Suid-Afrika is die ANC-regime opsigtelik besig om ‘n swart nasie met ‘n Afrika-kultuur te bou. Die Afrikanerdom se kultuur, soos sy taal en geskiedenis (bv monumente en standbeelde), word hierin geen oorlewingsruimte gegun nie. Weens meerderheidsoorheersing is daar die onderliggende valse veronderstelling dat die inwoners in werklikheid ‘n enkele uitgebreide gesin is; ‘n gesin wat sedert 1994 weens wanbestuur sy heiland leer ken het.
