Despite the bizarre efforts of Fox’s moderators to turn the second-tier debate into a slugfest between the candidates on stage and those who would not take it for several hours, the consolation debate was an enlightening affair. Carly Fiorina soared. Rick Perry underwhelmed. Jim Gilmore… was there. But among the most interesting elements of that debate occurred in its final minutes when Bobby Jindal was asked about the nation’s illegal immigration crisis. His response infuriated the left, and that reaction exposes a far broader cultural divide over immigration in America than that which is reflected in the shallow debate over immigration reform and border enforcement.
It was a simple line, perhaps designed to strike the nerve that it most certainly did. “Immigration without assimilation is an invasion,” Jindal said. It played to a theme that he, the child of first-generation immigrants, has made a prominent feature of his campaigns for governor of Louisiana and for the presidency.
Jindal has been a target of vicious attacks from the left precisely because he regards assimilating into American culture as a virtue. He has rejected the phenomenon of “hyphenated Americans” and called those who solely focus on skin color and other accidents of birth “dim-witted.” His denunciation of stereotypes has confoundingly enraged his liberal opponents.
Jindal changed his name from Piyush to Bobby and converted from Hinduism to Christianity as a teenager. Because it occurred so early in his life, it is unlikely to be a political calculation insomuch as referring to himself as “Barry” rather than “Barack” was for the president. Nevertheless, liberals view Jindal’s choice as a rejection of his own culture in favor of an inferior American brand. “There’s not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal,” University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Pearson Cross recently told the Washington Post. This abuse from liberals hurled toward Jindal was absurd and patently self-loathing. It might surprise many on the left that millions of legal immigrants come to the United States precisely because they want to learn English, love America, become Americans, and realize for themselves and their children the opportunity that exists in this country.
The reaction from grassroots liberals to Jindal’s “gaffe,” which consists entirely of endorsing assimilation and rejecting those who do not as vanguards of an “invasion,” is instructive. “It’s both xenophobic and chauvinistic Coming from a non-white Christian convert, also vainglorious,” one said. “So Jindal would close all the pizza parlors and Irish pubs and Chinese restaurants in America?” another asked. “Can body Jindal assimilate his skin colour to be more ‘American?’” a third queried, exposing his own foreign origin with the use of the British orthography.
If you can, forget for the moment that so many on the left seem to presume that the ethnic restaurants they patronize are shining examples of immigrants rejecting American culture. The most pervasive misunderstanding of conservatism that is shared by many in the press is that those who fear the prospects of unfettered illegal immigration, and do regard it as an invasion (certainly an impolitic choice of words), do so because they reject the cultures of those who come to the United States. Surely, there is that; a fair bit of xenophobia on the right side of the aisle has been exposed of late. But most conservatives would contend that this apprehension is not so much born out of fear as it is a reflection of a sincere devotion to the domestic. They love American culture, and they want their neighbors to love it, too.
Too many on the left resent assimilation into American culture, and not merely because a few of them believe that it is not much of a culture at all. Too many opinion leaders in the United States can easily recognize ugly xenophobia in conservatives but fail to see its mirror image in liberals. Those on the left who resent immigrants that come to this country in order to become Americans betray their own xenophobia. This increasingly prevalent belief structure takes a dim view of both America and the immigrants who leave their lives and homes behind, the only culture they have ever known in most cases, and stake their fortunes on a great gamble that a better life awaits them and their progeny here. To true conservatives, that sounds like an industriousness of spirit to be celebrated. And Bobby Jindal should be praised for unapologetically saying as much.
