Letter to the editor: Stranger in a Strange Land

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 10.02.25

John Hood’s 9/11 column declares the border secure and suggests that Republicans respond by enacting legislation that encourages more legal immigration to solve “the problem of labor shortages in agriculture, construction, hospitality and medical care, for starters.”

Hood echoes Abraham Lincoln, who called immigration “this source of national wealth and strength,” and endorses what he calls the “conservative” idea that “immigration is a principal driver of American prosperity.” Hood also quotes Ronald Reagan, saying “America is exceptional because anyone — from any corner of the earth — can seek to live in America and become an American.”

Hood deludes himself by imagining that MAGA Republicans are conservative in a way Lincoln or Reagan would recognize. Bless his heart! Trump destroyed that GOP.

At the National Conservatism Conference on Sept. 2, close Trump ally Eric Schmitt (R-MO) proclaimed what conservatism represents today: “The old conservative establishment opposed illegal immigration on procedural grounds—because it was illegal. But they took no issue with it in substance, and if the same thing was achieved through ‘legal’ avenues, many of them would celebrate and support it.” Schmitt repudiated that idea: “The fact that something is sanctioned by our government doesn’t mean it’s good for our country.”

Schmitt rejected Reagan’s belief that any immigrant can become an American: “What makes America exceptional isn’t just that we committed ourselves to the principles of self-government. It’s that we, as a people, were actually capable of living them. If you imposed the U.S. Constitution on Kazakhstan tomorrow, Kazakhstan wouldn’t magically become America. Because Kazakhstan isn’t filled with Americans. It’s filled with Kazakhstanis!”

Schmitt evoked the “blood and soil” chants of torch-bearing white supremacists at Charlottesville in 2017. Schmitt’s ancestors came from Germany. His appeal to “blood and soil” (Blut und Boden), is just as un-American in English as it was in the original German.

MAGA Republicans don’t want to live in Reagan’s America. They certainly don’t want to live in Lincoln’s.

Arthur Hill

Southport