Derb – I don’t think I quite buy this whole idea that the elites want to Latin Americanize (Latinize? Latinify?) U.S. society. Which elites? Surely not the folks at the Wall Street Journal. I agree they have not covered themselves in glory in their characterization of the debate, but I think you — or your reader — do the same thing when you assert motives they clearly don’t have. I find it very difficult to find evidence that the Journal’s editors themselves want to create an economically stratified and stagnant economy along the lines of Latin America. You may or may not be right that their preferred policies would lead America in that direction, but it seems pretty obvious to me that that’s hardly the sort of society those guys desire. One can argue they’re pie-eyed optimists, but they really do believe in all of that rising tide lifts all boats stuff. That is hardly a Latin American vision.

Similarly, I don’t know many immigration maximalists (I’m done using “pro-immigration” and “anti-immigration” as identifiers in this debate), would like to see a permanent underclass of dark-skinned laborers. It might the case that some people’s comfort with that sort of arrangement fosters an openness to rationalizing the immigration status-quo, but I haven’t heard anybody serious actually making that argument.