Trying to explain the perverse “progressive” support for an open borders policy (that would batter living standards for low-skilled workers, Alan Tonelson reaches for an old concept that seems to have fallen into unjustified disuse: liberal guilt (in this case, guilt “over third world poverty, run truly wild”). … Matthew Yglesias, I think this means you. …
I definitely think it is liberal guilt, and not just political liberals but trade liberals, globalists, which has been the dominant ideology in the world for decades. When this crowd parks their 1700 personal jets at Davos, they talk about how to make the poor countries rich. They claim ‘free trade’ will make everyone rich, but if the poor countries are doing better, that’s good enough, along with themselves doing better of course, as befits the masters of the universe.
They are loyal to the globe, old fashion crude national chauvinism [formerly called ‘patriotism’] has caused so many wars, you know. I’ve seen a couple of conservative authors fight the current ‘inequality’ rap by saying that immigration and trade decrease inequality in the world, so American liberals should support it. And real political liberals are simply incapable of resisting any policy that might help minority poor people, they’d sooner call the maid a [racial epithet], so they overlook the illegality and damage to American workers for a ‘higher good.’
[I posted this at Alan’s site; I sometimes post there]