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Two Political Thoughts
May. 25th, 2011 02:40 pmI've read a number of novels by Jerry Pournelle, and liked all of them. His politics are not mine, but since his books (or at least the ones I've read) don't wear those politics on their sleeves, I don't hold it against him. I can agree to disagree with Jerry Pournelle. Having said that, I find he's recently said two political things that I agree with.
The first essay is on illegal immigration. In the essay, he's defending something said recently by Newt Gingrich on the same subject. The gist of the defense is this: There are 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Physically moving that many people (the equivalent of the entire population of Canada) just is not going to happen. Not only that, some non-trivial portion of those people are folks that we want to keep in the US, such as illegals who came here as children. So, therefore, Pournelle and Gingrich argue, we need to come up with some process to sort the good from the bad. Calling that process "amnesty" and rejecting it out of hand is not productive.
The second essay is Pournelle's take on the Israeli peace process. He says, and I (reluctantly) agree, that getting the two sides to agree to a border isn't going to happen. Borders in that region tend to get imposed, not agreed-on. Now, Pournelle's not so hot on spending any US time, lives or treasure on the imposing, while I think we have gotten too deeply into it to just walk away. He also points out that the "right of return" is a real issue. At any rate, he makes some valid points.
I guess that makes me a political moderate.
The first essay is on illegal immigration. In the essay, he's defending something said recently by Newt Gingrich on the same subject. The gist of the defense is this: There are 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Physically moving that many people (the equivalent of the entire population of Canada) just is not going to happen. Not only that, some non-trivial portion of those people are folks that we want to keep in the US, such as illegals who came here as children. So, therefore, Pournelle and Gingrich argue, we need to come up with some process to sort the good from the bad. Calling that process "amnesty" and rejecting it out of hand is not productive.
The second essay is Pournelle's take on the Israeli peace process. He says, and I (reluctantly) agree, that getting the two sides to agree to a border isn't going to happen. Borders in that region tend to get imposed, not agreed-on. Now, Pournelle's not so hot on spending any US time, lives or treasure on the imposing, while I think we have gotten too deeply into it to just walk away. He also points out that the "right of return" is a real issue. At any rate, he makes some valid points.
I guess that makes me a political moderate.
