OPINION:
Democrats finally admitted that we have a demographic crisis, but only to push another amnesty.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declared we need an amnesty and “pathway to citizenship” for 11 million who are here illegally (probably more like 20 million) because Americans aren’t having enough children.
“Now more than ever, we’re short of workers. We have a population that’s not reproducing on its own with the same level it used to,” the New York Senator explained.
Could the answer be ending abortion and encouraging marriage? Please, be serious!
“The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, like the DREAMers and – all of them,” the senator proclaimed, with Biden-esque eloquence.
So, because Americans aren’t having enough children and we have a severe labor shortage, we need to encourage more illegal immigration, say our friends on the left. To have a great future in America, we need an America that no longer resembles America. Wait, what?
These are the same people who used to tell us that Demographic Winter (falling fertility) was pro-life propaganda, and an exchange of population was a right-wing conspiracy theory.
It’s true that America’s fertility rate has gone to the dogs. In 1950, the average woman had 3.5 children. By 2020, the fertility rate was 1.64, with 2.1 needed to replace the current population.
Since Roe v. Wade, there have been more than 64 million abortions. But Roe was almost 50 years ago. That means we didn’t just lose 64 million future citizens, but their children and grandchildren as well. Today, they might number as many as one-third of the population – more than enough to keep our economy humming. Senator Schumer’s party supports abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy.
One reason Americans aren’t having children at the rate they used to is that Americans aren’t getting married at the rate they used to. Among adults 18 to 24, prime childbearing years, 45% were married in 1960, compared to 9% today.
Yet, the only type of marriage the party of woke is interested in is same-sex unions.
Democrats have the votes to get their ironically named Respect for Marriage Act through Congress before Republicans get control of the House in January. The bill codifies the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, in case a future court comes to its senses about a “right” to homosexual marriage lurking in the First Amendment.
The more the definition of marriage is expanded, the less important it becomes. If two men can marry, why not multiple partners, why not marriages between adults and minors? Both have their proponents.
Once, marriage was an honorable estate doing society’s vital work – assuring stability and the nation’s continuity by promoting procreation and creating a stable environment in which to raise children. Today, it’s a political reward bestowed on a clamoring constituency.
Bringing in hordes of unvetted aliens from the third world (impoverished and uneducated), who will never develop a sense of loyalty to the nation they’ve forced themselves on, is a bad bet for America.
Americans need to have more children, raised to be hardworking, responsible and patriotic, such as the children of immigrants who came here the right way – like my immigrant grandparents and my next-door neighbors from Jamaica and Hungary.
Wrong as he is on immigration, Mr. Schumer hints at a demographic storm that could become a whirlwind.
We are increasingly a nation of the elderly. The Census Bureau estimates that by 2034, there will be more Americans over 65 than those under 18.
The effects are already being felt. Hiring signs are everywhere. The phrase heard most often on business news is “labor shortages.” In September, manufacturers of durable goods had only half the workers they required. For professional and business services, 30% had openings that needed to be filled.
As our population begins to decline, toward the middle of this century, labor shortages will become acute. You can’t have a civilization without workers to make it function. It’s unlikely that the illegal from Honduras crossing our southern border will become a physician or forklift operator.
Politicians like Mr. Schumer aren’t looking for workers, but voters. Naturalizing millions of illegals, and encouraging millions more to come here, isn’t the answer to America’s demographic crisis but the Democratic Party’s electoral crisis.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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