Reflections On William Kristol's Suggestion That White Workers Should Be Replaced By Immigrants

I am not big on apologies and I believe we need more, not less, offensive speech. I don't want to portray the American worker as one more snowflake jumping at the opportunity to elevate his victim cred. To rehash, a vid emerged of renowned Never-Trumper, William Kristol, speaking at an American Enterprise Institute function. Surprisingly, Kristol drops his neocon veil and treats the audience to a Gruberesque epiphany touting the merits of replacing America's white working class

Kristol's argument goes something like this: Ethnic groups get lazy over time. Each new generation is a  photocopy not as good as the original or even as well-defined as the last version. Perhaps Kristol is projecting his own life onto the nation. He is after all, the son of a genuine intellectual who carried palpable public influence. The Krisols might not have fallen with the enhanced gravity of say, the Kennedys, but they have jumped the shark and William happens to be the Fonz.

First, if ethnic groups do grow lazy over time, and that is a big assumption, what would hold true for white Americans would also hold truer for African-Americans. African-American's ancestors preceded the immigration of Irish, Italians and Russian Jews to name but a few newbies. Should the African-American worker also be replaced? And what about native Americans? Would their longevity move them to the top of Kristol's lethargy list?

I realize that it is considered impolite to compare a pundit's viewpoint to those held by certain leaders in certain countries at certain times but when one talks about replacing ethnic groups, it does have an ominous ring to it. Perhaps Kristol should elaborate on his preferred method of replacement. We'll skip historical parallels for now.

What is frustrating is not the snide, callous tone of a man who started life on third base, who was granted a plum job of writing speeches for a vice president (Dan Quayle. An epic Kristol failure) and who would eventually inherit a national news magazine. No, what is frustrating is that once more, the intelligentsia gets it wrong. Kristol misses by a measure unfathomable.

In 2016, a failed candidate ran on a campaign of free stuff free stuff free stuff, Donald Trump, on the other hand, ran a successful campaign promising his people that dreaded four letter word: WORK! Trump could get an automatic applause reminding his audience how much work work work awaited them in the future.

Work and more work were the unifying themes of the Trump campaign. What were MAGA Nation's grievances? Work had been sent overseas and domestically, work was taken from them via cheap, imported labor. Kristol's labeling the white American working class lazy is not so much insulting as it is inaccurate. Kristol is, to be polite, stupid.

Perhaps on this Labor Day the William Kritols of the world will honor the hardest-working, highest-skilled, most-reliable work force on Planet Earth. We can dream, can't we?