Greetings from the Republic of California

Posting on the weekend is a bit like advertising on late-night television. You better understand the type of audience you're going to attract...

With that, I'd like to publicly thank the Editors (not those The Editors) for inviting me to post on this blog. Hopefully something I say will prevent you from spending too much time actually working, after all this life is way too transitory for paid labor. We should all be able to subsist off of blog advertising. Think of it as the Internet version of Amway.

My name is Andrew. I live in Southern California although I grew up in Utah and still visit from time to time (have they arrested Rick Koerber yet, btw?). I studied international relations in college, with an emphasis on African politics, especially Portuguese colonial history and the chaos that followed. Since then I've put my degree to proper use as a computer programmer. In my free time (and paid time, but don't tell anyone) I think about politics, math, religion, and so forth. Thus I am thoroughly qualified to comment on current affairs; definitely on the same level as, say, David Brooks or David Broder (only hopefully not as annoying, and a lot cheaper).

Since we all have opinions, I'll share one of mine -- immigrants rule in America. As the demographics of the U.S. change, so do our politics as we import the views of various immigrant populations. This has always been the case; after all, our own Constitution was written by immigrants eager to cast off British colonial power. It is a testament to its durability that it has provided shelter to vastly different populations who've come here seeking its protection. In California there are a number of these groups -- Vietnamese and Koreans who fled from conflicts in their respective countries, Central and South American immigrants fleeing the effects of the "Cold" War, Ethiopians and Eritreans doing the same, and so forth. Many of these groups helped place California in the Republican column during the Reagan years. Now the opposite is happening as Immigration itself is a hot-button political topic. We've seen sometimes dramatic shifts to the Right in Europe over the issue; what will happen here? Considering our history, I'd bet against the nativists.