The Wromantics

I write today in celebration of Wromanticism.  The term is derived from the well-known conservative writer David Frum, who cleverly called people like me who are passionate about immigration and the benefits it brings to the United States, “Wrong but Wromantic.”

There are all kinds of facts and figures I could throw at you about the economic and social values of immigrants and refugees.  But we are not Quantecstatics.  Numbers are not what drive us.  Instead we love stories, ideas, emotions, the things you can’t really measure but that you know, you feel, are what make live worth living.

For us Wromantics, that informs how we view immigration. For all I know, the economist George Borjas could be right and immigration could be “a net economic wash” for the America.  But if numbers were what we were interested in, we’d just advocate for an immigration policy that allowed only high-skilled workers to enter the United States, with the eligible professions rotating with the economic needs of the moment.

Again, though, that’s not what animates us.  I like to believe that when the Framers wrote of creating a more perfect Union, they spoke of a philosophy that Martin Luther King Jr. would later denominate “the brotherhood of man.”  In this sense, the United States is called to be a haven for people who seek a common bond, who want to freely live and, as George Washington said quoting the Bible, where everyone can sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree and not be afraid

You can’t measure that kind of thing. It defies a statistical expression.  But it feels good, doesn’t it?

This year, in my home, I dined with people from Kenya, South Korea, Rwanda, Germany, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, and China.  Outside my home, I met with people from countless other countries, most movingly during a naturalization ceremony for new Americans.  How much “worth” does each of those people bring to America?  What will be their contribution to the GDP?  What is our return on investment for what we’ll spend on schooling for their kids and entitlements when they grow old?

I don’t know.  And that’s okay.  Because my measure of their worth is not a number, but rather their very existence.  The United States brings together a swirl of colors, languages, customs, cultures, philosophies and proclivities, all held together by the concept of America, land of the free. That is absolutely electric.  It makes my skin tingle, makes me glad to be alive.  

I could suggest to you that it’s this very phenomenon that acts like the spark plug to our economic engine.  I bet I’m right.  But I don’t feel the need to prove it to you. The results of the American Experiment speak for themselves.  I’m just going to bask in the warm embrace of the diversity of our country, as beautiful as a multi-colored sunset, as inviting as a fully-laden table, and as satisfying as a great book. 

What else would you expect from me?  I’m a Wromantic.