Arthur Brooks: belief

Transcript context

…In politics today, how have your views on immigration evolved over, say, the last 10 years? Many people on the right have become much more anti-immigration, especially for Western Europe. Have you changed at all? I have not. I’m not trying to say that I’m right. I’m not trying to say that I’m never mistaken or that I don’t change my views on that, but I’m just unalterably pro-immigration. I always have been. I think it’s the vitality of American life is the fact that there are people who are Americans by choice as opposed to just by birth. I also believe strongly in the whole idea of the hypomanic edge from John Gardner’s research that suggests that there’s a genetic mutation that’s manifest in the ultimate entrepreneurial act, which is immigration itself. Now, that said, that doesn’t mean that I think we should have open borders or radical policies where there is no control on immigration for anybody at any time, but I’m pro-immigration because I’m pro-America, quite frankly. Now, I’m a biased suspect. I have to plead guilty to the fact that David Brooks one time told me, he said, “You’re so pro-immigrant, you marry them,” because my wife’s an immigrant. Her, right? Not them.…

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