All I have to say is...

I'm still waiting for you to show me that these aren't the same issues and concerns held by "conservatives" at any point in history when a society has been faced with an influx of alien culture brought by a large, immigrant population.

Rome had the Goths, the Iberians, the Icenii, the Bretons, and the Germans ALL looking to become a member of the Roman society. Rome was reluctant or refused this assimilation, and non-assimilation was the result. The British Empire had no better success with the natives of it's own islands. The Irish, the Scots and the Welsh have ALL had their issues with "British" assimilation... right up to the decade of the 1990's.

This is no more successful campaign of assimilation than the ones we have seen in US history. The forced segregation by society (if not by the government itself) of immigrant minorities such as the Italian, the Greek, the German, the Irish, the Chinese, the Korean, the Vietnamese, and the Mexican immigrants to this nation from its inception to the 1970's delayed the assimilation of these groups for multiple generations, rather than the expected single generation. However, prior to the "rush" of illegals in the 1980's, society here in America DID see assimilation at work.

FORCED assimilation certainly has had no better success. The Native American people were forced to learn English in traditional Western-style schools, and the assimilation never really took place. Only in the last 20 years have American Indians seen their general standard of living parallel that of the rest of the Anglo-Saxon majority of America, and I'm not sure it still isn't below the "average" in the broad spectrum. "Integration" within the black community is replete with examples of forced and failed assimilation, and not only in the South. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that many Southern states have a BETTER track record than most Northern States.

OUR system of government provides for and protects the INDIVIDUAL liberties of the citizen, without compromising the freedoms of those around them. What more perfect and functional system of "assimilation" can we hope for?

I still contend that the VAST majority of immigrants to this nation (and this includes many of the illegals, too) are coming so they can BECOME AMERICAN, and not to force America to becoming something else. I will admit that there are many "civil rights" groups in the US that encourage Mexican and other Latino immigrants to maintain and continue their culture and heritage, but I feel these are the exception rather than the rule, and that these organizations are much like the modern-day labor unions in that they fight to preserve a DIFFERENCE to justify their own existence.

Look at the long and storied history of immigration in this country, and tell me I am wrong when I say that immigrant people assimilated successfully BECAUSE of our LAWS and FREEDOMS, and IN SPITE of society's best efforts to stop it.

I look at the modern issue, and see "conservatives" wanting to change the LAWS to suit their view of SOCIETY, and IN SPITE of history's lesson that assimilation is a process in America, not a government requirement for residency.

It is not the Federal government's JOB to protect Christianity from the encroachment of Islam in America. If, over the next 100 years, the majority of Americans choose to follow Allah rather than Jesus Christ... I'd say that is a failing on the part of Christianity's leaders, not the Feds. However, if this is true, then the opposite must also be true... and the Feds have to STOP protecting non-Christian faiths while limiting the practice of only Christianity.

Ryan's post focuses much of its attention on Europe and how she is coping with an alien immigrant culture... but, outside of England, none of the nations he listed have their "Rule of Law" in place for even HALF the time we have had ours... most, far less. The US Constitution has stood the test of time far better than the Rights of Man Act, or the Basic Law of Greater Germany, or any of the other "baker's dozen" insturments of government that constitute European political foundation. The failings of European states to assimilate is not, and should never be, a reflection on American immigration policy.

Period.