(01-15-2018, 03:03 PM)JagNGeorgia Wrote:

(01-15-2018, 11:38 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: The Republican position is that immigration should be more merit-based and not based on quotas.   Most people would say merit is an individual characteristic that has nothing to do with what country you come from.  So when Trump said, "Why do we have to take all these people from [BLEEP] countries..." that completely contradicts the argument for merit-based immigration, and puts it very close to race-based immigration.

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He absolutely is talking about the people of said areas, because he said, "why do we have to take people from these [BLEEP] countries..."   What could be more clear than that?  He's talking about the people who come from those countries.

I disagree. 

I understand why you may think that, but it seems to me that he’s saying that we’re taking people from [BLEEP] hole countries, so we’re getting [BLEEP] hole candidates. Which I see has taking in people whom otherwise wouldn’t meet our merit system.

That's pretty close to what I said.  

If you say we are taking people from [BLEEP] hole countries, so we're getting [BLEEP] hole candidates, then you are not basing your judgment on individual merit; you are judging people based on what country they come from.   And that goes against everything most of us say we believe in- that a person should be judged based on who they are and not on things like where they come from. 

"Why should we take people from [BLEEP] hole countries?"   The answer should be, we don't care what country they come from.    The Republican position is- judge candidates based on their individual merit and not on where they come from.   Trump completely contradicted his party's position.  The accusation of racism stems from casting of third world countries into the "[BLEEP] hole" category.   It sounds like he doesn't want so many brown and black people coming in.  It sounds like he wants more white people.  

The debate is between the current system of quotas and a proposed merit-based system.  A quota system is a country-based system.   A merit-based system is an individual based system which does not take any account of what country a person comes from- it only judges people based on their individual merit.

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