If the people won’t change the government, change the people.
Much like today’s United States, the Roman Empire was a polyglot, multicultural realm encompassing disparate peoples. Unlike us, Rome got that way via invasion — not through inviting one. But Rome did enjoy one advantage vis-à-vis preserving the empire: Its restless foreign subjects couldn’t vote. How long would Rome have lasted and its government remained “Roman” if they could have?
In our amnesty debates, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) being the latest, a point is often missed. People warn of the fiscal consequences of absorbing poor migrants; libertarians say the solution is nixing the welfare state. People complain about “pressing one” for English and say we must insist newcomers learn English. Then there’s illegal-alien crime, which requires a strict law-and-order approach. The problem? Importing waves of...