We’re about to head down to PB to watch Willie and Dave play at Typhoon Saloon (swing by if you’re in the area 7 pm - 10 pm), but I wanted to mention that Time Magazine just published an article rebuking Huntington’s piece (and taste of his soon to be published book) in Foreign Policy. Though Huntington’s article has been discussed all over the internet, it hasn’t made it in the major media spotlight until now. Here’s an excerpt:

When I put to Huntington some figures that challenged his thesis, he said, “I don’t think any of these issues are black and white.” A central purpose of his article, he said, was to promote a “reasoned national discussion” on Mexican immigration. Fine. Trouble is, recent history suggests that such a rational debate is unlikely to occur.

Remember what has happened in the past decade, when several trenchantly argued theses have rapidly become conventional wisdom. One thinks of Francis Fukuyama (history has ended with the triumph of liberal democracy), Bernard Lewis (the rage of the Islamic world is a consequence of its own failure), Robert Kagan (Europeans and Americans are fundamentally different). All these authors make their case brilliantly, but none of their arguments are uncontested by serious scholars in relevant fields. They are popular in part because they provide wonderful material for Op-Ed columns and sound bites.

So think of this column as a pre-emptive strike to stop the same thing from happening again. Huntington’s claim that Mexican Americans don’t assimilate should not be accepted without challenge. (If George Will quotes from Huntington on Sunday-morning TV, my attempt will have failed.) And the media should stop treating clever but flawed scholarship as if it were Holy Writ, especially if an academic argument seems to question the patriotism of good people. You shouldn’t do that lightly, with or without dense footnotes.

I’ll make sure to add this one to the other articles about the Huntington essay in the forum.