I just love a wedge issue. Especially one that threatens to rip apart the GOP, by challenging Republikans to choose between their two most fundamental character traits – greed and hatefulness. On one side you’ve got the moneyed establishment conservatives who, in order to conserve more and more wealth, see illegal immigrants as nothing more than cheap labor that allows for more profit to float to the top. For these Wall Street Republicans, this is basically about property rights, not human rights – and as we all know, this is a property rights era. Bush certainly racked up points with CEOs across the country, when he let us all know that “there are jobs that no Americans will do,” and I’d guess that Halliburton’s stock jumps a few notches every time someone mentions building a wall along the border.
On the other side of the Republican civil war are the Lou Dobbs groupies, the O’Reilly lunatics and the Minutemen-loving fundamentalists who are kept awake at night with images of brown-skinned illegals climbing over walls to apply for welfare and rape white women. These people are the real heart and soul of the Republikan Party, and most likely, these will be they will be the victors in this bloody battle. For these Calvinists, illegals’ geographic place of birth is evidence of their unworthiness, and crossing the border to work is to spit on God’s plan.
The only thing that really overshadows this theatre, is the mystery of why conservatives chose to allow this divisive issue to boil over right before elections. The Democrats don’t need to instigate anything or have a plan (thank god), because it looks like the Republikans’ internal jihad between greed and hate, being played out through the Dubai Ports Deal and illegal immigration conflicts, should sufficiently fuck them for November.
On the other side of the Republican civil war are the Lou Dobbs groupies, the O’Reilly lunatics and the Minutemen-loving fundamentalists who are kept awake at night with images of brown-skinned illegals climbing over walls to apply for welfare and rape white women. These people are the real heart and soul of the Republikan Party, and most likely, these will be they will be the victors in this bloody battle. For these Calvinists, illegals’ geographic place of birth is evidence of their unworthiness, and crossing the border to work is to spit on God’s plan.
The only thing that really overshadows this theatre, is the mystery of why conservatives chose to allow this divisive issue to boil over right before elections. The Democrats don’t need to instigate anything or have a plan (thank god), because it looks like the Republikans’ internal jihad between greed and hate, being played out through the Dubai Ports Deal and illegal immigration conflicts, should sufficiently fuck them for November.
3 comments:
I agree that this is a bit puzzling. Why is this issue being waved about now?
My perspective is that we need to take a reality-based look at immigration.
Under the current situation, millions of people are willing to offer themselves to the American economy as low-cost workers. There is probably no way to prevent them from doing so.
The George Bush plan is to shunt these people into an indentured class of "guest workers" who can be limitlessly exploited by unscrupulous businesses and individuals.
A better plan would be to harnass the labor capacity of all of these new immigrants and put them to use in public works and other infrastructure projects that would benefit all Americans and build a foundation for future prosperity, while at the same time guaranteeing a living wage, job safety and the like for the new workers.
I admit, though, that with the GOP controlling all three branches of government, we'll probably just get exploitation.
All of this might be made moot when we start our nuclear war with Iran (as per the Washington Post today).
Aaron,
Nice take on the issue. I honestly hadn't thought about how quickly a guest worker program would most likely resemble indentured servitude. At first glance, your public works plan sounds looks pretty solid. It's nice to know that some folks can take a reality-based look at social issues.
it's really amazing to hear the huge amount of venomous racism being spewed by the right wing these days....
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