Phil Windley speaks up about the current anti-immigrant fiasco...
The level of xenophobia and insecurity required to say that government shouldn't make useful information available in a variety of formats and languages is just stunning. This is really about erecting barriers, not assimilation. I'm embarrased.Politicians love to erect barriers when it serves their immediate interests. Gay, hispanic, french, black, muslim, jewish, protestant, catholic, female... the list goes back into time and will ignorantly proceed into the future.
Scene 5:The current anti-hispanic machine is a purely ironic facade. There is no way the fascists want to eliminate "illegals" from the work force. This machine serves dual purposes -- get out the xenophobic vote (the homophobic vote may not work so soon after 2004) *and* provide the means to legally indenture foreign workers for many years.
- BEDEVERE:
- Tell me. What do you do with witches?
- CROWD:
- Burn! Burn them up! Burn!
- BEDEVERE:
- And what do you burn apart from witches?
- VILLAGER #1:
- More witches!
We *certainly* all agree it would be "impractical" to attempt deporting millions of people -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Ahem, they won't mention to Mr. and Mrs. Blue Collar that they'd find it *antithetical* to eliminate millions of powerless people from the labor pool and provide blue collar workers more leverage to organize. Better to keep them blissfully irate at the "illegals" stealing their jobs while we pause in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
Oh, and fences. We need fences.
1 comment:
The rise in illegal immigration goes hand-in-hand with the downfall of unions in the 1980's. The Republicans are trying to have it both ways: appeal to their xenophobic contingent by being "strong on illegal immigration" and appeal to their corporate contingent by establishing legal indentured servitude as opposed to the last couple of decades of under-the-table-servitude.
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