LA Freeway Billboard
No Amnesty "Keep America for the Americans" thats the current rallying cry for the Xenophobic Nativists. This nasty venom being spewed from the Racist Right has been a recurring theme that has reared it's ugly head periodically throughout our nations history.
The restless Nativists that make up the majority of the GOP base are currently celebrating what they deem to be a great come from behind grass roots victory over big business and the political establishment. They better enjoy themselves while they can because they have no political future.
1950s sign in a Texas restaurant
Yesterday the GOP signed it's own death warrant by rejecting the Immigration Bill. President Bush is a fucking war mongering Neo-Con idiot that should be impeached and also tried as a war criminal as well as stand trial for treason however he isn't a racist when it comes to Hispanics. The religious right make up the majority of the Nativists and as much as I despise the dreaded NEO-CONS they were wise enough to realize that if this bill was rejected that their party was done for. Don't get me wrong I'm glad that the GOP is a dead duck however it sickens me to see such wide open racism still infecting this nation. Knowing the history of the USA when it comes to Xenophobia I should have expected the outcome of the Immigration Bill. Hopefully with a Democrat in the White House we can get a better Immigration Bill passed anyway.
GOP's Future
The above image represents the GOP going over Niagara Falls on a Jet Ski. This is a real picture in fact the daredevil who pulled this reckless stunt died when his parachute failed to open.
The GOP lost the African American vote back in the early 1960's and now they will never be getting any sizeable number of Hispanic votes ever again. I predict that eventually even the very reliable Republican Cuban Americans will get tired of the racist crap that currently infects the GOP and defect to us. If they hadn't supported Bush in Florida he would have not only lost to Gore in 2000 but also lost to Kerry in 2004 so we better get prepared to have an even bigger tent party than we already do.
KNOW NOTHING PARTY
It is my firm belief that the combination of NEO-CON war mongering , the Narrow Minded agenda of the Religious Right , and the outright hostility of the Nativists have doomed the GOP's future as a major political entity. It will surely die a slow death but in 20 years they may be as extinct as the KNOW NOTHING PARTY.
Bill the Butcher
In the year 2000:
63 million registered Democrats
47 million registered Republicans
32 million registered as Independents
In the past 8 years who knows just how many Millions of formerly registered Republican voters have defected to both the ranks of the Independents, third parties, and last but not least to the Democratic party itself.
The most ironic aspect of todays Nativists is the fact that it was the Nativists of the past that created the need for the undocumented workers in the first place. Prior to the 1924 Immigration Act* there was no limits at all on Immigration with the exceptions of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and later on also the 1917 Immigration Act which added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to, "idiots," "feeble-minded persons," "epileptics," "insane persons," alcoholics, "professional beggars," all persons "mentally or physically defective," polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. The most controversial part of the law was the section that designated an "Asiatic Barred Zone," a region that included much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands from which people could not immigrate. Previously, only the Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country and that was only after 1882 before that they had been allowed to come unrestricted. I almost failed to mention yet another Immigration restriction but it wasn't even a congressional bill but instead was known as The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1908 with Japan it basically banned any further Japanese Immigration to the USA without having to embarrass the Japanese government by passing a bill similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
James D. Phelan had his US SENATE re-election campaign posters contain the headline "Keep California White"
THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924 effectively cut off the mass immigration from Europe this Act was passed to severely curtail the entry of Italians , Greeks, European Jews , Austrians , Lapps , Russians ,French , Armenians ,Poles , Georgians , Romanians ,Hungarians, Swiss , Ruthenians , Serbians ,Croats, Czechs, Slovaks ,Spanish , Portuguese , Slovenians, Albanians , Latvians ,Finns , Danes , Belgians , Dutch ,Estonians , Lithuanians , Ukrainians , and other non-protestant European Nationals. They only allowed the Non-Catholic citizens of Norway , Great Britian , Germany , and Sweden to continue to enter the USA in large numbers.
The people from those more or less banned nations only sin was that they were Catholics ,Jews , and Eastern Greek Orthodox Christians. They also wanted to keep out Socialists , Anarchists , Communists , and Unionists. THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924 also banned most Arabs(Christians from Lebanon and Syria)from entry into the United States.
There would have been untold millions of more Americans if these earlier Nativists hadn't been so damned prejudiced against these non-Protestant Old World peoples. They still emigrated but instead of coming here they went by the millions to Argentina ,Brazil, Canada , Venezuela , Australia , South Africa , New Zealand , Chile ,Cuba , and many other locales mostly in the Americas.
This intentional void in immigration is what caused the need for undocumented workers so if the Nativists of today want to blame someone for the immigration crisis let them blame the Nativists of yesterday.
I lived in Latin America(Costa Rica ,Venezuela , Panama, and Mexico for 18 months during the late 1980's as a university student. I also traveled throughout both South America as well as Central America during my time there believe me these are damn good people down there they treated me like a brother furthermore as a matter of fact I much prefer their company than that of those ugly Norte Americano Nativists who give the rest of us a bad name.