I have seen the post-Labor Day election strategy coming from Karl Rove's twisted peanut and he looks suspiciously like a Mexican. The
NY Times today profiles the latest attempt by the GOP to continually hammer the immigration issues in a frighteningly successful attempt to stir the always simmering nativist tendencies of the American public.
[m]any Republicans, on the defensive here and around the country over the war in Iraq, say they are finding that a hard-line immigration stance resonates not just with conservatives, who have been disheartened on other fronts this year, but also with a wide swath of voters in districts where control of the House could be decided.
When in doubt, bash the brown people who don't speak English. But we already knew that. The really twisted part - and this tells you as much about the Republican worldview as anything - is the GOP spinning a hardline against Mexicans as a GOP "strength" on national security.
More loco Republicans on the flip.
"Immigration is an issue that is really popping, " said Dan Allen, a Republican strategist. "It is an issue that independents are paying attention to as well. It gets us talking about security and law and order."
Security? Law and order? You mean like all that "security" that Iraq got us? Or all that security that bribing Pakistan into "helping" us find Osama got us? (Ed. Osama? "Who dat" says the GOP hack.) Or law and order like NOT breaking federal law on wiretaps? Or NOT breaking every law on the books when it comes to torture? Or how about those old-fashioned laws dealing with how politicians aren't supposed to take BRIBES! Its enough to make a sane man vomit in his mouth.
But sadly, it works. Nothing whips Americans into a frothy mouthed frenzy as much as bashing the "Other" - women, blacks, gays, 21st century Jews (i.e. Muslims) and so on. And one of our favorite whipping posts - the immigrant. Doesn't matter if they are legal or not. (Ignore all that blather about how the right wing doesn't have a problem with legal immigrants - if every single migrant worker in this country was legal, they'd find some other thing to bash them for) We just LOVES to bash immigrants. Its a tradition as old as America. Ben Franklin loved to bash the Germans in the 18th century. Everyone loved to bash the Irish in the 19th and 20th century. For a while there, Jew-baiting was a national sport. And let's not forget the "Yellow Peril." Hell, we even managed to get the Supreme Court to OK rounding up all the Japs during World War II. Yee-ha!
And today, its the Mexicans. Doesn't matter if they're Nicaraguans, Dominicans, Guatamalans, Panamanians, Ecuadorians, Brazilians - they're all Mexicans, right? Unless, of course, you're in the Northeast, in which case they're all Puerto Ricans. The only exception, of coures, being the Cubans, because they're "good" Mexicans escaping Castro who we all know is as bad as Hitler.
We can't let them get away with this. Too many Democrats running for office in "swing" districts are attempting to have it both ways, offering up a mealy mouthed response something along the lines of: "We should tighten our borders and get tough on illegal immigration, but...um...not like the Republicans want to?" The vomit just rises into one's mouth hearing it.
I'm sick and tired of it. As the admittedly juvenile comedian Carlos Mencia puts it, if you are an American BORN in this country and the other guy is fresh off the boat from Nicaragua and DOESN'T SPEAK ANY ENGLISH, just how bad was your FUCKING interview that you couldn't get the job?
The response to these pinhead Republicans is easy. It goes like this: "Immigration? Immigration?!?!? With everything you guys can't fix, you think IMMIGRATION is the biggest issue facing this country. Fine. Mr. Voter - if you think immigration is the biggest issue in your life right now, then vote for the other guy. If, on the other hand, you think there might be some things that are a little more important, like the fact that nobody can afford health care, if they have it, or that our schools are a mess, or that nobody who isn't well off can afford to send their kids to college, or that you haven't had a raise in five years while Paris Hilton gets tax cut after tax cut, or that gas is over $3 a gallon and all they can do is ask the Saudis if they'd like it in 10s or 20s, or that the ICE CAPS ARE MELTING and New Orleans was just the trailer, then vote for ME."
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then offering up moral cowardice when facing a bullying poindexter is grounds for institutionalization at Bellevue.
Balls. They live between your legs, Democrats. Find them. Polish them. Use them.
/rant