Gratuitously cruel actions should be met quickly with moral outrage in a manner designed to reach as many people as possible. “Stunts” by creeps like DeSantis and Abbott violate basic standards of human decency. Yet just a few months after DeSantis’s Martha’s Vineyard flight, Texas Gov. Abbott had no problem abandoning over 100 asylum seekers on D.C. street on a subfreezing Christmas Eve.
This is Niemoller-“First-they-came”-level viciousness and early stage fascism.
After past incidents there has been talk of criminal investigations, along with debates about what federal or state statutes apply and whether these actions fall within the legal definitions of trafficking, fraud or others. Yet as Abbott’s Christmas Eve obscenity shows, sociopath governors have not been deterred and are even upping the malevolent ante by leaving people out in the cold, where but for decent people’s actions they could sicken or even die.
Letting this pass again without expression of collective outrage is passively helping define deviancy down.
I have been trying to think of an appropriate response that would reach the most people. Yes, outrage is being registered on social media, and maybe MSNBC, but since we don’t have Fox and Hate Radio, the only thing I can think of to quickly express the required outrage would be a prime time speech by President Biden. Here’s a suggested draft:
My Fellow Americans
Like millions of you, our family and the Vice-President’s family celebrated the Holiday season surrounded by the warmth of our homes and families. In my Christmas message, I asked Americans to “spread a little kindness.” In Jill’s Hanukkah message, she spoke of “miracles of love and faith and kindness and courage that surround us each and every day.”
Most Americans believe in these ideas and live by them.
So it is inexplicable when the highest officials in some of our states take actions mocking the very aspirations we celebrate at this time of the year. On Christmas Eve, three busloads of asylum-seeking adult and child refugees were unloaded in the bitter cold on the street outside the Naval Observatory, the vice presidential residence in Washington, D.C. They were sent by the Governor of Texas. Most had no winter clothes.
To abandon men, women and children on the streets of Washington in 18 degree freezing weather is reprehensible enough. To do it on a night we sing about “goodwill toward men” and light candles of freedom cruelly denigrates the beliefs of all major faiths and groups. With prior stunts like flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this year, certain Governors are engaging in a race to the bottom in how to use people as pawns to make a political point. It’s the same heartlessness that intentionally tore apart families in the prior administration.
There are many ways to express disagreement with an administration’s policies, especially by those in high office. Actions can be legally taken in courts and legislatures on local, state, and federal levels.
But using vulnerable human beings as pawns in a cynical stunt is simply not acceptable in a country dedicated to principles of fairness and humanity. I have been informed that local and federal law enforcement is looking into whether any criminal statutes were violated by the actions on Christmas Eve or earlier this year, and we will let independent judicial processes determine whether this is appropriate.
But I make this statement to let our country and the world immediately know my administration and, we believe, most decent people in all states in this great country reject grotesque cruelty in any form, especially as a way to make a political point.
God Bless America. And God Bless all those of every faith and political party who practice justice and common decency.
I considered, but rejected, including material about phony “open borders” issues or Republicans stopping immigration reform because while our arguments are strong, it complicates expression of the fundamental moral issue.
Let the right scream about open borders and Biden overreach or “threats.” Let the media concern-troll like they did about the President’s “MAGA Republican Semi-Fascist” speeches.
Good people need to make a stand against brutality and atrocities. If this isn’t a case where the “bully pulpit”* is warranted, I don’t know what is.
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You know who’s with us on this issue?
Young people.
And they can help get rid of sociopaths is office once and for all. Support these or other groups working for young voter activism: