In the immigration debate, the big problem is that many people see helping the immigrants and helping the Nickel and Dime people (the people profiled in
Barbara Ehrenreich's book) as mutually exclusive. In other words, if you want to help immigrants, you are somehow against the American worker and for the big corporations. That is simply not true. This is a myth promoted by Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, and other such people as they try to divide this country.
If you buy into the myth that supporting immigrant rights means opposing American workers, you are not necessarily a racist or xenophobe. Only you know whether you are or not. But you are letting yourself be used by Rush Limbaugh to promote his latest scapegoats in an effort to return the Republicans to power in 2006 and 2008.
The right-wing can never engage with us on substantive issues. So, they need scapegoats to blame so that we will not unite against the common enemy - the abusive corporations and the right-wing power structure that supports them. Rush Limbaugh's rhetoric against immigrants is the perfect example of this.
This demonization of immigrants by the Republicans is nothing new. For example:
1. Ronald Reagan blamed "welfare queens" for gaming the system and living the high life off of welfare.
2. Conservatism as an ideology blames the homeless for not getting a job. In their book, if you are poor, that means that you did not work hard enough.
3. James Dobson equates gays demanding fair treatment with demanding special rights. This is the same sort of rhetoric that was used by the segregationists during the civil rights struggles. Now, people are accusing the immigrants of wanting special rights.
4. Religious fundamentalists love to talk in grand conspiratorial tones about how the New Age Movement is conspiring to take away our cherished way of life. For instance, they conflate opposition to school prayer with wanting to return to the days of persecuting Christians and sending them to the lions. Another example was the popular Left Behind Series.
5. George Bush I was constantly blaming lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits as the reason we don't have adequate medical care. Rush Limbaugh echoed that theme; hysterical Republicans have used that as an excuse to absolve gigantic corporations from any kind of liability.
6. Right-wingers blaming the people of New Orleans for not leaving; Barbara Bush saying that she did not want to bother her "beautiful mind" with such stuff.
7. Any number of hysterical Republicans such as Grover Norquist blaming taxes for any number of this country's ills.
8. Bush using terrorists as an excuse to invade Iraq, kidnap people and send them to foreign jails around the globe for torture, and torture at Guantanamo personally approved by Rumsfeld.
9. People like John Conryn using activist judges as an excuse to roll back choice, civil rights, and women's rights.
10. Bush using nukes as an excuse to bully Iran and possibly start war with them.
So, if you think that immigrants are the scapegoats for the corporate wage suppression that is happening both here and around the world, you have learned absolutely nothing from the long Republican track record of smearing scapegoats in order to frighten people into voting for them.
As a liberal, I do not accept the worn-out rhetoric that we have to help either one or the other. We have to help both immigrants AND American citizens. Our Declaration of Independence, in which all people are created equal, requires no less. It does not mean that some people are more equal than others. It does not even apply to Americans only. It means every single person born on this world.
Most of my plans for this have focused on the immigrants. But lest people accuse me of focusing only on the immigrant and not on the American citizen, I have plenty of ideas both for creating jobs and ending the cycle of wage suppression that has racked our country since the passage of NAFTA:
1. Eliminate NAFTA, CAFTA, and the China Agreement, which allowed American companies to flood the markets with cheap food and drive millions of local farmers out of business.
2. Work against Hillary Clinton's presidential bid; she served on the board of Wal-Mart before her husband became President.
3. Aggressively prosecute any company which uses firings or bankruptcy as an excuse to bust unions as well as prosecute companies who hire immigrants for subminimum wages.
4. Double the minimum wage.
5. Many people are unable to start their own business because they can't afford the massive health insurance costs. We need to implement Universal Health Care in order to allow people to start their own business without having to worry about health care costs.
I understand many who argue that more immigration means a bigger job pool, meaning that wages go down. But we do not have to accept that as the final argument. We have the capability to create jobs that would way more than offset the increase in immigration here. Jobs such as these:
1. Legalize pot and hemp, allowing the formation and expansion of a whole new industry, allowing us to become an exporter of goods rather than an importer.
2. Create biofuel plants across the country.
3. Hold a design competition for hybrid cars for five years in a row; the winners would be able to form their own company; the government would help subsidize their start-up.
4. Create high-speed trains. High-speed trains could eliminate traffic congestion and get people to work in less than one third of the time it would take to drive. For instance, you could get from Portland to Seattle in one hour.
5. Eliminate the prohibitions on stem-cell research.
6. Create a US Department of Peace and train people in conflict resolution skills and have them resolve tribal conflicts and build economies. Nicholas Kristof has written extensively about the transformative power of education in the third world. American workers who educate people in third-world countries can help break cycles of ignorance and violence that leads to so much trouble and suffering.
7. Resurrect the WPA. Any person unable to find work can be employed. They would rebuild New Orleans and maintain our infrastructure. Furthermore, undocumented immigrants can work for them or a community service organization for a certain amount of time in return for a Green Card. This would eliminate subminimum wages by giving undocumented workers a choice as well as driving wages up for American citizens as well.
8. Resurrect the Space Program, design space vehicles much better than the Space Shuttles, and plan for a return to the Moon as well as Mars. This will inspire children of all ages and genders to take up math and science; there is a heavy shortage of math and science teachers in this country.
9. Implement the Schweitzer plan, convert coal to oil and sell it abroad. This would make us an exporter of goods, rather than an importer.
The whole idea is to create a whole range of skilled and unskilled jobs that would eliminate unemployment and allow both immigrants and American citizens to do what they want with their lives. If you are like me and want to spend the rest of your life pondering our political problems, you can grow pot, sell enough for a living, and write away. If you want to use your math and science skills, you can help move the country and the world forward.
