Diversions Of Politics

They pit the lifers against the new boy and the young against the old. The black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place.
---Yaphet Kotto, as Smokey James in the movie Blue Collar

I want to just write a little bit today to expand on yesterday's post. First off, the first anonymous comment was from someone who came to my blog from a site called stop-immigration.org, which is an organization that promotes ending all immigration to America, legal and illegal. A little searching around that site and you find little tidbits comparing Mexicans coming across the border to the Nazi invasion of Poland. I don't think I need to point out to anybody why that's just insane. What's weird is how fast this guy posted a message on my blog. A little looking around that right-wing, jingoistic, hate and fear-mongering site and I found that they have an "immigration blog" section that puts up links to any recent blog posts that have the words "illegal" and "immigration" in them. So that's how some nut ball responded to my post so quickly.

Oh, and the link to the study "proving" the horrible effect that immigrants are having on Social Security is from one of those anti-immigrant organizations that sells itself as a "non-partisan" think tank. Typical of the way conservatives run studies, they pick the answer they are looking for and then craft a study that will lead to that predetermined answer. Not what you would consider good science. It's similar to the way they claim that there isn't global warming by pointing to a study done by the one scientist, funded by an oil company, that disagrees with the other gazillion studies and scientists that say otherwise. Or those nefarious studies that claim to "prove" that gay marriage is bad for children, when in fact real studied have proven the exact opposite. They had similar studies that "proved" interracial marriage was bad for kids too.

Anyway, that's not the point today.

I've written about this before (here and here), and I have yet to see anyone make a reasonable argument to me that this whole anti-immigration movement is not based in racism.

And I know that's a loaded term. Calling someone a racist is a very serious charge. It used to be a term that got thrown around too much, so now we are scared as a culture to use it at all. But as the old saying goes, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck blah blah blah. You know what I mean. And because I call them racists, they claim I'm inflaming the issue. But you want to talk about inflaming the issue? How about trying to link Hispanics crossing the Mexican border to terrorism (or "terror" as the low IQ set likes to call it) or calling it an invasion?

How many times do they need it pointed out to them that that's not how terrorists get into the country, running across the southern border? And they know it, but since the attacks on the World Trade Center they found an issue they could use to scare people into being fervently anti-immigrant. Well, most of these people already were anti-Hispanic immigrant, now they've been armed with a justification beyond that they don't like how "those people" pack too many people into an apartment or park their crappy cars on their lawn.

And that's how this movement has gotten such a footing. It s a movement that drapes itself in populism and solidarity with the working class, while playing on ignorant poor people's bigoted tendencies. Human beings tend to want to blame someone else for their lot in life, and there's usually a politician or greedy business owner willing to offer up a sacrificial lamb for their own aims. It's how they keep the masses in line, give them a boogie man to focus on and distract them from the fact it is the said politician and business owner that is the real cause of their oppression.

A century and a half ago it was often the Irish blamed for the country's problems. In my lifetime we saw the disgusting way Ronald Reagan demonized the so-called Cadillac driving welfare mother who keeps having children so her checks get bigger. In one swoop Reagan put the idea in all Americans' heads that the reason their lives were so hard was because all the black women in the country were on welfare and driving big luxury cars on your dime and were getting rich by having more kids. Never mind that none of it was true, not even close.

But the die was cast. Reagan made sure the minimum wage was never raised during his presidency, gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy, busted unions the best he could, handed out corporate welfare like Halloween candy and created a record (until recently) national debt that hurt our economy for a generation. But he had people believing that it was the poor women on welfare that were the reason they couldn't pay their bills.

And he had his help from the media. Some because they were just stupid, bad reporters, and some because they were just plain evil, like Lou Dobbs. And it continues today. Dobbs whole life is about demonizing Hispanics and propping up racist groups that claim, and this is just one example, Mexicans are trying to take over the American southwest by invasion and will call it Aztlan. And immigrants have become the scapegoats for the problems with our health care system, our public schools, reason we won't have Social Security when we retire and why the minimum wage is so low. And just like the fictitious mother with the Cadillac, people believe that illegal immigrants are coming here and going on welfare and sitting around and lazily collecting free money.

And of course, just like that stupid white guy you know who can barely tie his own shoes who claims the reason he didn't get that great job is because of affirmative action, it is not true. Our health care system, public schools and Social Security are messed up because of our elected officials and corporate greed, not because of a few Mexicans living on the fringes of society. And the minimum wage is low because the Republicans have controlled Congress for the last twelve years and they would rather cut the capital gains and estate taxes for rich people than give poor people an extra nickel an hour.

The diversion of "immigrant are the cause of your problems" is just another way they keep the poor people fighting each other so that they are blind to the real reasons they can't get ahead.

The saddest part is that it works so well.

Bum On The Rod

author unknown

The bum on the rod is hunted down
As the enemy of mankind;
The other is driven around to his club
And feted, wined and dined.
And they who curse the bum on the rods
As the essence of all that is bad

Will greet the other with a winning smile
And extend him the hand so glad.
The bum on the rods is a social flea
Who gets an occasional bite;
The bum on the plush is a social leech,
Blood-sucking day and night.

The bum on the rods is a load so light
That his weight we scarcely feel,
But it takes the labor of dozens of men
To furnish the other meal.

As long as you sanction the bum on the plush,
The other will always be there,
But rid yourself of the bum on the plush
And the other will disappear.

Then make an intelligent, organized kick,
Get rid of the weights that crush;
Don't worry about the bum on the rods,
Get rid of the bum on the plush.