Immigrants! Man, the Republicans are nonstop with the immigrants this week. “Vermin!” “Diluting our blood!” “Murderers and rapists!” “Puppy killers!” Oh wait, that last one’s a Republican governor. Anyway, listening to the Repubs, it’s clear immigrants are responsible for all the badness of modern life, including crime, drugs, unemployment, inflation, college protests, and the startling avalanche of commercials for psoriasis. The base is as inflamed as their hemorrhoids after hours sitting on hard chairs listening to their Dear Leader rant. Something must be done to keep these dastardly immigrants from snatching the mops and brooms out of the hands of our children!
Let me tell you about MY encounters with immigrants. The other day, I bought some young trees from a local nursery, needing to replace trees brought down by violent storms (can we pin that on the immigrants too?). Since the trees were a bit too big for me to handle by myself, I had the nursery deliver the trees along with a team to plant them for me. So 4 trees arrived in the company of 3 workers, who, based on the fact that they spoke only Spanish, I immediately deduced were immigrants. And no, I did not inquire about the status of their paperwork, as I didn’t feel my blood being diluted. Well these guys dug holes by hand for the 3-foot rootballs and manhandled the trees into place while I was still getting my hose attached and up to the planting site. Talk about hard work! And it was summer-hot. They got all the trees in, mulched and everything cleaned up in no time at all. And they didn’t pilfer anything from my garage (though that might’ve saved me from paying more immigrants to carry stuff away, sigh), even though listening to the Repubs you’d think I was lucky my wife remained unraped and my pets unbarbecued. A one-off? Well, the landscapers were by the other day in the 90+ degree heat laying a bed of rocks to prevent erosion from the current, definitely-not-related-to-climate-change heavy rains. All immigrants again. All hard-working again. None a problem, again. Immigrant servers at restaurants? Pleasant and competent. I think we all see, every day, hard and undesirable jobs being done by immigrants—and often being done quite well. This threatens you how, exactly?
Oh, Porter, that’s just YOUR experience! There are crimes, sometimes horrific crimes, committed by immigrants! Yeah, except they are LESS likely to be violent criminals than our native-born Real Americans. But American-on-American crime isn’t sexy (well, maybe Black American on White American). And who cares about actual facts when there’s a good stereotype to promote? And a distraction to provide.
That’s right, the immigrant “crisis” is just the latest in a long line of boogeymen promoted SOLELY BY REPUBLICANS to give regular folks something to fear so they’d be distracted from how they’re being ripped off by the GOP. Just like pickpocket teams in the Paris metro spill soda on you so you don’t notice your wallet being lifted. This has been going on my whole life. Think about it. 1945-mid ‘80s it was Communism, the Red Scare! Commies were everywhere, going to destroy the American Way of Life! It was up to the Republicans to stop them—Democrats are soft on communism! Anticommunism was the lifeblood of the Republican party. But as soon as the USSR was on the ropes, they pivoted immediately to Drugs, and from the mid-80s to 2001 it was all war-on-drugs all the time for the GOP. But drugs wasn’t nearly as tantalizing as Muslim Terror, which became the (source of) rage from 2001 until the mid-teens, when 15 years of no terror attacks made the GOP cast about for a new boogeyman. Hey, what about immigrants? Yeah, that’s the ticket! They’re poor, their skin’s a different color and they talk funny! What’s to like? So now half the country’s falling in line to bash immigrants—because people who want to mow your lawn, paint your house and clean the floors in your mom’s nursing home are an existential threat to you, your children, democracy and all things holy! Just like the commies, and the drug addicts, and the terrorists used to be. And the Jews in 1930s Germany.
You think there just might be a pattern here? Authoritarian parties always need an “other” to demonize. A scapegoat that can bear all the sins and failings of society and then be driven out to purify the nation. A scapegoat that allows a people to avoid having to confront and fix their own failings. And, importantly, an “other” that can’t realistically be eliminated (well, the Germans tried) so it can remain a rallying cry as long as needed. And if people tire of it, it can and will be replaced by yet another irrational fear. What’ll be next? Who’ll be next? Another round for the Jews? (no fair, they had their turn). Maybe it’ll be you. Fight the fear-mongering.