If you haven't seen this video yet, it's truly worth the next two minutes of your time.
It's particularly aggravating to me when politicians from Texas bash immigrants, because the state culture owes so much to the contributions of much-vilified immigrants. Going right back to the early days of Texas when central Texas was built up largely by German immigrants who were despised and vilified by what was basically the Tea Party of the time to now, when Mexican immigrants add so much culturally and economically and are shit on by our conservatives.
Needless to say, the reason that the creators of Superman made him an undocumented immigrant who struggles to find his place in the American dream is that they themselves were the children of immigrants, and that was in fact their families' dreams.
Part of me almost flinched to imagine the lip-smacking glee that reporters got out of pushing Marco Rubio—-the son of Cuban immigrants—-on the issue of whether or not he supports the 14th amendment. The problem here is that there’s no way to ask the question that doesn’t carry the implication, “How much of your basic dignity are you willing to peddle out to get votes?” Because there’s exactly no chance that there’s enough political momentum going to repeal the 14th amendment, which means the entire issue is one of racist grand-standing. Rachel Maddow explained the issue on her show:
In sum, asking the question, “Do you wish to repeal the 14th amendment?” is a way of saying, “Is your campaign angling to get the racist vote by taking potshots at the children of immigrants?” And lest any motherfuckers whine that this is just about the children of illegal immigrants, let me point out that without birthright citizenship, there’s a strong possibility that the children of legal immigrants would lose a whole shitload of rights as well. One thing the birthright citizenship does is expedite the process of integrating an immigrant family into the U.S. If that was replaced with a system where the baby also had to go through an onerous citizenship process, then that would not only be an unnecessary headache, but would likely create a bunch of stateless people. I don’t imagine Rubio enjoys having to answer a question that is functionally, “Would you prefer to rewrite the laws of the country so someone like yourself is a second class citizen?”
The crusade against illegal immigration is interpreted by many Hispanics as a crusade against Hispanics.
Which is a way of saying, “Many Hispanics perceive reality accurately and adjust their votes accordingly.”
That this election cycle is being dominated by racist resentment is a matter of fact, not opinion. This is all very simple. A lot of loud-mouthed Tea Crackers are spreading racist myths like it’s gonna get them laid, Republican politicians feel this is an issue to demagogue about, and this increases the presence of these myths and stereotypes in the mainstream media. The end result is, I suspect, that none of the racist legislation the Tea Crackers want gets passed, but the Republicans do a bang-up job of establishing themselves as the Party of Racists right when the country as a whole is becoming more racially diverse and less racist.
This week, I was doing some research on the surge in rhetoric about repealing the 14th amendment for the podcast,* and I have to admit that even I was astounded to hear how Fox News’ preferred nomenclature for people who immigrate here without going through the green card/citizenship channels is “illegals”. Just “illegals”. Not “illegal immigrants”, and of course not “undocumented immigrants” or “undocumented workers”.
The usual anti-racist reaction to the term “illegals” is to say, “Actions are illegal, people aren’t.” Which is a sane, accurate response. But I have to admit, the term “illegals” causes such a gut wrench in me that this response seems inadequate. It reminds me of another favorite term of conservatives: “illegitimate”. Both these terms convey an argument in them, and that argument is that if you aren’t blessed by the acceptance of married paternity** or U.S. citizenship, then you are cast out, not really a full human being. “Illegal” is a term straight out dystopian sci-fi, which loves to create dehumanizing terms to show how much a certain class of people have been pushed out of society. The Handmaid’s Tale had the term “Unwoman” to describe women who had no sexual or reproductive value to the patriarchy and were thrown out. In 1984, the “proles” were basically seen as animals. In Logan’s Run, people over 35 who don’t submit to execution willfully are called “runners”. I’m sure you can come up with a million examples. In science fiction, the process of casting a group of people out (or targeting them for extermination), and then giving them a dehumanizing nickname is one of the most common tropes.
“Illegals” sounds like a term straight out of this sci-fi tradition, except it’s happening in real life. And when it comes to the treatment of undocumented immigrants, this is a sci-fi style dystopia. Check out this story, for instance:
I’m joking, of course, because Democrats are like the Washington Generals of rhetorical battles, but the conservative push to revise the 14th Amendment has taken on a new and, some might say, terrible messaging push.
“Some” means me. Because it’s fucking terrible.
The 14th Amendment, you see, is the “anchor baby” amendment. I swear to God.
For those of you not familiar with the 14th Amendment, it’s sort of like the catch-all Amendment for all the things we really enjoy, like Due Process and voting and shit like that. It’s the reason that states can’t discriminate between races, that gender protections exist in the Constitution, that a number of fundamental voting rights exist, that you can’t be imprisoned for have sex with someone of the same gender, and so on. To reduce the 14th Amendment to the “anchor baby” amendment is tantamount to a full-on denigration of women, every minority group and, well, fuck it: America itself.
Not even going into whether or not the “anchor baby” controversy is real (there are no reliable statistics on how many people actually do this, and all signs point to this number being vanishingly small), it just seems weird that the GOP, so proud of the 14th Amendment otherwise, is now going all in on portraying one of its sterling achievements as nothing more than a misbegotten provision being taken advantage of by dirty Mexicans. Although they did also have the nation’s first Hispanic governor, who would presumably be recast as the nation’s first potential deportation of a Mexican illegal.
The bloodbath continues along our southern border and now word is coming in that Los Zetas, the highly trained killers formerly with the Gulf Cartel, have crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed. The source is law enforcement in the area.
To be fair, in large areas of Texas, “law enforcement” is “anyone with guns”, so this sort of makes sense. In another and more accurate way, however, it does not.
“We didn’t have any incidents on the American side. It’s hard for people to understand who don’t live here,” he added. “They’re not Vikings, they’re not going to invade us, it doesn’t work that way.”
Then, again, from actual law enforcement officials:
Local law enforcement was bombarded with calls from across the country Saturday asking about a report that the Zetas had taken over two ranches off Mines Road.
But officials with the Laredo Police Department, Webb County Sheriff’s Department and Border Patrol said they knew nothing about such an incident, while Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, said the agency does not comment on rumors.
The report, which spread like wildfire among blogs Saturday afternoon, appears to have initially been posted on a blog called Diggers Realm.
The blogger wrote that he got a tip from a San Diego, Calif., minuteman named Jeff Schwilk, who said that the Zetas, former enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, had crossed into the United States and taken over two ranches off Mines Road, about 10 miles northwest of Interstate 35.
To summarize: an idiot called up another idiot and told them that now was the time for Total Ultimate Warfare against the Messicans. But how far could such a rumor go in the discerning realm of conservative blogging? Surely, nobody would pick up a story that was the equivalent of your cousin calling you at 2:30 in the morning to tell you that he thinks he’s going home with Katy Perry after doing a round of Jaegerbombs at a TGI Friday’s. Surely.
In what could be deemed an act of war against the sovereign borders of the United States, Mexican drug cartels have seized control of at least two American ranches inside the U.S. territory near Laredo, Texas.
Two sources inside the Laredo Police Department confirmed the incident is unfolding and they would continue to coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol today. “We consider this an act of war,” said one police officer on the ground near the scene. There is a news blackout of this incident at this time and the sources inside Laredo PD spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In case you were wondering, any state west of the Mississippi has the right to declare what is or isn’t an act of war. Particularly when they’ve employed super-awesome Laredo Police Officer Buff Killington, MBA/Krav Maga Expert.
The Cypress Times has 100% confirmed this report with a second law enforcement official, presumably Lt. Cinnamon Sweetbottom-Grant, who took up protecting the people of Laredo after her husband was brutally murdered in the parking lot of an H-E-B during a shootout between rival Mexican gangs Las Bibliotecas and Los Fuentes de Agua.
Dan Riehl, even though he admits that it’s false, still can’t help fantasizing over Team America: Texas Edition going all Special Forces on the invisible Mexican Menace.
This can’t actually be happening, can it? What, do they figure the numb-nuts in the WH is so weak they can get away with a move like this? Okay, on second thought, maybe they have a point. But still. Hell, the right configuration of Texans could end this nonsense. Retired special forces, anyone?
From all of this, I predict the following. One: within a year, a group of Brazilian tourists in Orlando will be attacked as a roving Mexican street gang. Two: we will see a roughly 600,000% rise in in the number of Tea Party YouTube videos using clips from The Expendables to simulate an elite commando group killing half of Mexico. None of them will be racist, and the ones that are will secretly be made by MoveOn.org.
Part of me almost flinched to imagine the lip-smacking glee that reporters got out of pushing Marco Rubio—-the son of Cuban immigrants—-
This week, I was doing some research on the surge in rhetoric about repealing the 14th amendment for the podcast,* and I have to admit that even I was astounded to hear how Fox News’ preferred nomenclature for people who immigrate here without going through the green card/citizenship channels is “illegals”. Just “illegals”. Not “illegal immigrants”, and of course not “undocumented immigrants” or “undocumented workers”. 
The big rumor of the day is that