Whose Country Is It, Anyway? - Vol. 3 Issue 72

As debate on the proposed Immigration Bill comes to its inevitable end, the American people remain fundamentally confused. It has been wonderful to see President Bush revert to the tradition of the “country club Republican,” by essentially siding with the Republican’s corporate base of large employers. Make no mistake, Bush and his corporate backers have a very specific agenda. If they can pass the current bill without fundamental changes, they will able to put great pressure on the American Labor movement. The law of supply and demand is powerful. If the U.S. is flooded with people who will work for less money than the unionized workers in many of our largest industries, the inevitable result will be a weakening of organized Labor and the strengthening of non-union workers. The big money/large employer base of the Republican Party loves this idea. The more people they can let in and legitimately let seek employment, the more it will depress wages. Economics 101 is not a course one can afford to skip!

But there is something much more troubling about the tone and the character of the “debate” on immigration and it really is something ugly in the nature human beings. For is it not a fact that every person living in the United States, other than native Americans, either is an immigrant, or is the descendant I of immigrants. Yet we hear the same arguments and the same anti-immigrant bigotry echoing from past battles. The Dutch felt that the British were crood and ignorant, just as the British looked down on the Irish who in turn looked down on the Italians. Of course, they ALL looked down on the eastern European Jews, until they proved themselves to be invaluable to the American economy and the culture. Well, you get the picture: “same as it ever was.” So it is simultaneously upsetting and amusing to hear the clamor white people and their talk about the need to protect our “culture.” Ask yourself this question: Is Yiddish threatening America? How about Gaelic? Italian? German? Polish? Russian? No. The historical reality is that allowing people to come here who yearn for freedom and want to make something of their lives has never hurt our country. The historical ignorance of the modern day nativists is truly something to behold. Like their brethren the neocons, they are filled with the fervor, intensity and utter certitude of the newly converted. To them I offer this reminder: WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS HERE, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US AND THE NEWLY ARRIVED IS TIME.

Viva Los Estados Unidos,

Savant

<< Back to main