The Pink Flamingo :: It Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Racism

Juan Carlos Lopez of "CNN Espanol" says of Hispanic voters (nearly 10% of registered voters in the U.S.): "They consider the whole debate on immigration not just to be directed against illegal immigrants but against Hispanics as a whole." (Thanks Steve Maloney)

It seems to me that the racist element of the anti-immigration far right is getting bolder in their rhetoric. I want to make clear that not everyone who is anti-immigration is racist. But – there are racists who are involved. This is about those individuals.

I am now also wondering how our anti-immigration anti-McCain people are going to handle McCain’s victory in the 2nd most anti-immigration state in the country, Arizona being the first (ironically). Unfortunately, some of the rhetoric is becoming a little frightening. For people who are simply interested in the immigration issue because of national security, etc. this rhetoric is not seen. I wish they would daily read the extreme anti-immigration blogs I read, and perhaps they would see this change I am seeing.

It is quite obvious that conservatives who have fallen for the party line against immigration are not going to be convinced by anything, especially not facts that come from sources other than conservatives. For this I am truly sorry.

THE MARCH OF THE MINUTEMEN
Last week in South Carolina at a meeting of the minutemen, et. al….(Greg Siskind’s Blog)

“"This fight is not just about illegal immigration," said state Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, who helped organize the group. "The fight is about preserving American culture and preserving our way of life."… "We want to make it very clear that we're not racists," said Patricia Matthews, the Minuteman chapter director. "We just want our country back." Most comments focused on Hispanics. Audience members and speakers alike appeared especially irritated by the growing presence of the Spanish language, on telephone prompts and in public-school classes. "You ride by a work site and you don't see black people there, and you don't see white people there," said Margaret Thompson, a Clemson city councilwoman who has crusaded against illegal immigration. "If it appears they are all Hispanic-speaking, does not a red flag go up?"…”

NYTimes on the immigrant vote:

“…President Bush largely got it right on immigration. He recognized the hard-working nature of immigrants, even those who arrived illegally. He said the nation needed a path to legal status. According to exit polls, Mr. Bush drew about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004 — a record for a Republican presidential candidate. But just one current Republican contender, John McCain, offers anything but lock-step allegiance to the enforcement-only approach now. In a poll late last year by the Pew Hispanic Center, only 23 percent of Latinos identified themselves as Republicans, down from 28 percent in 2006. Hispanics who identified themselves as Democrats surged from 49 percent to 57 percent. The Latino voters’ group expects Hispanics to account for 11 percent of the vote in Nevada, a state that Mr. Bush — with 39 percent of the Hispanic vote — won by a mere 2.6 percentage points in 2004….”

Richard Nadler of America’s Majority Foundation reports

“…as my study repeatedly demonstrates, candidates of both parties win elections in the Southwest on platforms that include a variety of immigration restrictions and border security measures. Hayworth lost advocating not what he shared with other candidates, but what distinguished him: the goal of mass deportation. Aside from Tom Tancredo, there has not been a single elected official more publicly associated with the deportationist point of view than J.D. Hayworth. I included an analysis of his district not because it was rich in Hispanic votes – it is not – but because if the widely-touted anti-illegal backlash of non-Hispanic whites were to materialize anywhere, Scottsdale and Tempe were prime candidates. Hayworth, who carried AZ 05 against his Democratic rival 59%-to-38% in 2004, lost by 46%-to-50% in 2006. The negative reaction of Hispanics to a deportationist platform was swift and measureable. The “positive” response of non-Hispanic Whites was not.

Neither Rep. Hayworth, nor any of my other critics, have grasped the central point of my study: what the G.O.P. lost where it ran deportationist candidates can be measured in actual votes cast by Hispanics. Over a single election cycle, a shift of 3 or 4 percentage points within a major voting block is considered significant. The anti-deportationist backlash I measured among Hispanics of 20-plus points signals a major realignment, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the G.O.P…”

Three of the leading anti-immigration wonks have a new book out The Immigration Solution (Doesn’t it sound like the infamous The Final Solution?). I think the title is chilling. The authors include Victor Davis Hanson who has recently started to sound a little less hard-line on his immigration positions, and Heather MacDonald who never met a statistic she couldn’t misrepresent or manipulate and evidently never met a Mexican she ever liked. Dan Stein, another John Tanton puppet reports on the book. Naturally Malkin has a review.
The Front Page symposium by Jamie Glazov.

“…Macdonald: In observing the standard discourse about immigration I noticed a certain archetype popping up again and again, especially in the discourse of open border conservatives: what I call the “redemptive Hispanic.” It was said that Hispanic immigrants would save America from itself by reinvigorating those family and religious values that it was in danger of losing. Certainly, there are millions of Hispanic immigrants and their children who fit this paradigm; their admirable work ethic has revitalized neighborhoods and brought valuable cultural traditions to this country. But as a Los Angeles native, I was not so sure that the archetype of the “redemptive Hispanic” captured the entire story of Hispanic immigration….”

MacDonald based her research on her factually challenged piece Hispanic Family Values. I did a profile of her at The Subway Canaries about a year and a half ago.

DEPORT ‘EM ALL
That’s the hard line Mike Huckabee has adopted, straight from the John Tanton Playbook.

THE FINAL SOLUTION
From a recent Linda Chavez column:

“…In Arizona, for example, personal income is higher, as is the gross state product, the measure of all economic activity in the state. Unemployment is lower, as is household poverty. And crime is lower than both the national average and the average among states with fewer immigrants.

And, the trends for HIJs are every bit as good as the absolute numbers. Not only are GSP, personal income, per capita personal income, disposable income, per capita disposable income, median household income and per capita median personal income higher than in other states, but they have been growing at faster rates between 1999 and 2006 than in other states.

In the area of crime, the trends are especially encouraging for HIJs. The 10 high influx states, those that experienced the most dramatic percentage increases in immigrant population from 2000-2007, had the lowest rates of violent crime and total crime, according to FBI figures. In 1999, the 19 HIJs did have higher crime rates, but the rates declined much faster than they did in lower immigration states over the next seven years: 13.6 percent faster compared with 7.1 percent in total crime and 15 percent compared with 1.2 percent in violent crime, leading to lower crime rates overall in HIJs in 2006….”

A reader sent a link to a column anti immigration hysterical Frosty Woodbridge wrote for News With Views. This person also sent an email commentary following the column. It is chilling. Suggested to me is to take the word "illegl" and replace it with "Jew, Jewish" take the word "America, United States" and replace with Germany.

"…If 20 million illegal aliens returned "home," the U.S. economy would return to the rule of law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage. Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local state and city coffers.

No more push '1' for Spanish or '2' for English. No more confusion in American schools that now must content with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids. Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.
…Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to their home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America's economy – which currently suffers an $8.7 trillion debt.

At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California, Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupted out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act. Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country—brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders.

Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid locking our cities. It would also put the "progressives" on the horns of a dilemma; illegal aliens and their families cause 11 percent of our greenhouse gases.

….We invite 20 million aliens to go home, fix their own countries and/or make a better life in Mexico. We invite a million people into our country legally more than all other countries combined annually. We cannot and must not allow anarchy at our borders, more anarchy within our borders and growing lawlessness at every level in our nation. It’s time to stand up for our country, our culture, our civilization and our way of life.”

While I am not at liberty to reveal the identity of the responder because it is part of a private email, it was sent to me. I have been given permission to use it. It is from someone who is conservative and who is Jewish. When I began working on this subject, I did so after my editor told me the rhetoric he was hearing was the same that came out of Germany when his family fled for their lives in the early 1930s. His uncle was one of those legendary Nazi hunters. He told me how to look up people and the buzz words to watch for. When I did as he suggested, I was horrified.

“…This piece is full of misinformation, lies, distortions, misrepresentations of every kind.

Maybe Mr. Woodridge should take note of one obvious challenge to his thesis: all of the states with the biggest concentrations of immigrants, legal and illegal, are exceptionally prosperous.

The states in the country with the worst economies are also those with the smallest number of illegals (like Michigan). There's not a single city, or state, in which the "invasion" of illegals has actually wrecked the economy. I know there are lots of illegals in LV. It also happens to be one of the fastest growing, most booming economies in the country.

Nobody wants people entering the country without permission or documentation. But no sane adult actually believes that 20 million, or 12 million, of 6 million, will ever "go back where they came from." Just as an exercise, read through this piece again.

Try substituting the word "Jews" every time Frosty Woodridge uses the word "illegals." Do you see how beautifully this would fit with Hitler? The Nazi slogan was "Die Juden sind ihre Ungluck." (The Jews are Our Misfortune). Germany would be prosperous, clean, safe, moral, powerful and uncrowded again if only the Jews would "move back where they came from."

The Nazis didn't start out wanting to kill Jews.

They intended only to deport them -- very "humanely," just the way …promises to deport all illegals....

… There's nothing conservative about considering an unprecedented expansion in government power and intrusion to bring about the biggest forced migration in all human history.”