America's image as a refuge for the outcast, the persecuted, and the poor is our most important and defining aspiration, even if we haven't always lived up to it. Trump is promising to destroy it.
Dorothy Thompson was the first US journalist to be chucked out of Hitler's Germany for telling the truth about the Nazi regime, although she would not be the last. In 1934, she observed, "No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the instrument — the Incorporated National Will."
Trump is carving out a bit of an exception to that conventional wisdom. He is representing himself as both instrument and dictator. When he lays out plans to do terrible, brutal, unconstitutional things once in power, to rule as a vindictive racist tyrant, one should not make the mistake of thinking he doesn't mean every word.
The economic impact that Linda highlighted is always what surprises me with their plan. This would be enormous. I haven't seen any data to support it, but personal observations make me believe immigration of all types has directly contributed to the growth of US economy since the early 90s. Home construction wouldn't have boomed like it did.
The hypocrisy of the anti-immigrant side is hard to take. They want low-cost (i.e., undocumented) construction workers, nannies, elder care workers, meat packers, restaurant workers, and so on.
But they need to keep them from being here legally because then the employees live in fear of speaking up against employer criminality, accept illegally low wages, can be cheated of their wages, and so on.
These immigration flows *are* a problem. If you live along the border, as a friend of ours does, you may have unknown people walking through your yard at all hours. It can be scary. Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, often don't report street crime, allowing criminal activity to thrive in their neighborhoods. Low wage undocumented workers do compete against low wage Americans in some industries, notably elder care, hospitality industry workers, and housekeepers. And in a country in which housing is in short supply, many cities are struggling to house immigrants whether here legally or not. The list of evils flowing from our immigration system goes on.
The worst part is that this is a deliberate, cynical system to drive Latin Americans and Haitians to immigrate by destroying their domestic industries and destabilizing their governments so that they will work cheap and not report wrongdoing by employers. As an added "benefit," it keeps the American political system agitated, with low-information voters thinking that Democrats want "open borders" even as it is mostly *Republicans* who want the low-wage workers and *Republicans* who start wars (including drug wars) against countries who they call "communist" but are more usually countries that try to raise the minimum wage or increase oil and mineral royalties.
Dorothy Thompson was the first US journalist to be chucked out of Hitler's Germany for telling the truth about the Nazi regime, although she would not be the last. In 1934, she observed, "No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the instrument — the Incorporated National Will."
Trump is carving out a bit of an exception to that conventional wisdom. He is representing himself as both instrument and dictator. When he lays out plans to do terrible, brutal, unconstitutional things once in power, to rule as a vindictive racist tyrant, one should not make the mistake of thinking he doesn't mean every word.
The economic impact that Linda highlighted is always what surprises me with their plan. This would be enormous. I haven't seen any data to support it, but personal observations make me believe immigration of all types has directly contributed to the growth of US economy since the early 90s. Home construction wouldn't have boomed like it did.
The hypocrisy of the anti-immigrant side is hard to take. They want low-cost (i.e., undocumented) construction workers, nannies, elder care workers, meat packers, restaurant workers, and so on.
But they need to keep them from being here legally because then the employees live in fear of speaking up against employer criminality, accept illegally low wages, can be cheated of their wages, and so on.
These immigration flows *are* a problem. If you live along the border, as a friend of ours does, you may have unknown people walking through your yard at all hours. It can be scary. Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, often don't report street crime, allowing criminal activity to thrive in their neighborhoods. Low wage undocumented workers do compete against low wage Americans in some industries, notably elder care, hospitality industry workers, and housekeepers. And in a country in which housing is in short supply, many cities are struggling to house immigrants whether here legally or not. The list of evils flowing from our immigration system goes on.
The worst part is that this is a deliberate, cynical system to drive Latin Americans and Haitians to immigrate by destroying their domestic industries and destabilizing their governments so that they will work cheap and not report wrongdoing by employers. As an added "benefit," it keeps the American political system agitated, with low-information voters thinking that Democrats want "open borders" even as it is mostly *Republicans* who want the low-wage workers and *Republicans* who start wars (including drug wars) against countries who they call "communist" but are more usually countries that try to raise the minimum wage or increase oil and mineral royalties.