As Ron Brownstein points out, the real goal behind the immigration plan that Republican Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas are floating is an overall sharp reduction in legal immigration. That this is couched in a preference for high-skilled labor shouldn’t mask that their bill would reduce the influx of high-skillet workers, too. Yet, as Brownstein also points out, the country needs a healthy level of immigration to help pay for our entitlement programs and to meet our overall employment needs. So, one of the primary problems with the Perdue-Cotton approach is that it would set immigration levels too low. As a result, even many moderate or centrist Republicans don’t see their approach as feasible or desirable.
Of course, the problem driving this call for reduced immigration is that most immigrants these days are not white. If, as President Trump has suggested, we could convince more people from white countries like Norway to immigrate, then we wouldn’t see this resistance to reasonable immigration levels. Unfortunately for people like Trump, Perdue, and Cotton, there just aren’t that many Europeans who want to immigrate to the United States. And, that being the case, they’d rather cause a deficit in labor than permit the browning of America to continue apace.
The president is willing to say this until he decides he wants to deny having said it. But the outrage his comments sparked shows just how unpopular these sentiments are to most Americans. That’s why the policy proposals are always disguised. They’re about preventing terrorism. They’re about reducing crime. They’re about combatting drug addiction. They’re about protecting the taxpayer. They’re about preferring high-skilled labor or “the best people” over a bunch of losers who just looking for a handout.
What you’re never supposed to say is that it’s about making America white again. You’re not supposed to say “we want Norwegians, not brown people from shithole countries.”
The thing is, even for the people who want Norwegians, they don’t have a plan for attracting enough of them. And this is typical from Republicans. There are host of areas where their policy is based on fantasy. Why don’t people just avoid getting pregnant if they don’t want a baby? Why don’t people just make enough money that they can afford to pay for their health insurance? Why don’t people just move if they can’t find a good job or their schools are no good?
They never account for people’s limitations or frailties or simple misfortunes. Therefore, their policies don’t account for things like “that’s never going to happen” or “you have to be crazy to think that will work.”
It’s always, “if people would just do x, then we wouldn’t have this problem.” Except people aren’t going to do x. White Europeans aren’t going to immigrate here in the numbers we need. Their racism is as impractical as it is immoral.
The few “white” Europeans we would get would likely be less educated and less skilled than we already receive from “shithole” countries. No one seems to want to acknowledge in public right now that the majority of “shithole” country immigrants we get are that country’s educated upper and middle class professionals. That immigration Brain Drain is one of the main headwinds those countries face when trying to improve/reform themselves.
Under this Make American White Again, we’d most likely get central, eastern, and southern Europeans. All of whom, pre-1964, were definitely considered NOT “white” by American conservatives.
But they don’t care, as long as they are white.
Whiteness has been and always will be a culturally relative, amorphous, term and has always been subject to change.
My pro-Brexit English relatives say the same things about their Polish immigrants as any MAGA hat wearing mouth breather says about Mexicans.
My grandfather wasn’t white. He was catholic and a Pollock; therefore, among other things, he was not allowed to join the country club even with his MD.
But, like most children of Third Wave European immigrants, my father emerged from the 1960 as white as long as he remained politically conservative.
Why would a white Norwegian, who enjoys universal health care, mandatory paid time off, generous retirement, in a relative peaceful country, want to give all that up to pay tens of thousands of dollars for Healthcare, risk going bankrupt and homeless if they suffer a major illness, be forced to work every day of their lives because they can’t afford to stop working, and increase their risk of being killed by a gun welding maniac “exercising his constitutional rights,” and all because America, the greatest nation in the history of the Universe is now led by a complete moron and bigot intent on making America White again??
Why? Freedom….Liberty
Of course this whole thing and all the other shit like cutting social security, healthcare and Medicare is bullshit. Someone please explain how those white working people keep voting for these assholes for decades- decades-and nothing ever gets better for them. Racism and fantasy appear to be terminal diseases for them. A few of them will even vote for a black man though if the bill collectors start coming to the door or they can’t afford their booze like in 2008. But two years later back to form. Norway whites? They are out of their minds. Build a wall, to keep the Browns out, is the mantra of the day, You want bi partisan support? The Dems are obstructing? Gimme a break. Go find those nine votes somewhere else.
A few reasons. Our “news media” sucks. Just listen to the NBC Nightly News tonight. Savannah Guthrie was sitting in for Lester Holt. Another reason? Democrats recruit a lot of shit candidates to run, especially for the House, that sound like GOP-lite. And I think we all remember what Harry Truman said about that approach. When you recruit Blue Dogs, good luck on getting them to even defend the good parts of the ACA. Because they didn’t and they won’t.
I can’t help feeling that dems are afraid to speak up. We seem to have lost the meme to fight against the crap.
They are afraid, and what they are afraid of is running afoul of the donors, many of whom are just as comfortable funding republicans. And its been that way at least since the Clintons and the DLC. Centrism, “incremental approach” and “fighting for you” are really nothing more than the cover terminology for making sure the wealthy donors get theirs and democratic voters are mollified. I love Obama but he dutifully played this game too. And this explains why not one banister went to prison while millions were allowed to lose their homes after being cheated out of them.
And people wonder why Clinton was a tough sell for so many former Obama voters.
Trump has the magic formula. I just saw on the CNBC app that the stock market has increased to over 30 trillion from 24 trillion or 23% since the election. The average of first year performances since 1928 is 13%. Combine that with his anti immigration and anti anything Obama and liberal –and with the never ending white jackass vote –and he done found the magic formula. We is all gonna be rich doncha know.
Shiller PE always merits mentioning…
A bubble? You’re thinking a bubble. I tend to agree but then they just lowered the income tax rate to 21% that should result in higher reported profits. And since the pe is looking in the past, we don’t know what they will be with the new rates. But still, yeah could be a bubble. Seemingly the market has gone up far too much in last year. But who knows? wanna bet on it?
And this is what passes me off about these weak-kneed, slow on the uptake democrats. Were the situation reversed, a democratic president would NEVER be allowed to take credit for what had been put in place by a republican president, after one year in office, when the results were this good. They’d be crowing till the cows came home about how good their policies are, especially when the current president haven’t passed anything yet and / or what he’s passed has yet to take affect.
It just amazes me how democrats so easily concede and refuse to take credit for their own accomplishments.
. . . damn funny typo.
Or maybe I’m just weird.
OK, now I’ll go back and read the rest. Perhaps I might end up with something semi-intelligent to say about it. Or perhaps not.
But it was always about exactly that.
What’s changed is that plausible deniability of that fact has now receded to zero.
Past two years? Try the past 153!
. . . has made it ok to say so right out loud . . . including by doing so hizownself.
Yes…couldn’t be more obvious that they want WHITE Immigrants. Their racism shines through.
There are zero prospective immigrants from Norway who would be willing to pick tomatoes, make sandwiches, and bathe people with Alzheimers for the minimum wage.
This article hi-lites this …willful ignorance is anything but BLISSful …just plain stupid!
The “STUPID” is strong in both the GOP/Republican Party and its base of voters!
Thus the need to deceive, bamboozle, lie about what they really are up to. Their problem IS they lie, bamboozle and decieve ONLY themselves! Everybody else “see” this and shake their heads in derision.
white supremacist ideology IS the foundation,source and fuel of American racism!
The GOP/Republican Party is their home!
The zombie eyed granny starver clearly stated last week that the simple solution is to mandate that white women increase their production of human resources.