Immigration, a Red Herring

by Jackson Dave

Have you noticed that the immigration controversy has disappeared? Completely!!? Has the immigration problem gone away? Just the controversy. Last summer I was receiving ten to twelve (usually forwarded) e-mailings a week trying to stir my fear, anger, alarm over this pervasive threat. Now nothing. Interesting,,, the controversy started a year and a half ago, just about the time the presidential election was gearing up...now it's completely disappeared. The immigration controversy wasn't about immigration; it was about the election. It came with the election, it vanished with the election. Interesting also that the two candidates didn't have noticeably different stated policies on immigration. The controversy over immigration was a "red herring"*.


I wrote the following essay in August, at the height of the presidential campaign, and months before the financial melt-down was apparent, in an effort to explain and quash the torrent of garbage coming in about illegal immigration. Even my liberal friends were whining over it! My intention in writing this essay was to convince people to ignore the immigration controversy in the context of the up-coming election, but rather to focus on important issues. I predicted that just as the controversy had been generated by election-cycle demagoguery, it would disappear with the election.

The degree to which politicians and people like Karl Rove are able to ignite a controversy such as this, then how quickly it dies when they stop stoking the fire illustrates how easily we are manipulated by hearing that we are being victimized. This has a comforting and validating effect, one that we all should be vigilant to recognize.

The immigration controversy is worth pursuing, but it’s quite complex. There are no easy answers. To counter all of the pejorative information that has been thrown around for the past two years, I recommend two articles for consideration: Tomas R. Jimenez, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, discusses assimilation and its affect upon our culture, while Rosa Brooks, an L. A. Times columnist, discusses the nature of the immigrants and the comparative effect of their assimilation into the work force.

Read on:::


8/20/08

There’s a great deal of talk these days about immigration. It’s driven by two factors: hard times with job shortages and political demagoguery.

I won’t dispute the figures and statistics contained in forwarded e-mailings, statistics can always be invoked to show whatever a persons wishes. They may also be false. I know that in the last year food prices have just about doubled. This is peanuts in comparison to what would occur if the borders were sealed and we threw out all of the “aliens”. All the talk of “jobs” is cherry picking the jobs that the angry, talking heads covet, not the jobs that the great majority of these immigrants fill.

We have seen this conversation over immigration emerge in the last year or so, co-incidental with the endless election cycle; this is no co-incidence.

Immigration aside, our country has some very difficult and pressing problems. Here’s a short list:

● Our economy is driven by “consumerism”, which is virtually our national religion. The main problem with consumerism is not that we want to buy things…it’s that we don’t produce the goods to balance our purchases. Manufacturing in this country is disappearing, leaving a “service” economy. We may pay for services, but how do we pay for the things? We borrow. This is done at the individual level by credit cards; then at the national level, imported consumer goods are added to our balance of payment deficits. Politicians who refuse to address this issue as a problem are pandering to our weakness and delaying the eventual meltdown of our economy. Our suppliers and creditors, holding vast quantities of dollars, could undermine our economy by calling in our debts or refusing to accept dollar payments. There will come a time when these creditors may be able to literally buy our country.

● Government debt. The government is running yearly budget deficits of $600 to $900 Billion, depending on accounting chicanery. Our total government debt in 1980, the year Ronald Reagan was elected, was $950 Billion. We now add almost that much to the debt yearly. The GOP used to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Now they label Democrats as the “tax and spend” party, while they promote “borrow and spend”. There’s honesty in “tax and spend”; if your government takes your money away, you’re apt to watch where they spend it. With “borrow and spend”, who cares where the money goes?

Exhortations to “spend our way to prosperity”, including massive government giveaways increase government debt, make the problem worse.

● Taxes are a legitimate function of government. Aside from being “the cost of civilization”, they make the economy work. [I’m sorry, but Reaganomics is a fraud.] Taxation can and should be used as a tool to program our “choices”. The problem with high gasoline prices, as an example, is not the price---we should have been paying $3-4 per gallon for years. But the price should be driven by taxes, rather than the whims of foreign suppliers who control us with our own lust. If $4 gasoline had been the result of taxes over the last 30 years, our demand for oil would be a fraction of what it is now and we’d still be paying $30 a barrel for oil. The taxes from gasoline could stabilize our budget, leaving ample financing for health care, education, social security, while keeping other taxes down. We also wouldn’t need to be in these disgusting wars because we would not need to enforce “the American way of life” upon the world with our military might. Instead of taxing gasoline, our government has been subsidizing it for decades, pushing down the price, encouraging us to drive large, heavy vehicles, which fall out of the mileage quotas because the government allows them to be classified as “trucks”.

● Our largest and fastest-growing industry is “financial services”. This includes banks, investment houses and insurance companies. This enormous industry, which under the Bush administration has been largely unregulated, produces nothing. It channels money to those who can afford the services (the rich). Where does the money come from? Well, since this industry doesn’t produce anything, it must come from those who have no need of its services---the poor. It’s also channeled from government debt, which is ultimately a burden to all. And it adds to:

● Income Inequality Income levels for our middle and lower classes have been static over the last forty years. During that period, productivity of the working classes has risen by approximately 80%, yet their income has risen by only about 6%. In real terms it has decreased. The gap between the rich and poor has exploded and threatens to undermine our system of government. Top management in large corporations brings home salaries that dwarf low-level workers by about 1000 to 1; in contrast, during the sixties it was about 250 to 1.

Why do we continue on such a course? In Thomas Frank’s book, What’s the Matter With Kansas?, he notes that Kansans include a large population of poor and middle class people who in disregard of their own interests, vote Republican. This is only a specific example of a large trend; but this voting block accounts for the party’s success over the last 25 years. Republicans promise low taxes (for the rich) and keep the perquisites flowing to industry and industrialists.

Historically, this leads to anarchy. William McKinley was shot in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, an avowed anarchist, leading to the succession of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, who ended the first “gilded age” by busting cartels and starting social programs. His programs were later put in place by his second cousin, Franklin. We’ve now entered our second gilded age.

The large and growing “underclass” in our country threatens the foundations of our nation, which is built upon the middle class. It removes huge portions of the population from the political process, and even worse it directly results in poor health, crime and misery. We devote more and more resources to health care, law enforcement and prisons. We’re watching a mushrooming of our “security” industry: security guards, burglar alarms, gated communities, bodyguards, etc. These are trappings of the rich, used to keep their money from the masses. We have the largest percentage of people in prisons in the world. For “the richest country in the world” this is a tragedy.

● The world faces a substantial energy problem. The sticky part for our nation is that our economy has built up over the last 70 years around the automobile. Others with agrarian or emerging economies have the option to grow in a different direction. Many countries, especially those in Europe, are small and concentrated enough for public transportation to be more practical.

Our government does not promote energy reform because it is entrenched in the special interests devoted to keeping things the way they are. This movement can only come from you and me.

● Inner city gangs and drug wars are a large source of crime and a symptom of poverty. The only reasonable means for dealing with this problem is good government. I believe that ending the “war on drugs” is the first step to resolving (or abating) the drug problem. If we move toward taxing drugs and offering free treatment to all, we can break the back of international cartels, and stop the disgusting mayhem we cause in other countries all over the world, including the terrible drug wars on our Southern doorstep. This also would take tremendous political leadership and a movement from you and me.

● “Colony Collapse Disorder” threatens agriculture world-wide with the disappearance of bees. This may solve the immigration problem by eliminating the vegetables that they’re needed to pick. We should devote the resources necessary (which may mean cleaning up our environment) to solve this problem. Otherwise, we’ll be eating Dr. Ross People Food.

● Our “military-industrial complex” has completely taken control of our government and economy, just as Eisenhower warned. Over and over we hear his warning re-iterated, but who’s doing anything to change our course? That takes political leadership, a completely new direction and pressure from you and me.

● Government Secrecy A constitutional crisis is occurring right under our noses. The Constitution dictates---and the entire Bill of Rights is designed---to protect us from our government. This government, however, has been on a seven-year campaign of protecting itself from us! Secrecy and stealth are Bush administration trademarks. This administration refuses to co-operate with Congress, refuses to uphold federal laws, refuses to order officials and former officials to testify, engages in illegal wiretapping, illegal wars and torture; it dictates policy based solely on political expediency, lies to Congress, lies to us---and WE allow this to go on. The Democrats are complicit. Democrats have voted against laws that might rein in these excesses. It is inexcusable and inexplicable that Bush and Cheney have not been impeached. These men, if not prosecuted by Congress after their departure, could be brought to justice by the World Court and arrested for war crimes if they leave US soil. This fate befell (former Chilean strongman, Augusto) Pinochet in Spain. Former Serbian leader, Radovan Karadzic, was captured in Belgrade last July. How can citizens of our nation, carry out our obligations to oversee our government if we don’t have a clue what’s going on? Our political system---our government---is broken.

● Our nation has lost its international prestige. We held enormous influence at the end of WWII. Going into the ‘90s, we were even forgiven the sins of Viet Nam. We had the whole world behind us after 9/11---until Mr. Bush announced, “You’re either with us or against us.” Well they were all with us. He then undertook a political and military campaign that Osama bin Laden would have been proud to have devised for us. This would seem foolish (since bin Laden declared war on us in a 1996 televised interview) yet we supported the president’s every move. By God, we got what we deserve! But our president lied to us. He lied to us over and over and over until we and our stupid elected officials believed the lies.

If one contends that the USA has the "moral authority" (whatever that is, and whose morals?) to pursue its ends and means in the world through use of military might, think again. Moral authority is granted, not taken. In the absence of international prestige, what nation would surrender its own authority to another? The assumption of the authority renders the term oxymoronic. "Moral authority" assumed is suzerainty. With moral authority we might have had enough influence to prevent the Russian invasion of Georgia. Instead, our president’s foreign policy encourages countries like Georgia to do stupid things like this, implying that we’re there to stand with them. Then our government lectures the Russians that they can no longer invade other countries…. (oops,) "European nations", overthrowing their governments (as we did to Iraq). Ossetia, full of ethnic Russians, was under military attack on Russia’s doorstep! Saddam Hussein was a petty dictator on the other side of the world.

Our president massages world leaders with his art of “personal diplomacy” [“I got the sense of (Mr. Putin’s) soul”] while John McCain has Randy Scheunemann, a high-level, former Georgian lobbyist on his campaign staff. Our president is taking us into a new cold war and John McCain, a soul brother and serious hawk, jokes about his sincere intentions to continue same: “♫ Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran.” ♫. This is funny?

The Congress has no power to enforce its laws. If the president refuses to enforce them and Congress has no stomach for impeachment, we are only left with the Supreme Court. Give John McCain three Supreme Court appointments, and Bush’s drive to deprive us of our freedom is won. There is victory for the Islamic world.


In comparison to these and other problems, how important is this immigration issue? Why are we focused on that when there are so many other urgent problems? Why do the good people of Kansas vote for Republicans when their interests would be better served by Democrats?

It’s “values” for the Kansans. This is where the GOP seems to have a lock on “political wisdom”. During the (relatively) egalitarian days of the 60s Democrats had the middle class vote. Lyndon Johnson drove racists to the Republican Party with civil rights legislation. Then in 1980, Ronald Reagan offered Christian groups political power, which brought in the “religious right”, and Karl Rove convinced them that “W” was one of them. From there, the Republicans have mastered the art of “framing the argument” and fanning the flames of undirected resentment. They have repeatedly found issues (such as gay rights and abortion) and the terms to define them that succeed in manipulating us to vote their way. (Who would support an end to the estate tax, when it only affects 1% of us? But call it a “Death Tax”, and that becomes an outrage.)

The immigration controversy, which has coincided with our election cycle, is a “red herring”*. The people who ignite this controversy, keeping it on the menu, presenting mass e-mailings, mobilize us with anger and resentment. Those of us who can be engaged by the discussion are inclined to blame “liberals” for such matters, whether there is any substance to the accusation or not; hence, the sub-text of the message is to vote for John McCain. John McCain does not wish to address any of the matters that I have addressed. But our attention is focused on immigration, and we don’t want to hear about real problems with difficult solutions.

The immigration controversy has legitimacy. But I think it’s irrelevant, since we’ll see that in ten weeks the discussion will evaporate and nothing will be resolved. This discussion is driven by election politics, and the Republicans are planning to do nothing different from the Democrats anyway.

The oldest political tool is fear. Politicians of both parties for 70 years told us they would protect us from communism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, we’ve been wallowing in a wilderness of threats: first poor people, then gays, criminals, heathens, liberals, whatever would incite fear or anger. Now it’s immigrants and terrorists. At the turn of the century we had an individual probability of .0001% of being attacked by a terrorist. Following this government’s 6-year, anti-terror campaign, the risk has increased a hundred-fold. Are we so terrified by this one in ten thousandth chance that we willingly allow our government of demagogues to scuttle our freedoms, torture innocents, destroy our international prestige as well as our heritage and public weal to protect us from that minuscule threat? Whatever happened to the “land of the free and home of the brave”? Oh well, our government invents a threat, convinces us that we’re in danger, then tells us they will protect us. I’m not biting.

Our window is open to perform our duty as patriotic citizens by telling the government where we need to go for the next generation. This couldn’t be more important. After that window closes on November 4th, talk to me about immigration.

* A “red herring” is a metaphor for a diversion tactic. A person on the run may rub something with a strong scent (like a herring) across his trail, diverting a search party by confusing the dogs’ scent tracking.

Jackson Dave is a staff writer for Robbinsense jacksondave.rsense@gmail.com