Nothing could be less genuine than the posturing of Pat Buchanan, Lou
Dobbs and the coterie of right-wing blame shifters working to transform
fear of the “migrant invasion” into political advantage or viewer
dividends.
What makes this carefully orchestrated, plotted and planned strategy
all the more depraved is that the very same global labor exploiters who
ripped the heart out of the American working class (beware citizens of
France for you are embarked on the same path) now wish to pin the blame
for their crimes on the exploited.
Having watched these race-baiting bigots operate under the umbrella of
populism for too long, I have no doubt the strategy is deliberate. The
blame shifters tried so very hard to play the immigration card to save
them in the midterm election but they came up short because of the
ironic reluctance of the Rove-Bush machine that was hoping to parlay
the president’s affinity for Mexican politics into future Republican
dominance.
The philanthropic side of the free trade equation is a sham — a con so
thinly veiled it can only fool the foolhardy and uninformed.
Scapegoating racists have always supported blame shifting politicians
to their own demise. As former president and supreme leader of the
World Bank Paul Wolfowitz found out, the con does not work on sincere
and educated public servants dedicated to fulfilling their mandate.
The blame-shifting scheme is all the more nefarious because it pretends
to help those it most grievously injures. On the global scale, it
promises to lift up third world nations but in practice it strips those
nations of natural resources while gutting social services and
shamelessly exploiting labor with slave wages and inhuman working
conditions.
In America (as in other elite nations), it promises cheap goods and an
ever-shifting economic base that will enable us to leap ahead of our
competitors. It promises superior education and training but it cuts
funding for both and saddles public education with unachievable goals
in preparation for its role in the next blame-shifting strategy.
When the promises inevitably flounder, it is blamed not on trade
policy, not on foreign labor exploitation, not on greedy corporations
with unconscionable profit margins, but on the impoverished migrant
labor force.
The much publicized immigration policy compromise, embraced by the
mainstream of both major parties and offering a convoluted route to
legalization and citizenship with a price tag that few could ever
afford, is yet another means of evading debate on a bipartisan trade
policy that richly rewards international corporations while decimating
the workforce worldwide.
The policy allows the blame shifters to continue their assault on
immigrant labor while continuing to ignore both the short-term remedy
(strict and cost prohibitive penalties on employers) and the core
solution: Fair Trade.
For those defenders of CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who more than any other
mainstream pundit parlays race baiting, anti-immigrant venom into media
ratings, why is it that he turns every discussion of immigration
solutions into border defense and ultimately a multi-billion dollar
boondoggle wall that sponsors insist (like the Israelis) on calling a
fence?
Dobbs knows and has admitted that harsh, unforgiving and strictly
enforced penalties on employers of illegal immigrants would stem the
tide at a fraction of the cost, yet Dobbs and his Republican
blame-shifting compadres know a cash cow when they see one. They do
not want a real solution. They would rather focus on a wall that would
mock our founding principles and further a transformation of the
American dream into a façade — a guarded refuge for the privileged, a
gated nation fearful of its own neighbors, and an object of
international pity.
Ancient China built the Great Wall, Berlin had its wall of isolation,
Israel has its wall of oppression and America will join that history of
ignominy with its wall of fear.
What more could we do to impress the world with our fall from grace:
State sanctioned torture? Suspension of Habeas Corpus? Aggressive
wars on false pretense? Indifference to the plight of the poor and
dark skinned victims? Scientific regression and denial of the world’s
most pressing problem? Incarceration of the homeless, disabled,
dispossessed and destitute? The forgotten ruins of the American city
that most embodies our multicultural heritage?
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be
free…”
Let us send Lady Liberty back to France. We have forsworn her and
France needs to be reminded of her enlightened ideal.