Taking the hypocrisy out of the immigration debate

This country badly needs an honest and intelligent debate about immigration, but neither side appears to be willing or able to do so.
On the Republican side they scream "terrorism", when it's a proven fact that the immigration ban has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.

But President Trump's executive order temporarily banning all refugees and suspending travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries would not have applied to either Farook or Malik.
Nor would the travel ban have affected the perpetrators of any of the major Islamic terrorist attacks on American soil in recent years.
No person accepted to the United States as a refugee, Syrian or otherwise, has been implicated in a major fatal terrorist attack since the Refugee Act of 1980 set up systematic procedures for accepting refugees into the United States, according to an analysis of terrorism immigration risks by the Cato Institute.
Before 1980, three refugees had successfully carried out terrorist attacks; all three were Cuban refugees, and a total of three people were killed.

On the Democratic side they scream "racism", proving that they don't know the meaning of the word.

First, being “anti-immigration” does not make one a “racist”. One does not follow from the other. Being a racist means adopting a racial view of humanity as being ordered according to what are imagined to be superior and inferior, biologically-rooted differences. Preferring “one’s own kind” (whatever that means) might be the basis for ethnocentrism, but not necessarily racism as such. It’s important not to always lunge hysterically for the most inflammatory-sounding terms, just because your rhetorical polemics demand an instant “win” (because you don’t win anything; you just sound like someone who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about). Also, xenophobia neither implies racism nor ethnocentrism, because it can exceed both by being a fear or dislike of anyone who is “foreign” or “strange”. Conversely, one can be entirely racist, and quite pro­-immigration at the same time, as long as immigration is restricted to members of one’s own race. Other forms of racist pro-immigration policies would include slavery itself, indentured labour, down to the casual racism of “let’s have Mexicans, they make such wonderful gardeners”. Furthermore, the available survey data in the US suggests that, “far from being rooted in racism, opposition to immigration in the U.S. seems to be rooted in concerns about the ability of less-skilled immigrants to support themselves without Medicaid, SNAP, the earned-income tax credit, and various other supports” (Salam, 2016b). Salam adds this point: “My guess is that if immigration policy were not viewed through a racial lens, opposition to immigration would in fact increase substantially”. Also, there is a distinction to be drawn between opinions that are anti-immigrant and policies that are anti-immigration, even if there can be overlap between the two.

Words mean things. So if you are going to claim the moral high ground your accusations should be accurate. Otherwise the foundation of your moral high ground is based on ignorance.
What is absolutely critical to claiming the moral high ground is to not be hypocritical, and Democrats have failed here spectacularly.

Donald Trump’s racist executive order directly affects about 20,000 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. President Obama killed an estimated 50,000 Libyans in 2011, although the U.S. officially does not admit it snuffed out the life of a single civilian. The First Black President is responsible for each of the half-million Syrians that have died since he launched his jihadist-based war against that country, the same year. Total casualties inflicted on the populations of the seven targeted nations since the U.S. backed Iraq in its 1980s war against Iran number at least four million -- a bigger holocaust than the U.S. inflicted on Southeast Asia, two generations ago -- when the U.S. State Department first established its “dissent channel.”
But, where is the peace movement? Instead of demanding a halt to the carnage that creates tidal waves of refugees, self-styled “progressives” join in the macabre ritual of demonizing the “countries of concern” that have been targeted for attack, a process that U.S. history has color-coded with racism and Islamophobia. These imperial citizens then congratulate themselves on being the world’s one and only “exceptional” people, because they deign to accept the presence of a tiny portion of the populations the U.S. has mauled.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to spot the rank hypocrisy here.
What is especially interesting to see is how this hypocrisy has spread to Europe as well.

The EU rightly spoke out against Donald Trump's entry ban on asylum seekers from Syria. But its own track record leaves much to be desired...
The EU talks endlessly about solidarity. But in reality, solidarity does not exist except among the nameless volunteers on the ground. And some of those are risking jail for their efforts. One Danish woman went on trial for people-smuggling after giving a family of refugees a ride to Copenhagen. A similar case is unfolding in Sweden.
Both EU commission and member states now appear to oppose issuing humanitarian visas for people in need.
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It's not just immigration, it's everything. Debate can no longer be had in this country anymore. It's all epithets all the time.

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Decadence is specifically the decay of social and cultural boundaries, a process that is manifestly accelerating now. Both sides of the political spectrum are acting out this dynamic, with the vacuum in the middle sucking vitality out of each side. The Left has become a kind of pagan religion of sacred victims and victimhood, collecting sacred injuries and martyrs. Its dark secret, though, is that these sacred things are only straw-dogs and wicker-men. The real animating motive for the Left these days is simply the pleasure of coercion, of exercising the power to punish their adversaries and watch them suffer.

The Trump Right also enjoys the writhings and sufferings of its adversaries, squashed bug style, as it goes forth in the quixotic battle to bring back 1962 at all costs. Both the Left and the right show not a little sadism in their methods. In the background of these histrionics, the great groaning machine of Modernity lurches toward collapse — not the end-of-the-world as many foolishly imagine, but the end of a phase of history when things that used to work, don’t.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit Hey!

Just gotta say, this seems to describe Christianity a lot better than most pagan traditions I know of.

kind of pagan religion of sacred victims and victimhood, collecting sacred injuries and martyrs.

Otherwise, totally spot-on; I've been saying to my family for a while that the Right took religion and made it politics; the Left took politics and made it into religion.

That's why people can't analyze the anti-Trump marches strategically, or even talk about whether they're likely to produce a good result. All they can talk about is the pure intent of the people displaying their beliefs among like-minded believers. That's religion.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

restricting immigration. They are full.

I also believe that the USA was a better place to live with 200 million population than with a 300 million population.

The USA should have a moral obligation to support people they have displaced by the never-ending wars of aggression. But then, with a dearth of ethical behavior among the elite, I don't see any move towards a moral foreign policy or a moral immigration policy. The last people I'd expect this from are the Obamas, Clintons, and Trumps of the ruling circle. I would add in the Council on Foreign Affairs, especially its former and past members of CFR's board of directors.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

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edg's picture

Great for American business, that is. Immigrants let corporations keep wages down and it helps them keep workers in line through a constant threat of replacement. Why do we have hundreds of thousands protesting Trump's actions but no one protesting the corporate malfeasance that hurts us all?

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@edg You know why.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The opposition to Trumps edict on Muslim refugees is more anti-Trump and not pro-refugee at this moment. Reading bunches and bunches of sites, most people just not making the connection that bombs create refugees, and America's bombs creates those refugees they now support. In the EU, the official mainstream position is that Putin created the refugee crisis, and deliberately so.

Nor extending it: how the ugly actions of Obama in terms of deportation and Hillary's view on children crossing the border from Honduras who were escaping the coup she supported is essentially a Trump position.

Hopefully people will begin to make these rather obvious connections. Right now, it looks like the democratic party establishment is fearing that it cannot co-opt The Resistance.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster I'm pretty sure The Resistance (capitalized, as in Olbermann's movement) is part of the Democratic Party, if not officially, then in fact. The resistance, small r, is pretty well on its way to being co-opted or at least driven into silence, mainly because they launched a big fake Resistance that is taking up all the oxygen. Smart move, but I didn't expect so many people to go along with it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

asterisk's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal The resistance can work inside the sanctioned Resistance. Marches etc. are opportunities to get together and also to meet and chat with other people. Less pepper spray in the early stages of planning and organizing this way.
They co-opted it. We, the peasants, can co-opt it back if we don't get what we want. Peasants across the entire political spectrum disagree more about terminology than about overall goals.

Why do for ourselves what the "Great and Powerful" will do for us?

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@asterisk You're right, as long as the psy-op in progress hasn't had any kind of serious lasting effect on the participants and their beliefs. The protesters who, when they found out DWS was on the stage in DC, said WTF!!! are likely to be willing to work for a real progressive movement that fights and transforms the status quo. Using the protests to find and meet these people isn't a bad idea at all. It's actually one of the better ideas I've heard lately.

But how far is the spirit of the Women's March from "OMG we must do something, anything to stop Trump!" and if people believe that, do you really expect them to stand with actual lefties in opposition to the Democratic party in 2018? In 2020? How many of the people at these protests are still in favor of pouring money and time down the Democrats? Are they going to stand with us? Isn't it far more likely that they'll do exactly what Bernie and some of his supporters did last year? How many people cheering at that Women's March are likely to back an impeachment effort? I bet a lot. How many give a damn that doing so will give us Mike Pence, or, at best, Paul Ryan as President? Do you know how bad it's gotten? It's gotten so bad that lefties have been arguing with me that Mike Pence is a lesser evil than Trump. If they're willing to say Pence is a lesser evil, what's going to happen when Hillary comes around again in 2020? Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those protesters are trying to "take over" local Democratic parties and intending to work through primary campaigns to unseat corporate Dems, which has been not working since 2002.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Not to mention that the rigged electoral process has now been closeted by Homeland (In)Security, to be kept safely away from citizen/independent oversight...

As the Sane Progressive has been pointing out, how can you vote your preferences in or out when not only your electoral choices but your vote is determined by TPTB? Talk about a secret vote, even from the voters themselves...

On the plus side, sounds like American taxpayers will still have to pay for fake American elections, supposedly to fool The People into thinking democracy is still possible, to keep them quiet.

Why is that a plus? It shows that they're still scared of the power of The People, in whom the actual powers they delegate to elected officials actual resides.

And virtually everything they use - including their cannon-fodder troops, apart from the corporate mercenary armies already beginning to be used against The People - consist of The very People they drain to provide their ever-increasing wealth and power.

You'd think that they'd get that without the rest of us, they're nothing but a group of pathologically ballooning egos... and that without the interdependent natural world we're all part of and which they so eagerly destroy for ever more data-dots representing money (while society and the power to run internet lasts), entirely dependent on glitch-prone, power-dependent technology to survive anywhere at all...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

I do have a bit of a problem with the "i'm not racist, i'm just xenophobic err... ethnocentric" argument.
And I respect the idea that criticism is important and hypocrisy sucks.
It really, really sucks.

What I don't hear is what you think we should be doing. Really, I'm all ears and I respect your opinion immensely.
How do we get there from here? I think the there for both of us is likely the same.
Maybe a future essay?

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Song of the lark's picture

It is disconcerting to have millions of people move thru the borders and set up housekeeping. Currently there a up to thousands of people quitting the Sahel and trying to enter Italy each week. I believe this is only the very beginning of a constant series of mass migrations that will take place in near future. Thermodynamic collapse and climate change will be the cause. We have to get a handle on what is going to be done.

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