Jack & Jill Politics

The video above is from the Daily Show which in 7 minutes manages to skewer immigration foes hilariously. Well, it’s be hilarious if it weren’t so sinister, cynical and troubling. You know it’s bad when Lou Dobbs — former CNN anchor whose racist rants around immigration got him ousted after the BastaDobbs.com (a campaign that many of us here at JJP helped support) — backs away. Even Dobbs can’t get down with the demonization of “anchor babies” whose parents “drop and leave.” Really? So immigrants don’t care about their kids like Republicans do. They’re not capable of that kind of compassion but only greed.

The 14th Amendment was created so that newly freed slaves would be recognized throughout the land as full citizens. The de facto standard was already that if you were born in the U.S., you were a citizen. But apparently that had to be made explicit for our great-grandparents. The same is true for the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment — the Constitution was changed to make it absolutely clear that all citizens were to be treated equally under the law. Jim Crow laws sprang up to weaken that mandate, the Supreme Court winked at those laws for too long and we are still recovering economically, socially and politically from this legacy of legal discrimination.

That’s what’s so heinous about the SB 1070 immigration law in Arizona and why it must be stopped in its tracks. 20 states are considering similar laws that put the force of law behind racial profiling and discrimination.

Republicans want to change the rules and rip up the Constitution in their great fear of the brown rather than consider common sense  comprehensive immigration reform that has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. This is just race-baiting in advance of the mid-term election — there’s no way that repeals of the 14th amendment would actually go anywhere. It takes 2/3rd of both House and Senate to propose an amendment and 3/4ths of the states must then vote to ratify it. It’s nothing but spiteful cynicism designed to arouse hatred of immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa.

It’s not the first time people have questioned the 14th amendment. In the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the Court ruled that children of non-citizen Chinese immigrants possessed national citizenship by being born in United States. Because god forbid, if you allow too many Chinese people into the United States, China might take over and we’ll all be eating with chopsticks! (ummm…?)

The ignorance, idiocy and irrationality is astounding. And will only continue to alienate Latino voters, African-American voters and younger voters who are just a little less bigoted from the GOP. Right-thinking Republicans must abandon this strategy of pitting Americans against one another. United as one nation under God we stand — divided by hate, we fall.

If you agree, please join with me and send a message to Congress right now to protect the 14th Amendment. It’s time to stand up for American values and American freedoms against those who hate the Constitution.

Fax Congress today. Or if you want to go ahead and call GOP bigots Kyl, Graham or McConnell’s offices, feel free — this number will get you to ’em:
866-957-2612

Disclosure: Reform Immigration FOR America is one of Fission Strategy’s clients, because I believe passionately in this issue’s importance. They didn’t ask me to write this blog post.