DJG, you say that all we have to do is go to L.A. for a week to see how bad it's gotten. I've been to L.A., incidentally, and San Diego, but what are we going to see when we get there? If we visit for a week, I don't think we're going to see the inside of a welfare office. We're not going to see any slave laborers. We're not going to visit the mayor's office and look at municipal expenditures that go toward undocumented immigrants. I highly doubt we'll see any instances of gangs of Mexicans raping children, is that something you see every week?
So, leaving the media out of it, which you can see everywhere anyway, what is the staggering evidence of how "bad" it is that would be evident after a week in L.A.? Lots and lots of brown people, right? Are you going to take us to the mall or McDonald's and point: "hey! look! see! they're all brown!!!" What other evidence? Billboards written in Spanish? Heavens no!
There are some good reasons to try and control the flow of immigrants into the country. Not so many good reasons to cut off the flow, or to forcibly expel those who are already here, but to control the flow- yes, there are good reasons. The problem with this debate is that while lip-service is paid to these good ideas, that's all it is. It's still about racism. That's the only reason people care about the issue and get emotionally invested in it. There are light-skinned English-speaking gangs, pedophiles, tax evaders, law-breakers, welfare abusers, alcoholics, etc. But you can't whip a mob into a fervor over that. You can't get an entire nation angry at one group of people if the only thing that group of people has done is one of the above, except perhaps for the pedophiles. That's what this is all about. What sells. Mob mentality. What you can exploit to get the most people charged up about. and the answer to that? Target a group of people generally disliked. It worked for the Nazis. That's why the comparison to ethnic cleansing is fair. Even if our methods aren't as brutal, it's still a debate tainted by racism and by political aims.
The issue is important to a lot of people because a lot of people don't like speaking Spanish at McDonald's. When it's not outright naked racism it is attitudes, opinions and concerns or frustrations flavored and informed by racism. Politicians pick up on the fact that the issue is important to some people, and exploit that. Fox News plays it up to be a bigger issue than it actually is, because their politicians are now running on this issue. They sow fear and paranoia and contempt to make their position stronger. They work the mob and count on the fact that these people that they've made upset are going to go to the polls and vote for them. Meanwhile they probably don't actually plan to do anything because most hispanics are conservative and vote Republican. but that's kinda beside the point. They're only making this an issue to get votes, and their media stooges are only too happy to oblige them. They have to use high-minded language when talking about the issue or they're going to get gunned down, but really deep down they have to know what they are doing. Hate, fear, racism are all such common tools of the trade in politics it's a complete cliche now. You just have to call it something else. Feign indignation over how tax dollars are being spent to help Mexican mothers in America give birth, while meanwhile we're spending billions upon billions of dollars overseas in Iraq.
They use the same exact cynical approach when it comes to gay marriage. Once every two years, all of a sudden and out of the blue, gay marriage becomes a huge threat. All of a sudden it's all over the news again and it's destroying homes and families again. The conservative pundits out there stir up the fag-hating and the ew-butt-sex-is-icky feelings in their base, get them good and angry about this, make it out to be some huge important issue because they know they'll get that mob to the polls to vote for them. They win the election, go to Washington, collect their corporate payoff and start thinking about their next campaign.
Nothing meaningful is done, and no intelligent progress is made in any of these debates. The fear and hate mongers get elected to office by all the racists and homophobes who go to the polls to make their voice heard, and then are promptly ignored until it's election season again.