{"id":1363,"date":"2010-05-03T01:52:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T08:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2010-05-03T01:52:15","modified_gmt":"2010-05-03T08:52:15","slug":"arizona-reveals-republican-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/03\/arizona-reveals-republican-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Reveals Republican Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not just Arizona.  That state is a symptom of a broader malaise.  For the GOP, American equals white.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"flag-wrapped\"<\/a> Don’t blame it all on Arizona. The Grand Canyon State simply happened to be in the right place at the right time to tilt over to the dark side. Its hysteria is but another symptom of a political virus that can\u2019t be quarantined and whose cure is as yet unknown.<\/p>\n

If many of Arizona\u2019s defenders and critics hold one belief in common, it\u2019s that the new \u201cshow me your papers\u201d law<\/a> is sui generis: it\u2019s seen as one angry border state\u2019s response to its outsized share of America\u2019s illegal immigration crisis. But to label this development \u201cArizona\u2019s folly\u201d trivializes its import and reach. The more you examine the law\u2019s provisions and proponents, the more you realize that it\u2019s the latest and (so far) most vicious battle in a far broader movement that is not just about illegal immigrants \u2014 and that is steadily increasing its annexation of one of America\u2019s two major political parties<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arizonans, like all Americans, have every right to be furious about Washington\u2019s protracted and bipartisan failure to address the immigration stalemate. To be angry about illegal immigration is hardly tantamount to being a bigot. But the Arizona law expressing that anger is bigoted, and in a very particular way. The law dovetails seamlessly with the national \u201cTake Back America\u201d crusade that has attended the rise of Barack Obama and the accelerating demographic shift our first African-American president represents<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The crowd that wants Latinos to show their papers if there\u2019s a \u201creasonable suspicion<\/a>\u201d of illegality is often the same crowd still demanding that the president produce a document proving his own citizenship<\/strong>. Lest there be any doubt of that confluence, Rush Limbaugh hammered the point home<\/a> after Obama criticized Arizona\u2019s action. \u201cI can understand Obama being touchy on the subject of producing your papers,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe he\u2019s afraid somebody\u2019s going to ask him for his<\/strong>.\u201d Or, as Glenn Beck chimed in<\/a> about the president last week: \u201cWhat has he said that sounds like American<\/strong>?\u201d<\/p>\n

To the \u201cTake Back America\u201d right, the illegitimate Obama is Illegal Alien No. 1. It\u2019s no surprise that of the 35 members of the Arizona House who voted for the immigration law<\/a> (the entire Republican caucus<\/a>), 31 voted soon after for another new law<\/a> that would require all presidential candidates to produce birth certificates to qualify for inclusion on the state\u2019s 2012 ballot. With the whole country now watching Arizona, that \u201cbirther\u201d bill was abruptly yanked<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n

The legislators who voted for both it and the immigration law were exclusively Republicans<\/strong>, but what happened in the Arizona G.O.P. is not staying in Arizona. Officials in at least 10 other states<\/a> are now teeing up their own new immigration legislation. They are doing so even in un-Arizonan places like Ohio, Missouri, Maryland and Nebraska, none of them on the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s 2009 list<\/a> of the 10 states that contain three-quarters of America\u2019s illegal immigrant population\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

The nativist movement is an attempt by the GOP to steal power through misinforming the public.  The following individuals would recognize their tactics.  nThe fourth would approve.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Fascism will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible. ~ Sinclair Lewis 1935<\/p>\n

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. \u2013 Voltaire <\/p>\n

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders…tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. \u2013 Herman Goering<\/p>\n

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. — James Madison<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I posted just the first page of an excellent three page article.  I encourage you to read the rest,<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not just Arizona.  That state is a symptom of a broader malaise.  For the GOP, American equals white. Don’t blame it all on Arizona. The Grand Canyon State simply happened to be in the right place at the right time to tilt over to the dark side. Its hysteria is but another symptom of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}