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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 05:01 AM Jul 2014

Inside the Right-Wing's Creepy Demonization of Helpless Children

http://www.alternet.org/immigration/inside-right-wings-creepy-demonization-helpless-children



The anti-immigrant protests in Murrieta, California last week brought the issue of Central American children flooding to the border to national attention. The influx of kids applying for asylum under a law signed by George W. Bush is becoming a humanitarian crisis, with services being stretched to the limit and calls for the children to be immediately deported back to their troubled homelands. It's now the focus of intense political debate as the Republicans try to blame Obama and demand he use his executive powers to close the border. On Wednesday he threw the gauntlet back and requested that the House pass his emergency supplemental request to ease the social services on the border and pass the Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill. As of today, the stand-off continues.

But while the intense reaction among conservatives may seem to have only developed recently, it's been simmering for some time on conservative media. Talk radio show hosts like Laura Ingraham had been demagoguing the issue for weeks, fulminating about the threat to America's "way of life" and grumbling that the ungrateful tykes were complaining about the food, going so far as to mock them by playing the "Yo quiero Taco Bell" tag line. When the administration submitted a request for more funds to house and keep the children in temporary quarters, an "anti-amnesty" group was inspired to suggest sending their used underwear to save the government from having to procure any. The Koch-funded conservative blog American Prosperity Network issued shrill dispatches claiming that the influx of children on the border was an "orchestrated campaign" by the Democratic Party to draw government-dependent kids to the United States in order to steal jobs from Americans and add to their voter rolls. Republican luminaries such as possible presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry signed on to that conspiracy theory saying on ABC's This Week, "I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?"

But the controversy really boiled over with news reports last week that these children were "diseased" and were being shipped all over the nation, infecting Americans with everything from H1N1 flu to scabies to Cangas fever. Whatever other problems these people may have had with these children being allowed to seek asylum in America, it was now a public health threat.

The Drudge Report pulled out its trusty siren and blared that Border Patrol agents had tested positive for "diseases carried by immigrants." Talk radio show host Bryan Fischer hysterically tweeted that 4 out of 5 border patrol agents were infected. (The report actually said "4 or 5" border patrol agents....) The Daily Beast, quoting anonymous sources, breathlessly reported that two children had tested positively for the H1N1 virus and erroneously proclaimed that it had been eradicated in the US until now. In fact, H1N1 is a common flu virus in the US and it is included in the flu vaccines for 2014. Nonetheless, the word went forth that the "pint-sized carriers" needed to be quarantined lest decent Americans be infected by deadly swine flu.
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Hekate

(90,189 posts)
1. There's a place in Hell for the demagogues; they would gladly have turned back Jewish kids....
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 06:03 AM
Jul 2014

....at our borders before/during WW II. I'm not kidding at all.

intaglio

(8,170 posts)
4. You forget, Hekate, that actually happened
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 06:49 AM
Jul 2014
The MS St Louis
The MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which her captain, Gustav Schröder, tried to find homes for 937 German Jewish refugees after they were denied entry to Cuba, the United States and Canada, until finally accepted to various countries of Europe. Historians have estimated that, after their return to Europe, approximately a quarter of the ship's passengers died in concentration camps.


It only took until 2012 for an apology to be issued.

State Dept. Apologizes for Turning Away Jews in WWII
The State Department issued an official apology to passengers of the MS St. Louis, a German steamer carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees that were denied entry into the US 73 years ago.

A ceremony was held to remember those passengers, who were turned away from Cuba, America and Canada in 1939. The ship was forced back to Germany, where one-third of the refugees perished at Auschwitz.

The State Department ceremony was attended by 200 guests, including 30 Holocaust survivors. Survivors from the St. Louis were in attendance as well, sharing their story firsthand to an audience that included Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, Foreign Service Director General Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
13. I never forget; it was on my mind, & I thank you for the quotes and links. There've been many times
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 01:45 PM
Jul 2014

... we've failed to live up to our ideals in the moment.

lapislzi

(5,762 posts)
5. That actually happened.
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 07:01 AM
Jul 2014

In 1939, a ship carrying Jewish refugees was refused entrance. The ship eventually sailed back to Europe, and a large number of the passengers died in the camps.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27373131

Enthusiast

(50,983 posts)
6. I don't know about the hell part but the second part deserves a +1.
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 07:09 AM
Jul 2014

I wish there was a place in hell for the demagogues. They are so deserving.

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
3. Sorry, but kids coming to the US without their parents need to be sent home.
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 06:16 AM
Jul 2014

They will end up in either our prison system or something akin to it.

Children under a certain age cannot sign contracts and live alone in the US. We do not have enough foster homes for children who are born here and whose parents neglect or abuse them much less for children who are sent here by their irresponsible parents.

These children need to be sent home. It is a national emergency, and Obama should use military money to make sure they are safely returned to their countries of origin. The only other alternative is for churches to offer to set up homes for them and educate, clothe, feed, etc. them.

The Congress needs to change the law that Bush signed.

Think of it. Each child would have to have an adult sign for them as legal guardian or some other arrangement. It is a mess. Obama is right. Most of them need to go through the formal hearings that precede repatriation or deportation. But we don't have the immigration courts and judges or facilities to handle that process at the moment. I suggest we take the money from our military. This is tantamount to an invasion and constitutes an emergency situation.

KurtNYC

(14,549 posts)
7. What if these kids said "we are coming to the USA because we want to open carry"?
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 07:19 AM
Jul 2014

What if they poll these children and they find out:

42% want the freedom to open carry
22% want to stand their ground
14% want to join Cliven Bundy's stand off to use free land free forever
12% want to use religion as an excuse to bully other races, genders and economic classes
10% want to help Jeb Bush win in 2016 (because his brother put the current immigration policy in place)
8% want to work at Chik Fil A and Hobby Lobby so they can cite the religion of a corporate-person as a reason to oppress other people

Would that help change their minds??

The same RWers that hate abortion and birth control hate these kids. Do they ever do the math?

Cosmocat

(14,543 posts)
8. fucking jackasses
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 07:26 AM
Jul 2014

it just NEVER stops with them ...

And, what is even more abhorrent, is that they go from one hyperbolic poutrage like this to another, constantly just making up the most ridiculously salacious claims, flat out lies, each time getting worse and worse ...

And, the simple minded populace of this country just won't hold them accountable. They just tune out and babble, "they are all the same" then on average find a way to vote for republicans for SOME stupid ass reason.

riversedge

(69,713 posts)
9. The mantra of 'disease carrying kids" is dangerous...
Fri Jul 11, 2014, 09:05 AM
Jul 2014

and unfortunately--it works on the small-minded.

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