Arizona's bigoted law BACKFIRING UPDATE: Massive Latino movement into Arizona!

Muddy Waters Guitars

(56 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Apr-24-10 06:51 PM
Original message

Arizona's bigoted law BACKFIRING UPDATE: Massive Latino movement into Arizona!

Edited on Sat Apr-24-10 07:13 PM by Muddy Waters Guitars

Wow, the GOP really has shot themselves in the foot, and knee, and shoulder and everywhere else with their overreach in Arizona. Not only is Latino and other minority registration massively up throughout the state (Scottsdale and now Nogales up close to 300% as of last update). The latest memo is that the law is having the opposite effect from what the Teabagger bigots in Arizona wanted-- it's drawing Latinos TO the state (from across the country-- from Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Idaho, South Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Tennessee among other places) to resist it and stand up for their fellow indigenos, rather than driving Arizona Latinos out, with all of these new arrivals immediately REGISTERING TO VOTE.

This after all, was the true underlying intent of the Arizona law. A large contingent of the Arizona Republican Party descends from the pro-slavery forces who waged the Mexican-American War in 1846 to turn the Arizona Territory into a slaveholding region-- seizing it from Mexico, which had outlawed slavery throughout the country (of which Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico were a part). The GOP descendants of those slaveholders in 2010 are desperately afraid of a Latino/Native American majority in Arizona, since they would revert Arizona's political map back to the days before the slaveholder takeover, and restore power to the disenfranchised indigenous peoples. Today's Arizona Teabaggers are also economically descended from the slaveholders of 1848-- they rely on dirt-cheap, brutally exploited Latino labor to enrich themselves at the expense of the indigenos, and more power for the Latinos and Navajos translates into (they presume) a direct economic loss for them in their quasi-feudal aristocratic power bases. That's the real basis for this outrageous law-- the Teabaggers actually want Latinos to be excessively harassed, to anger them and drive them out of the state.

Fortunately, Latino groups throughout the country have seen through this transparent attempt, and they're making sure that we cruelly disappoint the bigoted Arizona GOP where it hurts most-- in the ballot boxes and on the Census. There's about to be a massive Latino influx into Arizona from other states (generally from outside the Southwest), to deliver the harsh message to the Teabaggers that their pathetic little attempt at ethnic cleansing will be backfiring on them dramatically. No newslinks at this point-- this seems to have just gotten underway and it's mostly grass-roots memos and on-the-ground organizing this early, though certainly something I'm happy to pass on. (And if it tips Arizona elections in the next couple years, it obviously will become a news item!) Here's the summary from my contact in Milwaukee:

"Hey Jim, here's where things stand with the latest salvoes to defeat the sorry KKK wannabes in Arizona. I'm not sure about the general policies of MALDEF and the umbrella organizations, but among the small grass-roots organization, there are now organizing drives to encourage Latinos, if they're so inclined, to move into Arizona rather than out of it, which would be doing exactly what the little Bull Connors there want us to do. Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, Jan Brewer and this bill's various sponsor are white supremacists to the core, they want to drive the Chicano and other Latino population out of Arizona since they believe that their white-power structure gives them the "right" to Arizona over the indigenous Chicano, Pueblo, Zuni, Navajo and other populations, with Latinos being their main target by dint of sheer demographics and fear of Latino voter backlash. We're gonna make their lives miserable by doing the opposite-- WE are the indigenous people of Arizona, and we will not be driven out no matter what their attempts. Everything they do will just bring us swarming in like hornets to crush their racist hatred and stand by those so hard-pressed by this.

Our Milwaukee branch saw the writing on the wall weeks ago and started encouraging legal, often US-born Latinos here and elsewhere in Wisconsin to take up residence, LEGALLY, in Arizona, to work there and register to vote, especially if they have any sort of family connection to the state-- which of course many do, stretching back to the 1700's and before. For all its flaws, Arizona is a physically-beautiful state with a low cost of living, so it's not much of a personal sacrifice to move there-- it's even an opportunity for many of us. Our call was replicated in a number of other states outside the traditional Latino political centers in the Southwest, and the latest news is that thousands of Latinos across ages and social classes are now heading to Arizona-- to stand up against the racists while gaining economic power in the process, and registering to vote. The branches in these states are particularly active, with heavy Latino relocation from there to Arizona: Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Idaho, South Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, New York, Wyoming, Washington state, Oklahoma and Iowa. And everyone is registering to vote as soon as they get themselves up and running in Arizona. The irony is that Arpaio, Pearce and Brewer wanted to drive us out of Arizona, but with their foolishness, their only drawing us in to displace them from their fiefs.

One more point: THE ARIZONA POLICE ARE OUR ALLIES IN THIS FIGHT. I want to make this clear-- it's the Republican politicians and Tea Partiers in Arizona, the Minutemen, who are the enemy, NOT THE POLICE. The police in fact are bitterly opposed to this anti-Latino measure, and standing up against their own sheriff in Maricopa County. They realize it's unconstitutional, expensive and unworkable in practice, as there's no way to "suspect" an illegal immigrant other than skin color, itself fraught with error since many illegal immigrants from the USA today are from places like Ireland, Russia, the UK, Belarus and the Ukraine. That's why this law will eventually be thrown out in court if not rescinded legislatively before that, but we need to make the Arpaios and the Pearces pay for this regardless, by flooding the ballot boxes with Latino voters that they thought they could drive out. The police want to help us. Yes, there will certainly be occasions when the police-- compelled by this foolish law-- are compelled to arrest Latinos who are legally here, but I promise you that with few exceptions, they don't like this at all. If you are legally in Arizona, Latino or otherwise, and arrested under this foolish statute, be polite and cooperative especially if the police communicate their own frustration with the idiotic dictates that forced them to bring you in. And then, you'll be able to launch one of the thousands of lawsuits that will be the de facto demise of this law, for infringing upon your natural rights as a US citizen. Don't be afraid to be proud of your Latino identity-- celebrate your holidays, speak Spanish, and redouble your connection to your ancestry more than ever before. If for whatever reason this leads to an arrest, again remember that most of the police are not happy about having to arrest you. Document everything that happens with the arrest, post Youtube videos to humiliate the state, document the anger of police officers forced into this (with due protection of their identities for their jobs), and take legal action. And above all, register to vote, because it's in the ballot box that we'll ultimately shame, disgrace and defeat the likes of Arpaio, Pearce and Brewer for good in this great state.