Reply #170: You know, cboy4, an awful lot of your posts are just like this one...

[El Pinko]

You're more than entitled to your opinion about whether or not the expression "illegal alien" is acceptable or not.

I don't have a problem with it per se.

But of the posts I've seen from you, it seems like about half of them are you indignantly bitching about how so many DUers and/or liberals fail to be sensitive or PC enough to suit your particular sensibilities.

Apparently there are all of these liberals out there who laughed their asses off about the California fires, or at Anna Nicole, or failed to be PC enough about this or that.


I personally don't identify as a democrat and would never deign to speak for all of them, or all of my fellow labor leftists. I vote to the best of my abilities to support candidates who will

1. promote a society where the gap between rich and poor is less than it is today

2. support all working people's right to a decent wage for a day's work

3. support the right of working people to bargain collectively (which is severely undermined by the presence of vast pools of cheap, illegal labor)

4. support a decent social safety net for those who cannot work for whatever reason.

5. support progressive taxation (the rich pay a higher percentage of income than the poor in taxes)

6. oppose privatization of all commodities that are or should be a part of the commons (national parks, health care, broadcast airwaves, municipal water supplies, etc.)

7. keep religion OUT of the public schools and OUT of the law books

8. protect equal rights of all people regarless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion



...pretty much in that order. In other words, my PRIMARY concern is that poor and working class people are able to SURVIVE, because that's literally what we're talking about. a cut in food stamps or school lunch or medicaid would result in a quantifiable number of DEATHS. You may think that some people's way of talking is hurtful, but it is not a life or death issue, IMO.

And I grew up in El Paso, TX which is 80% Mexican. I find it laughable how people in other parts of the country are so upset to suddenly have a few Mexicans around. This is the culture I grew up immersed in, and I am quite comfortable with it, and guess what? Most (legal) Mexicans/Mexican-Americans here in El Paso support border enforcement just as much as anyone else. And nobody here gets hung up on the absolutely trivial difference between "undocumented worker" and "illegal immigrant".

I guess my point is that there are a lot of people who would agree with you on given candidates and policies, but who really are not interested in tiptoeing on eggshells around you when it comes to expressing themselves.


Why do you keep posting these periodic confrontational challenges, like you're positioning youself as the arbiter of who the "good" progressives are vs. the "bad ones? If people basically agree with you on the fundamentals of the issues, why keep coming out with these dictatorial decrees about what basically boils down to symbolism? Let's be honest, if everyone in America stopped using the words "illegal immigrant" from now on, NOBODY's life would be improved, not one bit. Not the illegals' lives, not the American workers' lives, nobody's. Well, except for the language police like yourself. I suppose it would make your day.

Anyway, you do what you want. Focus your anger on liberals and lefties who fail to meet your standards of sensitivity and decorum. It's not like there's an army of right-wing thugs trying to wreck the constitution and impoverish the majority for the benefit of the wealthy few or anything. :sarcasm:

Hell, I'm sure if you get together enough of your pals you can probably get me banned, and I'll be just fine and keep voting and being active in my own way. You'll have accomplished nothing except to make the voices here fewer and more homogenous.

And thanks for the concern, but my self-esteem is just fine. I'm a leftist because of genuine concern and empathy because I know what it is to work my ass off and struggle to raise a family on a pittance, it's not because of privileged liberal guilt.

I came from nothing and I have nothing, so my sympathies lie with those who have nothing. And that includes the illegal aliens. Although I favor deportation on principle, they should be treated well during the process, and the US government should be putting MASSIVE pressure on the Mexican government to address its massive income inequities which are the main reason for the swarms of economic refugees coming across the border. I hate people that scapegoat the illegals because they do work extremely hard and are just trying to provide a better life for their families. The way wealthy American business owners and homemakers exploit them for cheap labor is disgraceful.