Do you think anti-immigration Arizonians still eat Mexican food?

[AnArmyVeteran]

Poll question: Do you think anti-immigration Arizonians still eat Mexican food?

Do Arizonian conservatives/tea baggers/anti-immigrant folks still eat Mexican food? I haven't seen any studies or data to show where Mexican food sales have dropped. Does anyone else have that information?

Remember when France wouldn't allow US military planes to fly over their airspace to bomb Libya in 2003? Congress renamed 'French fries' to 'Freedom Fries'. I'm wondering if Arizona has taken a similar 'stand' against Mexican food and if they have renamed any Mexican food dishes. Anyone have any ideas what kind of patriotic names to call tacos, burritos or tostadas?

It would be funny to see a car in a Taco Bell drive thru with its bumper splattered with tea bagging, anti-immigration slogans. To any Arizona resident: If you manage to get a picture like that document the place and time of the event and post it on DU. Thanks...

[gratuitous]

1. Only if it has its paperwork in order

Otherwise, it could be illegal immigrant food, and that's the worst kind!

[AnArmyVeteran]

3. Whoops, I think I might be eating illegal food then...

It seems like half the produce I see in stores comes from Mexico. I wonder if conservatives are boycotting that too.

I like your idea Gratuitous. All food should be accompanied with 'Certificates of Authenticity' showing its exact origin. But then we need another system of paperwork to tell who picked our fruits and veggies in California and other parts of the US. Since probably most of it was picked by illegals all conservatives should go on an all meat diet.

Arizona has become a circus of Crazy Caucasian KKKers.

[Erose999]

12. But there are illegals working in the slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants too. I think the

conservatives who are really hardcore anti-immigration should go on hunger strikes until they find a foodsource that doesn't involve immigrant labor in some way shape or form.

Since probably most of it was picked by illegals all conservatives should go on an all meat diet.

[AnArmyVeteran]

15. And stop buying anything from those commies in China too!

Just about everything seems to be made by slaves in communist China too, so conservatives who say they are against communism would have to boycott all Chinese products too. And since they 'say' they are Christians they would have to be opposed to slavery, so all the products made oversees by companies using slave labor would be off limits too.

Poor conservatives, they say they love free enterprise, but it seems they would have to boycott buying anything sold, essentially shutting down their beloved capitalism, since they also say they are basically the only ones with jobs and who keep the economy going.

LOL, poor, poor ignorant, right wing bastards...

[Demobrat]

2. Yes they'll still eat Mexican food.

And they'll still hire Mexicans to mow their lawns, wash their dishes and scrub their toilets. And why not? Mexicans can be abused with impunity, more so now than ever before, which of course is the point.

[lurky]

4. I'm guessing all their food is Mexican, in a way.

It would be hard to find a restaurant in the Southwest with non-Mexican kitchen staff, or to find produce that wasn't harvested by Mexican migrant workers, or meat that wasn't "processed" by Mexican immigrants at some packing plant.

If they actually did manage to deport all the illegal migrants in Arizona, the state would collapse into anarchy.

[Demobrat]

5. They have no intention of deporting the illegals.

If AZ (or any other state or the federal government) REALLY wanted to stop illegal immigration they'd remove the incentive for illegals to risk their lives to come here - by making it a REAL crime to hire illegals. A real crime with serious consequences for a first offense - whether the criminal hired 500 people to pick lettuce or one to mow the lawn. But the purpose of the law isn't to make it harder to hire illegals - it's to make it easier. Now the criminals who hire illegals can pay them less and treat them worse, because the illegals live in more fear than ever before.

[LAGC]

27. Good luck with that.

Do you really expect Joe Homeowner to run every independent landscaper through a central database before hiring him for a simple job? Even if the government were to provide the service free of charge, why should the homeowner have to play policeman?

What we need is amnesty for many of those "illegals" who've been working here for years for sub-standard wages, so they can't be as easily taken advantage of. If we agree we can't deport them, what other humane option is there? Let them be citizens! America, land of immigrants... yet we currently allow so few immigrants legally in.

[Demobrat]

31. You bet I do.

Just like I expect every restaurant owner to make sure every. single. person. they hire to wash dishes can prove they're here legally. If it's too much trouble, tough. If you're caught giving any illegal money for any reason you go to jail. Period. Sound draconian? Well, just how serious are we about stopping illegal immigration? Serious enough to make it inconvenient for anybody but the illegals? I don't think so.

[AnArmyVeteran]

28. Maybe that was the point of most of this, to drive down wages even more...

I don't like having an open border because of the threat of terrorists simply walking across our borders. I think it's comical to see the billions spent on monitoring people, tracking them and having heavy airport security when all a terrorist has to do is walk across our southern border. While grandparents and little babies are being searched Osama Bin Laden himself could just walk across our southern border. Even most of airport security is a joke, just an illusion of security. While they are strip searching passengers the bellies of each plane are virtually unchecked. So passengers could be sitting on top of boxes full of bombs in the cargo area of each plane.

After the 9/11 attacks Bush promised Americans he would protect us so he sent our military half way around the world to fight and die in a country that had nothing to do with terrorism and had no ability to attack us. And since Bush made that promise an additional 12 million illegals simply walked across our borders. We all know Bush did nothing to protect us from terrorism, he created more with every Muslim he ordered murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet conservatives loved all that violence and spending a trillion dollars, even though it didn't provide a dime's worth of protection against real terrorists.

The problems with illegals flooding into the US could be stopped overnight, but neither major party wants to do that. They don't want to lose the Hispanic vote. And businesses don't want to close the borders because they want to be able to continue to exploit workers, by treating them like slaves (a conservative utopia). So since the two most powerful forces in our country are unwilling to stop the southern invasion it will continue as it always has.

I can understand why a lot of people are upset, but I don't agree with their 'solutions'. It's okay to want to preserve the integrity of our country, but not okay to be racist and to pass racist laws, or strip away Constitutional rights, as the right wing is eager to do. Racist Rand Paul is wanting to change the Constitution preventing any baby born in the US from becoming a citizen if its parents are illegal. If we take Racist Rand's idea a step further and eliminated the 'naturalization' process I wonder what Racist Rand would think if their child was denied citizenship if he and his wife went on vacation in a foreign country and his wife gave birth outside the US borders. 'Solutions' like what right wingers are proposing are slippery slopes to chaos. But I've noticed long ago how right wingers never look at the consequences of their actions. They live in a short term world filled with easy to remember slogans and thirty second soundbites. Anything complex is beyond their mental ability to understand it. A great chess player can plan 20, 30 or 40 plays ahead, but right wingers can only think of one move at a time, never able to see the big picture. That's why they are so easily manipulated by right wing radio and Fox News. They are masters of manipulating the gullible, the ignorant and the stupid...

[Demobrat]

29. Of course it was.

If we really didn't want them here we wouldn't give them money to come. We want them here, we just don't want to have to pay them decent wages or treat them like human beings. If every business, and individual, in AZ refused to hire anyone without a birth certificate and verifiable SS# the flow would slow to a trickle overnight. But everybody wants their cheap labor, so the purpose of this law is to make them easier than ever to exploit, while making the racists feel good.

[donco6]

6. Option 3 is classic.

And probably the most true of all.

[Scuba]

7. Yeah, we can't trust those Mexicans...

...with anything except preparing our food and caring for our children.

[Demobrat]

17. That is so not true.

We trust them to mow our lawns, wash our dishes, dig our swimming pools, paint our homes, park our cars, carry our luggage, clean our offices .... just about anything except sit next to our kids in school.

[HopeHoops]

8. FUCK NO! They eat at Taco Bell.

That isn't even FOOD! You certainly couldn't accuse it of being "Mexican food".

[AnArmyVeteran]

11. M I N O ?

Are you saying it's Mexican In Name Only? :(

Que lastima...

[HopeHoops]

16. Taco Bell? Taco Bell? Hell, that isn't even MEXICAN in name, much LESS MINO!

And it isn't food, anyway. Although the superhero video was a riot.

[tilsammans]

9. Y'notice how nobody complains about "those Mexicans" . . .

. . . on Cinco de Mayo?

[AnArmyVeteran]

36. If money can be made off illegals right wingers love it...

[political_Dem]

10. The stupid thing is that if they water down the Spanish-named towns into English

the replacement names sound so lame.

For example: "El Gato, CA". English version: The Cat, California.

Or: "Los Baños, CA". English version: The Baths, California.

Do these hypocrites really want to go on their anti-immigrant rampage? They'll destroy the entire southwest--especially with their commitment to use racial slurs.

[pinboy3niner]

14. When place names containing racial/ethnic slurs are changed...

...it's often for other reasons--because they also contain "rude or otherwise impolite references to body parts, sex, excrement, and other no-no’s."

This is from an interesting website on offensive toponyms and why they get changed:

"Apparently tit was more offensive than squaw to whoever sanitized the official names of Arizona’s Squaw Butte (formerly Squaw Tit), Nevada’s Squaw Mountain and Squawtip (both formerly Squaw Tit), and Texas’s Squawteat Peak (formerly Squawtit Peak)."

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/534650.html

[political_Dem]

19. That is a very interesting article and link. Thanks. :)

I find it sad that people will go through the trouble to keep the "offensive names" to a particular ethnic group, but they don't have any trouble trying to push all groups outside of the dominant culture to assimilate themselves. I tend to think that they preserve these offensive town names for one reason: it persuades the "assimilating culture" that their own ways and norms are negative and need to be abandoned. Thus, the offensive titles of the towns reinforce racist and sexist beliefs rather than eliminating them all together.

(Another famous example of this is "Blacksburg" or "Lynchburg"--both cities in Virginia).

Believe me, I am a stickler for the historical significance of objects, places and events. But when it comes to offensive names that will demean racial, gender or ethnic groups, there has to be an effort to get those changed. On this point alone, it has to do with a matter of respect to the group in question.

But for racists to go out in changing town names just because of another language (attributed to the specific group in question)? They are stupid. I believe that trying to translate such names into English to satisfy some draconian need to make things "English only"--transforms the persons doing the renaming as ignorant, insular bigots.

After all, learning and speaking a foreign language is not bad thing. It is a fabulous way to learn about other cultures and races. People who try to wipe out another language in any form is seriously doing themselves a disservice in erudition. :(

[pampango]

13. Sure they do, but campaigning against Mexican food is still good right-wing politics.

Republican candidates everywhere are falling all over each other to prove that they hate Mexican food more than the next republican candidate. Once he or she wins the repub primary, they will undoubtedly suddenly remember how much they actually do love Mexican food. Remains to be seen whether the "Mexican food folks" buy that last minute change of heart of not. ;)

[harkadog]

18. It's funny the OP thinks Taco Bell is Mexican food.

[AnArmyVeteran]

20. I know it's not 100% authentic, but it's based on similar ingredients/names

Mexican food is as diverse as the Mexican people. I could have cited a lot of other foods that are strictly a Mexican tradition, but by focusing on the absolute definition of Mexican food I thought it would be better to look at the overall picture. Tea bagging conservatives don't care about authenticity. They just look at the surface and if they see the words "Mexican Food' they will probably be against it. The intent of my post is to determine what others thought about what conservatives would do, not whether the food was blessed by the Mexican president.

At least Taco Bell doesn't serve spaghetti or Greek food. :)

The Wikipedia take on Taco Bell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell

Oh yeah, the direct answer to your question: NO, I don't think it's purely authentic food. But I remember going to a place in Cozumel and eating authentic Mexican food and I had Montezuma's Revenge for three months. And no, I'm not saying all Mexican food is tainted. It's actually very, very good. I especially love Central American foods. They eat a lot of black beans which I love.


Damn, all this talk is making me hungry. Hey honey, will you go to Taco Bell and get me a few tacos?

[harkadog]

21. I am at the Bell at least twice a week so I'm with you.

[azmouse]

22. About 2 months ago I saw Gov Brewer at a Mexican restaurant.

Can't believe she had the nerve to show her face but it was just before she signed the immigration bill.

[Synicus Maximus]

23. I don't know about Arizona but here most people eat Tex-Mex

as they did when I lived in Texas. But some of us eat authentic Mexican on Buford Highway

[AsahinaKimi]

24. Can't remember ..DO they have TACO BELL

In Arizona? People say its really Tex Mex. Most people say its horrible. I like it. (I think Jack in the Box has a better Taco)however I remember some lovely Mexican restaurants in Scottsdale Arizona...also some place that had some decent Buffalo wings too. Yum!

[Sebastian Doyle]

30. Yeah, there are Taco Bells in Arizona

but you only see white people eating there.

[jmondine]

25. Yes, but they call them, "freedomiladas".

[AnArmyVeteran]

26. I love your new food name!!!

I also love your tagline about not equating conformity to morality. That is so true. We seem to be a nation of conformists with most people easily succumbing to their perceived masters. I worked as a subcontractor to IBM and I quickly observed how they only hired complete conformists always giving in to their corporate masters. They were told how to dress at work, what they could or could not do at company functions and even told them how to behave away from the office. I'm not sure if they still are that way but I remember how obsessively controlling they were. They liked to hire people they could mold rather than have free thinkers.

A few years later two of their employees invented a revolutionary system or gadget and they were reprimanded and punished because they didn't adhere to exact IBM standards. If I can find that story I'll PM it to you, if interested. It's quite frightening how they require absolute obedience to the corporate doctrine. IBM always reminded me of a totalitarian corporation and if it was a country it would be considered a fascist one.

All the best...

[jmondine]

35. I experienced the same kind of culture at Motorola

They implemented an employee "individual dignity" program the same month they started random drug testing.
That would be great if you could PM that story to me, don't knock yourself out trying to find the link, though.
I am honored and flattered.

[AnArmyVeteran]

38. I worked at a corporation that spent millions on quality improvement programs but...

but they were flops. The company had HR teaching people how to improve productivity, break down barriers to enable yourself to do better work for your customer and a lot of other corporate nonsense. HR was the only part of our company that had nothing to do with customers and never produced a product, yet they were given millions of dollars and employees were forced to attend day long classes over and over again. I worked directly for our customers and I knew how to please my customers and they gave me awards every couple of months. Everyone else in my company were self starters too and they worked hard to give their customers the best products they could.

The company had a different productivity plan every few months and the employees laughed at them. They thought like I did, asking why didn't they use all of that money to give employees raises instead of giving it to HR, which had no clue who customers were and who never had to satisfy a customer in their lives. It was ridiculous, but higher ups in corporations aren't that smart. Some people get to higher levels of corporations by working hard, but you basically have to sell yourself out to get ahead. If you work hard, they ask you to work harder for the same pay.

If you hire good people they are going to give you their best. So by having ridiculous programs every few months was like the company admitting "We didn't hire the right people so now we have to train you to be productive". It was crazy and a waste of time.

One of the many programs was Total Quality Management or TQMS. Every hour I spent in one of those mundane, boring meetings meant an hour I couldn't spend working on projects for my customers.

In one class I asked why are we being taught this if we already know how to please customers and they said there are a lot of upper management people who don't know this stuff. They went on to say that the only way to reach our goals is when all of them eventually leave. I flat out asked, "Then why don't we have a coup and throw them all out now?" and everyone in the room laughed, because that is what they were thinking too. I could say anything I wanted to say because I knew they would never fire me. I couldn't be replaced because I had an expertise no one else could do. And I was personally bringing into the company millions of dollars a year.

Lastly, when I approached management about getting a raise if I increased the amount of money I brought in by 50-100% they said they couldn't give me a raise, and even if I increased the revenue from my department, they couldn't even guarantee they would keep me employed with them, even though I was the only one who could do the job! Oh yeah, part of one of the productivity programs was thinking outside the box and breaking down company barriers but when I asked for a raise if I increased revenue (which is thinking outside the box and breaking down company barriers) they acted in direct contrast to the crap they were teaching.

I'm fairly sure I can find that story. I don't toss anything so I have it somewhere. It amuses me how conservatives want corporations to run everything because they believe they operate so damned efficiently and smartly, but just the opposite is true. Corporations are so riddled with internal rules and processes and procedures it cripples productivity. I bet there are more internal paperwork restrictions in corporations than what government could ever dream up. It would be close anyway. I operated my department with zero paperwork. I handled everything face to face, emails or telephones. And I routinely broke almost every company rule that got in my way. But the company didn't care because my customers were thrilled with me and my company was making a fortune off of me (but they were too greedy to share). I later left and they lost all of that income I made for them but they would rather lose millions than to give in to an employee and reward his hard work.

[Confusious]

32. So if I'm anti-illegal immigration

Am I also anti-immigration?

Just want to know where I stand in some peoples eyes.

A little correction:

Remember when France wouldn't allow US military planes to fly over their airspace to bomb Libya in 2003? Congress renamed 'French fries' to 'Freedom Fries'.

That was during the Iraq invasion, not during the Libya bombing. The Libya bombing was also during Regan.

[AnArmyVeteran]

33. Freedom Fries were named in 2003 under Chimp Bush

[Confusious]

34. Yes, but it wasn't because they wouldn't

allow us to bomb Libya. It was because they didn't support the Iraq invasion.

[NeedleCast]

37. WTF does Mexican Food have to do with this?

Are you suggesting that people who are anti illegal immigration should not eat the cuisine of other countries?

[TheKentuckian]

39. Shit, those hypocrites probably all use as much Mexican "help" as they can get a hold of