It’s almost midnight on a Sunday and I really, really wish that I was fast asleep but, alas, I am not. And it sucks.
My battle with insomnia has been going on for years now. And every single thing I’ve tried has not worked. But there’s one thing I have not tried yet. I have not tried blaming immigrants.
Could it be that immigrants are pouring over our borders, pillows and blankies in hand, with the sole purpose of stealing American shut-eye?
No, of course not. That is dumb.
But it sure seems to work for Republicans who seem to blame every single problem on immigrants. Low wages? Immigrants. Drug addiction? Immigrants. Housing market? Immigrants. And on and on and on.
I mean, sure, these are complicated, multi-faceted problems. But there’s got to be one clear and simple answer, right?
Donald Trump and JD Vance are even blaming missing cats and dogs on immigrants, something that is totally false but is causing real problems for the residents of Springfield, Ohio, who, along with Ohio’s Republican governor, are literally begging Trump and Vance to stop. But they can’t, they won’t, and they don’t stop. Because absolutely racist pieces of shit has gotten them very far in life. Because this country is racist as hell.
Demonizing “the other” is a standard GOP play. Tried and true no matter this issue. Get people freaked out enough that someone is going to take something from them and convince them that only you can fix it, and they’ll vote for you. Republicans keep doing it because it works. It’s scapegoating and it’s gross. But it’s also super effective.
The things that Republicans are saying about immigrants is disgusting. It is not an exaggeration to call this dehumanization some Nazi shit.
“It was neo-Nazis who first lit the fuse this summer sparking the racist wildfire of pet-eating immigrants,” reports USA Today. “Members of a Nazi-loving group called Blood Tribe, founded by a former Marine, began spreading the lie on far-right platforms like Gab, they marched on the city of Springfield carrying swastika flags and rifles to vilify Haitians, and one member confronted the city council with a ‘word of warning’ before he was thrown out of the meeting. This might have remained the vile bigotry of extremists had it not been for the Trump reelection campaign.”
Surely the Trump campaign has a perfectly reasonable explanation for their eager embrace of “the vile bigotry of extremists,” right?
“Like the neo-Nazis at Blood Tribe, Trump and Vance are fueling a lie that serves their ends: trafficking in racist, xenophobic hatred and provoking fears from white America,” USA Today continues.
Get it? They’re the same picture.
No wonder thinking about how close we as a country are to electing Nazi Thing 1 and Nazi Thing 2 doesn’t just lull me right to sleep.
The Nevada Current reported that at a rally in Nevada, Trump “repeatedly claimed that under the Biden-Harris administration hyperbolic numbers of immigrants have poured into the United States to take American jobs, rape and murder women and children, get transgender surgery, vote in elections, take over whole apartment buildings to house their gangs, and ‘conquer our country.’”
This coming from a guy who is, himself, a rapist, brags about cheating employees out of overtime pay, and has stated very clearly his desire to be a dictator, a.k.a. to “conquer our country.”
Reports the Nevada Current, “He claimed immigrants are coming from other countries’ prisons, jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums.”
Wow, that sounds pretty scary. But, again, Trump has offered no evidence besides isolated anecdotes. He clearly defines a terrorist as anyone who isn’t white. But he doesn’t need evidence. Because the people who already adore him are going to believe him. But even some people who loathe him will wonder in the back of their minds, “What if it’s actually true?”
Trump has promised “mass deportations” if he’s elected, and he’s not just talking about people who are here without documentation. It really cannot be understated how horrific and destabilizing this would be for our country. We’d be tearing families apart, harming major industries that employ migrants and immigrants, and putting the safety of all immigrants at risk as neo-Nazis and other dangerous groups would see mass deportations as permission to commit violence.
Immigration is not the cause of all of our problems, nor is mass deportation the solution. Anyone who claims otherwise is admitting that they don’t have any concrete plans except hate. And hate doesn’t make anyone safer.