The Immigration Distraction
As I said in my earlier post, the immigration issue is a distraction. Remember how the GOP tried to advance the idea in 2005 that Social Security was in CRISIS! CRISIS, I SAY! And we all had to drop everything immediately and privatize the crap out of Social Security. Remember how Randy Kuhl, despite his lie about considering Social Security “a sacred trust”, not only was co-sponsoring the whole privatization thing, but actually introduced a bill privatizing the Social Security surplus. (Check out this timeline of all his S.S. hijinks.)
But I digress. When did immigration become such a crisis that the world’s coming to an end unless we do something about it–IMMEDIATELY? Does that strike anyone else as weird?
My suspicion is because the GOP these days needs to evoke the fear response in people to get votes. And they’re totally controlling the national (and local) narrative on immigration. My fellow progressives, we are being taken to school on this. Part of this is because we’re like a transistor radio up against the huge, arena-sized Republican noise machine.
But the other problem is we need to play a little bit of catch-up to frame this issue in a way that’s the constructive, progressive antidote to the right’s anti-immigrant fear and hate.
Check out this piece on the subject by the Center for International Policy. It’ll take you less than 5 minutes, and it’s time well spent. Here’s a teaser:
In the war of ideas over immigration, liberals are in disarray. Anti-immigration advocates have created the ideological frameworks—security, rule of law, nationalism—that now frame the raging immigration debate. Meanwhile, immigration advocates find that their own humanitarian, economic, and historical arguments supporting liberal immigration flows have little resonance in the public debate.
The article is short on “here’s what ya do to counteract that”, but a strength of the progressive movement is we are vibrant and creative enough we don’t need talking points from on high like the GOP. Here’s as close as they get:
The larger problem is that there is no vibrant social democratic or populist movement on the center-left within which immigrant advocates can situate their demands. Until immigration advocates can take the thunder out of the Lou Dobbsian populism by speaking directly to the economic plight of U.S. citizens and all workers, the prospects for immigration reform that supports a just legalization process are grim.
A major success of the restrictionists has been their recent strategy of calling for anti-immigration reform in the name of American citizens and the “common good” while leveraging the inchoate rage against the federal government and transnational corporations.
In the immigration debate, as in all wars of ideas, the challenge is to frame messages that make intuitive sense without being dangerously simplistic and without appealing to the emotions that are easiest to tap—fear and hate.
So there’s the challenge. Got any ideas? Post them in the comments.
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