Comments Posted By The Constructivist
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LOOKING FOR HATE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES
Your "truce" is wrong-headed. Why not a mutual agreement to critique "the haters"?
On your "history lesson," where is your evidence? I see a bunch of assertions.
If "guilt by association" is always wrong, why do right wingers consistently assume the Mexican flag wavers at immigration protests represent or direct the movement?
Still waiting for a comeback to these questions from Right Wing Prof; perhaps you'd care to join in--either here or at Objectivist v. Constructivist?
Comment Posted By The Constructivist On 11.04.2006 @ 02:59
POLITICS AND IMMIGRATION REFORM
Six observations to make:
(1) Back in 1848 we had a chance to annex Mexico, Polimom--check out John Calhoun's speech from January of that year in which he argued against either annexation or colonialism (before you agree with him too quickly, think about his real reasons for opposing annexation and, be honest, doesn't racism have the teensiest bit to do with it?).
(2) Check out Thom Hartmann's critique of various liberal takes on illegal immigration over at Common Dreams--he's a pro-working class leftist, so don't be too quick to lump liberals and leftists together on immigration issues. Right wingers, though, won't like his solutions.
(3) Matthew Frye Jacobson in Whiteness of a Different Color points out exactly how racialized the immigration debates in the late 19th and early 20th C were. Before you pooh-pooh the idea that racialization of "Celts," "Slavs," and "Alpines" has nothing to do with how the nativist right profiles Latinos, or how the threat from Latino immigration is so different than last century's racism against "other white races," I'd suggest you actually read Jacobson's well-researched and well-written study (Hartmann should, as well).
(4) Back in 1994, Leslie Marmon Silko warned against the U.S. becoming a "border patrol state." Check out Tram Nguyen's We Are All Suspects Now or David Cole's Enemy Aliens for a portrait any libertarian should find worrying.
(5) Why is it that small-government conservatives are usually fine with free flows of capital and commodities but not with people or labor? What happened to the '90s confidence that the invisible hand of the market would make government obsolete in a kind of capitalist revolution? What happened to the celebrations of capitalism's powers of creative destruction?
(6) Immigration raises tough issues that every wealthier nation in the world has to confront. Snap judgments, hysteria, and paranoia don't do anyone any good. This site is more thoughtful than most, but still doesn't get to the heart of the problem. Corey Robin's review essay in the April 10 issues of The Nation gets into some of these complexities. Have yet to see a conservative version as well researched and well-argued.
Comment Posted By The Constructivist On 3.04.2006 @ 01:28
