Giving Away Democracy
by digby
A Tennessee lawmaker apologized after coming under fire for calling pregnant immigrants “rats” who go out and multiply because he was told that the federal government requires that pre-natal care be given to fetuses on American soil. This was incorrect information. Undocumented immigrants, the “rats” in which the “anchor babies” live before they are “dropped,” are not allowed to have federally funded pre-natal care. (Where are the “life begins at conception” folks on this one, I wonder?)
Evidently, it took him a while and he initially refused, but eventually he was pressured into issuing a statement in which he said he was “truly sorry.” But one of the comments to the story was interesting because I think it really crystallizes the underlying belief system of the Tea partiers:
Maybe he should have said “breed like bunnies”, therefore implying all the cute and fuzzy wholesomeness that is associated with illegal immigration. Yes, this country was built on immigrants’ backs, but not all of them were let in. The ones that were allowed in came in legally, contributed to society, paid taxes, LEARNED ENGLISH, and made the USA a great place to live. To start your journey here with an illegal act simply sets you up to continue illegal acts, such as working illegally and taking a job away from someone who is here legally, not paying taxes, not paying for food, housing, or medical care, and pumping out as many new citizens as possible so that they can support you in your old age. And I for one am tired of not having what I earned because it is being given away to those who have not earned what they have, but they are certainly glad to put out their hand to take it.
ALL illegal aliens need to go, not just any one ethnic group. And having the rule that says being born here makes you a citizen is a loophole within a loophole, nothing else. That needs to be repealed, first and foremost. What happened to taking a test, and proving your allegiance and loyalty before you became a citizen, and then being given all the rights and priveleges that come with it? Democracy is earned, not granted. and I find it totally ironic that it is the Democrats who are trying to give it away……
Apparently, there is only so much democracy and freedom to go around and those damned Democrats are taking it away from the one’s who’ve earned it by being born here and giving it to those who don’t deserve it.
This is the central gripe of the American conservative tribe. What’s sad is that these fine folk who are looking down on the “illegals” and blaming them for taking their hard earned money aren’t completely deluded, it’s just that they’re looking in the wrong direction. It isn’t the “illegals” coming here to work for shit money at shitty jobs who are screwing them over. It’s the wealthy robber barons who are shipping their jobs overseas and buying up politicians by the roomful to help them steal Americans’ property right out from under them.
But that’s an old story. And there’s no telling these folks that they are blaming the wrong people because everything in them says that people who speak a different language or have a different color skin are the ones to fear. A certain number of Americans just can’t get past that. Thankfully that number is shrinking — but it’s shrinking more slowly than an awful lot of people want to admit.
h/t to bb