Thursday, September 01, 2016

Illegal Immigration

What does a political and economic ruling class do to keep those they lord over from worrying about what their leadership is really up to?

Not sure if this is a good question or one with an easy answer.  But this question dogged me all morning as the replays of Trump's latest antics in the Southwest covered the news like a stinking blanket.  Good question or not, I figured I would try to put down in writing what I think.

What a society's leadership does to deflect attention away from them and their exploitation of their citizenry is to create boogeyman issues that play on the fear of the dark most societies harbor just below their public surface.  They find a stooge or stooges who are willing to whip this fear of the dark up into a cultural wide feeding frenzy of unrealistic fear based not on facts but emotion.

This overblown concern over Illegal Immigration is the perfect distraction.  It does not matter that illegal immigration has actually gone down during Obama's term.  It does not matter that most experts agree that the system in place in the Southwest , while not perfect, is working better than anything we have done so far.  It does not matter that if we exclude the crime of the illegal immigration, once here, illegal immigrants as a population commit less crime than those from the legal population.

No, none of that matters.  What matters is that we should be afraid of the big bad boogeyman illegal immigrant.  Take care of that and all our troubles will be over.  And those who pull the strings can continue to stay busy taking advantage of our labor, our rights, and our soul.

Later ....................................