Two million join protests as immigrant debate grips US
Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh will not approve.
When half a million people took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest for the rights of immigrants, the frothing right wingers honed in on the fact that many of the protesters were waving Mexican flags as a way of diverting attention from the fact that the protest apparently proved that vast parts of the nation did not share their "send them all home" philosophy.
For the rabid right, yesterday things took an even more unwelcome turn as an estimated two million people took to the streets in 140 different cities around the country an extraordinary mobilisation many supporters are likening to a second civil rights movement.
As I argued here, I think it's fantastic that so many many Americans are willing to stand up for the underdog, and I think such stories will aid the image of the US worldwide at a time when her standing is being so damaged by the events in Iraq.
I think the Democratic party would do itself a lot of favours if it went against the Republicans natural enmity towards these people and joined the fight to have them recognised.
The protest movement has split Republicans, with radicals sticking to their aggressively anti-immigrant agenda while moderates including President George Bush have appealed for a compromise that would end the unregulated inflow of migrants across the Mexican border and establish a framework recognising the realities of the US labour market.The Democrats, meanwhile, have largely failed to seize on the issue appearing more afraid of the large number of Americans who don't think immigrants should be cut any slack.
"Neither party can afford to shrug off or ignore the surging street rallies materialising before their eyes," said Marc Cooper, a border specialist at the University of Southern California's Institute for Justice and Journalism. "They can all do the math. While the 'illegals' can't vote, they have millions of cousins, uncles and even children who can and will."
The Democrats should realise that there is political capital to be gained here as well as a genuine moral cause. I direct them, again, to read the enscription on the statue of Liberty.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
2 comments:
It is not 'immigrants' but the 'illegals'. What part of illegal do you not understand?
I am part Native American, (Creek, I am also part Polish, Scots, Irish, Spanish, and English. But my relatives came through proper channels and that is all we ask. Do it legally. The golden door is in New York not along every stretch of the American boarder.
All who wish to become part of the American family are welcome. But if you come to divide us, and change us, and invade our shores illegally, then we invite you to leave. And don't let the golden door hit your illegal butt on the way out!
I think the point they are making is that the US, like the UK, has actually become dependent on them in order to function as a society.
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