Political Thoughts with Richard Bleil
Texas started it all. Abbot, their governor (Republican), began sending busloads of immigrants to other states. Ducey (Republican), the governor of Arizona followed suit. Now, DeSantis (Republican) of Florida has taken to flying immigrants out of Florida. All three governors are sending these immigrants to immigrant friendly states headed by Democratic governors.
My favorite story comes out of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, a very wealthy community and home to Vice President Harris, where the citizens of the community gathered to welcome the immigrants and make sure they are taken care of with basic needs including food, water, toothbrushes, and a place to sleep. These good people represent the America in which I want to live.
Make no mistake about this. Shipping humans like so much cattle is nothing but a political game. Such tactics are no different than treating the immigrants like slaves, something the Republican party seems to want to erase from our history even as we continue the practice. These immigrants are for the most part entering the US legally. The law allows entry by non-citizens through proper border sites, as they are doing, in order to apply for citizenship or political asylum, which many are doing. It was Trump that tried to shut down the borders, ordering the arrest of immigrants trying to enter the US legally, and the separation of parents from children. This, too, is America, the version of which I am ashamed.
Abbot, Ducey and DeSantis all want to hide a pretty simple fact. Every one of their states is receiving federal money to handle and process the immigrants. It’s funny, don’t you think, how loudly they are complaining about the immigrants but staying so silent about the Federal Funds they are receiving? And, by the say, isn’t their acceptance of these funds a form of socialism?
Personally, I would love to see Biden cut the funds designated for handling immigrants to all three of these Republican states and redistribute it to those Democratic states to which they are shipping the immigrants. The crying and complaining would be comical. In the meantime, New Mexico with Democratic governor Grisham seems quite content. We can take it a step further, as a matter of fact. The Democratic Governors of those states getting the immigrants should sue the Republican states sending them to help cover the facilities to handle the immigrants since the US government has already built those facilities in Texas, Florida and Arizona. That way we can take away the funding for those states and make them pay even more. And if they complain too much, then we can send the National Guard to occupy those states to “help with the crisis”.
Okay, that last suggestion may have gone to far, but the reality is that they’re not struggling with the immigration crisis. Yes, we’ve seen an uptick, which is no doubt the result of a hostile president leaving the White House because HE LOST THE ELECTION IN 2020. No doubt, people were waiting to try to enter the US because they didn’t want to have their children kidnapped by the US government (a skill shamefully well practiced in the US government interactions with the Native Americans, even into the ‘50’s, times of gaiety and good times if you were a white male). Shipping immigrants is an attempt by the Trumpet governors (something I call Trump supporters, since they don’t seem to be able to find their own voice and can only repeat what Trump says regardless of how outlandish and inaccurate).
For the midterm elections, the tide is turning against the Republicans. Gas prices are dropping, the economy seems to be rebounding, and with the overturn of Roe v Wade, many voters are angry with the Republicans and their agenda. These three governors are hoping to show Biden as weak on what they would call “illegal immigration” with this grandiose display of discontent. But frankly, I’m glad that we’ve stopped the oppressive and, frankly, brutal policies of a president who appeared to be racist, hostile and desirous of becoming a fascist leader whose actions cannot be questioned.
We are approaching midterm elections. The Republican party will try, desperately, to turn attention away from their own heartless and, in my opinion, unAmerican policies and actions. Republican Lindsey Graham introduced legislation to take the decision on women’s rights and health laws out of the hands of the states with a federal national ban on their right to choose. McConnel has displayed the Republican desire to distance themselves from the Roe v Wade decision by actively stating that this legislation is not part of the Republican agenda as he tries desperately to shift focus to the economy in the hopes that we will forget about the Supreme Court decision by the time we reach the goals. The irony, of course, is that the economy is struggling because normal citizens don’t have enough money to live as they would like since Republican policies have been shifting money to the ultra-wealthy since Reagan. The immigration show is just another attempt to try to create a crisis where there isn’t one, a way of saying “look at the immigration instead of the Republican Party debacles”. I guess in November we’ll see if people will fall for it or not. Frankly, if the Republican party loses, and loses big, it will hopefully come across as a message from We the People to stop servicing the wealthy and listen to the rest of us.
Bleil's Banter 