I’m not a big fan of Bill Maher, but this is pretty darn funny:
How did we go from the land of immigrants (well, except for the natives, whom we killed and put on reservations) to a land that hates immigrants and wants them to build a wall to keep themselves out.
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The answer is actually: very quickly. Look at the terrible treatment faced by larger waves of immigrants in the 1800s for a fairly direct comparison. But we can also look to the early settlements such as Mass Bay to see the us vs. them mentality at work very early, and I don’t mean toward natives, either. To paraphrase Jon Stewart in America: The Book, the Pilgrims left England for the freedom to practice the most repressive and exclusive brand of Christianity ever known.
We also have great examples of our immigrant entrepreneurs such as Alexander Graham Bell, who after coming to the US stated very plainly his opposition to further immigration by “undesirable ethnical elements.”
I’m afraid, with the rise of Trump and the anti-migrant GOP in general, we’re simply moving back toward our noisy opposition to foreign people.
As I said before, your values are very often your relatives’. I think it was Joe Biden who once said his father told him, “Don’t tell me what your values are. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what your values are”.
Must say, he does have Trump pegged pretty good there. He’s been flinging his feces around for years and after the last debate I half expect him to whip it out at the next one. The GOP primary has literally turned into the monkey exhibit at the zoo.
Poor Republicans, they were so paranoid about Obama coming to take their guns, they didn’t notice when Trump came to take their Party.
Ralph, your last line would make a good internet meme. Go for it!
Thatguy, you’re right of course. But there was a time, not that long ago, when we were relatively welcoming to outsiders. When we had the longest unprotected border with another country (Canada) in the world. We’ve swung back to our paranoid beginnings very quickly.
Thanks IK, but in full disclosure it’s a thought bubble that stuck and paraphrased from something I came across on another site that was lampooning the gun-obsessed Bundy-led group (“Y’all Qaeda”) and their quaint notion of overthrowing the US gov’t by occupying a remote bird sanctuary.
In a double dose of irony, Ammon Bundy, presently cooling his jets in jail, says he gets solace and inspiration by reading the works of Martin Luther King Jr. Because we all know nothing inspires an incarcerated gun nut more than a black peace activist assassinated by a white supremacist.
Ok, that last sentence up there is all mine mine mine! 🙂
Too funny Ralph. Now can I steal them both?
Be my guest Wildwood. Anyway it isn’t really stealing since everything on the internet is free, right? lol.