[lit-ideas] Re: At War with Ourselves
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 22:32:48 -0800
Let's talk about something we know better: the Mexicans in the USA.
Some people think they come here to stay. That they prefer to live in the USA. No, not
really. They much more prefer to live in Mexico, where the life, the food, the music, and so
on is much more agreeable to them. They come to the USA, where they're often mistreated by
authority, robbed by the police, or just harassed.
Why are they here? They come to work because they can earn more in the USA. They send the
money home to their families, where it is spent on improving their houses, medicine,
clothes, and tutors and extra classes for their children, so the kids will be able to have
better lives.
There are some ten million illegal workers in the USA. The US can't throw them out, so the
workers have to be legalized, which means an amnesty for those who are here, plus a legal
process for letting more come in.
The politics over these illegal workers is very complex. And when I say that, most of you
know that I mean that Washington is speaking out of both sides of the mouth. Since the
Republicans control American politics (despite Lawrence's handwringing about
Leftist-Marxists), the immigration issue is a Republican issue.
A) The small-town white christians want the Mexicans out of their small white
towns.
B) The business Republicans (those who own or invest in companies) need a cheap labor pool.
The huge supply of Mexicans keep down wage costs and keep the unions at bay. The Mexicans
are also a huge consumer market: they have lots of kids, so they are constantly buying
clothes, food, consumer goods, etc.
See? One party with diametrically-opposite interest groups.
Many, if not most, of the Mexicans are paying taxes (wage taxes, social security,
unemployment taxes, property taxes, income taxes, sales tax, gasoline tax, etc.) for which
they often don't get the benefits (because they're illegal, or they leave the USA after a
few years). So they put money into the system. The government (both federal, state, and
city) like the Mexicans for the taxes.
By the end of March, immigration reform will come up for a vote in Washington. GOP
politicians are under tremendous pressure from both sides of GOP supporters. They are
studying their polls very carefully, to see how they can take care of business interests
(the primary group, i.e., donors) without annoying too much the voters (the white
christians).
The issue must be resolved now, to get it out of the way before the November mid-term
elections. If decided now, the dolts, er, the rural christian voters will forget about it by
November (Bush can always run on the terriers issue). If it doesn't get decided before the
mid-term elections, then the corps run the risk of losing the mid-term elections, which
means they lose control of House and Senate (and Bush may get his very own impeachment
hearings) and immigration reform doesn't happen. So... the GOP and the corps need to get
this through now.
Who will win? Lawrence thinks the country is run by, well, whatever he thinks. Over the last
two or three years that this issue has been winding through the halls of the US capitol,
I've asked friends in DC about this. Who is going to win on the immigration reform issue?
Everyone of them, both Dem, GOP, lawyers, and lobbyists say the same thing with a laugh:
money. Money always wins. The corps will win, because it means something to them (workers,
wages, profits, etc.) The states and cities will win, because they get taxes.
The white christians have no dog in this race: they're annoyed by the idea of Mexicans, but
it doesn't really mean anything to them.
Lawrence is wondering, but what about Marxist-leftist free love multiculturalism? Aren't
they the guilty ones here? Nope. This issue is entirely controlled and debated within the
GOP alone. It's the white christians vs. the corps. All the rest is just surface issues.
So that's multiculturalism in the USA. It's not really about multiculturalism. It's about
jobs and economics.
I suspect if we look into the French situation, the same might be true.
yrs,
andreas
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