Why Is America So Virulently Anti-Immigrant

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of anti-immigrant sentiments being espoused in the media. America has always been a nation of immigrants. We are supposed to be a melting pot, not a country club for members only, with all the attendant exclusionary bylaws and freebies only for the privileged.

I am not really a political person, but some things have been happening on the national scene lately that is really disturbing to me. Have you noticed the same thing? Who are these self-appointed right-wing “patriots” to judge immigrants or asylum seekers by their own ingrown, twisted inverted version of American history and values?

The world is a big place, and there are other people in other countries that are living their lives by their own viewpoints and values that are completely 100% valid. Other cultures have developed over centuries, like India and China without any help from Americans.

Variety is the spice of life, my mother always told me. And it’s not like we Americans set a very good example. I am fed up with the ultra-conservative viewpoints of the current far-right lunatic fringe.

Their refusal to accept the fact that we originally stole the country from the Indigenous Americans is willful blindness. And how they continue to pretend that the manifest destiny doctrine was some pearl of wisdom, some divinely ordained right that justified their actions then and now is unconscionable.

The doctrine of manifest destiny was a land grab with little or no effort to cooperate with the Indigenous Peoples that were here first. The attempts at rewriting American history by these ultra-right-wing, mostly all-white conservative fringe groups is a flawed, doomed attempt to recreate their version of an America that only briefly existed.

They want to go back in time to post-WWII America, a brief approximately 40-year era that led to significant changes and economic expansion for most American people, again mostly white people who had already been assimilated. Yes, it was an economic boom time, but the conditions that created it are long gone and mainly forgotten by most people.

Now we are hearing more and more from these so-called patriots, again mostly white, who like to think they are superior to others who have different skin colors and come from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

They oh so conveniently forget the fact that America has always been a nation of immigrants and asylum seekers. Check out the Statue of Liberty in NY and the inscription on the base:" Give me your tired, your poor....your huddled masses."

German and Irish immigrants and asylum seekers poured into America in the 1800s in large numbers and were met with stiff resistance and outright hostility by the mostly English inhabitants already here. They were successfully assimilated over the years.

But now all too many of these three countries’ European descendants are uniting in opposing immigrants from Mexico, South America, Asia, and the Middle East from entering the country.

Chinese immigrants who came over to work on the transcontinental railroad in the mid-1800s were also heavily discriminated against and had a much harder time assimilating.

This racist, misogynistic, homophobic culture goes back to the American Revolution. African American slaves were considered 60% of the value of a free man and were designated as property with no rights.

Women had no citizenship or right to vote. Gay people were subject to and often jailed or even executed for the crime of sodomy.

The American Revolution against England was a successful effort to overthrow the shackles of colonialism. It was a good thing and an idea whose time had come. A brief overview of the 17th and 18th centuries is relevant to understanding how we got to here and now from there and then.

Many European countries like England, France, Spain, and Portugal were very active in extending their colonial empires in both North and South America as well as the rest of the world back then. The old saying “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was their proud way of boasting about how vast their colonial empire really was.

There were fierce battles between the French and the English in colonial America in the war for trade rights and profits. Spain was interested in extracting gold and silver from the Americas, both north and south.

The Spanish justified their actions by piously promoting Christianity as the only true religion. Some, like the Spanish missionaries, fervently believed they were saving the souls of the “heathen” Indigenous Americans and built a large chain of missions in California to steer them down the right path by converting them to Catholicism and true salvation.

But this is all ancient history to most Americans now. Even though the Constitution specifically established the separation of church and state in the beginning due to all the religious strife the Founding Fathers had witnessed in Europe, the zealots of the religious right today now seem intent on forcing their views on the mainstream of America.

And The Big Lie belief about the election results, the January 6 coup attempt, the Q-Anon cultist conspiracy buffs, the anti-immigration fervor, the refusal to pass voter rights laws, and the repressive laws being passed against the LGBTQ community all seem to be tied together in a frenzied lather of hate.

Republican attacks on voter rights bills, in an attempt to splinter and deny minority representation, the attack on already established Women’s Rights in landmark cases like Roe vs Wade, and the assault on the LGBTQ community are all part and parcel of the GOP strategy of divide and conquer.

They especially want to create a society of haters who fear the “others.” Immigrants who don’t look like them will end up being marginalized or even forbidden entry into the country. The concept of the original American dream of freedom and equality for all (however flawed in its original applications) will be permanently eradicated if they get their way.

These right-wing extremists are becoming increasingly vocal in their frenzied last-ditch attempts to ensure the tyranny of the minority over the majority.

The upcoming mid-term voting in America will determine how pervasive their twisted hateful lies and prejudices will be legislated, all in a preview for the 2024 Presidential elections.

January 6, 2021, was a dark day in American history, the first time the great American experiment in democracy was threatened by the lack of a peaceful transition of power.

Who can ever forget the horrifying images of hate and violence, the Hang (VP) Pence cries, the invasion of our seat of government in Washington DC, and the beatings and deaths of the Capitol police force? How can we forget?

All this senseless violence and the rushed evacuation of the Senators and Representatives for their very lives were all captured on film that fateful day.

Fueled by the twisted propaganda of the proponents of the “Big Lie” these extremists almost succeeded in staging a coup against America. Now that they have had time to analyze their mistakes, these right-wing neo nazi, homegrown domestic terrorists are poised to strike a death blow against American democracy in the upcoming elections.

This can’t be allowed to happen. The whole world is watching as the forces of autocracy twist and subvert our democracy with absurd voter suppression laws to splinter and neutralize minority voting rights.

They are trying to manipulate the masses on extremist talk shows and popular media platforms and set up mechanisms where the very sanctity of the American vote can be overturned if they don’t get their way.

Don’t let them. Don’t be part of their coup attempt. We all need to open our eyes and vote against these hate mongers before it’s too late. Minorities, LGBTQ, women, moderate Americans, and naturalized immigrants must unite to stop them in all of the upcoming midterm elections.

We may not get a second chance.