On January 1, 1892, seventeen-year-old Annie Moore walked down the gangway from the steamship Nevada with her two brothers Anthony, eleven, and Philip, nine, and into history as the first person processed through the newly opened Ellis Island Immigrant Station.
Same here, Annabel. Both of my parents came from their war torn countries to escape tyranny and Nazism. Ms. Liberty was the first thing they saw on the island and she gave them hope. I wish to lean on her again.
My boss prepared some exhibits for the 1986 reopening of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, one of which was an audio recording of voices of real immigrants describing their first glimpse of statue approaching it by sea. It brought tears to my eyes to hear to it.
And this essay by Dr. Richardson brought tears to my eyes. (We New Yorkers often refer to the statue as "Our Lady of the Harbor." Those of us with pagan leanings recognize its semiotic significance as perhaps the earliest indication of the pivotal role We the Empathetic People would play in the modern acknowledgement of our species' first and oldest deity. [Which is why it would not surprise me if Trump and his Christonazis attempt to destroy it -- an atrocity I most profoundly hope will somehow be prevented, as I have no doubt its occurrence would trigger an actual, infinitely violent civil war].)
My ancestors came here before the American Revolution on my father's side of the family. My mother's mother's side were shipped here after the Battle of Cullodan. My mother's grandfather came from Cornwall before the Civil War, so no connections to Ellis Island, alas.
Thank you so very much. RefJim, for posting this. I did not know of this well crafted, emotionally powerful song -- an invocation, really -- and after wiping my eyes, I added it to my modern folk-music library, where it companions such works as these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwPk4dJaBw&list=RDipwPk4dJaBw&start_radio=1 (For correct lyrics scroll down to "The right lyrics are hard to find?")
Respectfully disagree; Christonazis is the more properly descriptive noun for three reasons: (1)-It connects the MAGAT movement with its Original Nazi origins and thus with Hitler's recognition of the ecogenocidal history of Christianity as an invitation to easy nazification; (2)-It accurately conveys the definitive element of ecogenocidal white male supremacy that distinguishes Christonazism from the more specifically religious hatred of definitively multi-racial (or perhaps non-racial) Islamism; (3)-it therefore accurately conveys the long-term Christonazi intent to fulfill Hitler's dream of making Earth an Aryan-ruled -- that is, white-ruled -- planet.
(FYI, the "T" added to "MAGA" stands for either "Traitor" or "Terrorist" and thereby transforms the acronym from a Big Lie into a statement of truth.)
I can’t believe he would attempt to destroy Ellis Island. However, nothing he does or says shocks me anymore.
My grandparents came through Ellis Island in 1913. I was able to find my grandfathers name, where he came from, and the name of the ship he traveled on.
How did he dupe 77 million people. I wonder how many regret their choice.
Loren, I understand why you would think that of the evil trump gang. But please don't verbalize this atrocity or even think it! Let's hope what she symbolizes will become a reality not just for America but the world! Call me naive.
What a thoughtful gift your boss prepared. We need to be reminded of the details of our beautiful and difficult history ie mistreatment of the Indians and so many non-white immigrants or persons of various faiths or no faith....what is our problem???? Maybe it is we "white" persons and not the "others" who need to be purged!
If prejudices could be destroyed and respect for one another could be increased, how much stronger and productive we could be as human beings!
Maybe people as a part of our military are changed and turn from these attitudes....when they realize that to survive, each must take care of the other!
We are a better and stronger nation when we take care of one another....each and all!....remember LADY LIBERTY'S MESSAGE!
"Maybe people as a part of our military are changed and turn from these attitudes....when they realize that to survive, each must take care of the other!"
Certainly that happens in a fundamental way, when people are aware of their dependency on one another. The problem comes with regarding others as disposable, and war does that. I recall hearing an interview, long ago, with a woman who vividly recalled life in London, England during the Biltz. She spoke of the joy of victory mixed with a sadness that, base on what she experienced, the petty British classism had been suspended for "we're all in this together" for the duration of the war, and rushed back promptly once life had normalized. Do we need a human enemy to see our own universal vulnerability and agency? What if we had met the invasive, heartless, predator COVID with a united front. But we lost the plot and many more of our neighbors than would likely have been the case with a united front. The virus's secret weapon was the unmanaged human ego. And strangely, and frighteningly, some worship that and call it virtue.
COVID revealed the monsters we truly are as well as the unbridled power of a disease. Those who do the hard work in group homes and their employers were overcome by the power of a disease that attacked the most vulnerable. It also revealed a power we could not manage. We were made helpless by this cruel attack on us.
The employees, especially in healthcare facilities or group homes as well as childcare facilities, were also made vulnerable and more than likely brought it home to their families.
I will never forget the pictures of many bodies of the dead and not enough places to store them before burial outside of hospitals.
JL, I agree that we are basically selfish, and as we can see, the way the Trump administration is using Hispanics as a diversion from their own "lawlessness" and daily destruction of our country and rule of law,
COVID brought out the best and worse of human nature.
Scientists fought back with their knowledge and concern for humanity. Deaths declined and we were made wiser for the moment.
We need to be reminded "not to turn" from those who have been unjustly taken and are being used by the so called "leaders" of our country as a diversion from the REAL crimes taking place within our nation's capital!!!!
When I visited Ellis Island, I was retracing my grandparents’ steps to safety and hope for the future. This is why people had been still coming despite all the difficulties of migration. But remove safety and hope, and immigration dwindles. What a bad bargain for them and for us!
My grandson and I visited Ellis Island when we visited summer before last. I think I read every plaque, read every sign, visited every room…my great grandfather arrived from Sweden in about 1875 or so.
J L, I got a tiny bit of what hopeful immigrants experienced when they came here and saw "Lady Liberty." A few years ago, I was on a cruise with my family. At the end of the cruise, we came into New York harbor in the morning. The sun was shining brightly on the statue and even I, with my poor vision could see it. I had been to the Statue of Liberty before, but it was nothing like coming into the harbor that morning. I found myself crying, thinking of what it must have been like for immigrants looking to enter the Golden Door. I will not forget!
Thinking of hearing, shortly after WWII, the Irving Berlin musical setting of Emma Lazarus’ poem sung by an excellent choir shortly after it was written. Even the memory brings tears.
I have copies of the manifests of both sides of my family; the Italian side and the Eastern European Jewish side. They can be found online. Mine came in around 1905 - 1910-15. The Lithuanian and Ukrainian side around 1905 before the great pogroms. The Sicilians on mother’s side all came from the same town. They must have had fun conversations talking about the old days in Connicatini Bagni.
I’ve never been against regulated immigration but was very against tens of thousands rushing over the border every week. Sorry I never approved and will never approve.
Bill--it should be governed by three C's--Control, Clarity, and Compassion. There was a bill in congress in 2024, Bi-partisan. But DT told the Republicans to tank it because he wanted the issue. And his masters wanted to do just what they are doing--spark terror in our population. So here we are.
Thank you Annabel for mentioning the 2024 bi-partisan bill which provided the funding and structures to process more people who had not completed their immigration documentation. Tanked because traitor trump wanted to use hatred of “illegal aliens” to fuel his MAGA cult. So much hatred.
Hoping we see a continuing decline of the Putin puppet in 2026..... and a return to compassion and clarity as you describe.
I support controlled immigration but not cruelty. Not torture or any other abuses of people here without permission. No destruction of families. No deportations and penalties without fundamental due process of law. We let that one go because some were arrested as "terrorists" after 9/11, "The worst of the worst". And likely some were, and yet even they deserved prosecution with due process of law. Many did little or nothing wrong were imprisoned, abused, and sometimes tortured. One such person (there were many) was fingered erroneously by the Canadian Government, which formally and publicly apologized when his innocence was established. So far I am aware our government never did.
Obama mentioned that "we tortured some folks", but advised us to not to worry about it. Now Trump is greatly widening that unrepaired crack in the rule of equal protection to send people of varying status (but conspicuously brown) to torture camps without trial. He is even threatening the same for some naturalized, and even native citizens. Targeted tyranny is not just wrong; it tends to spread.
There are many here that agree with you. History gives us the lense to see clearly that what is happening here is not the misapplication of or ignoring the law. Debating these details misses the point which is the destruction of our constitutional order to satisfy the industrial oligarchy, the very same that used Hitler as their face to rouse the rabble to force the democratic government to bend to their, not Hitler's, will to gain contol of the industrialized world. Hitler was their front as Trump is now. They have been working on this since the end of the first world war.
Do you wonder why Trump has to talk with Putin for two hours before meeting with Zelinsky? And an hour after? He sends a realestate developer to negotiate "Peace" with Putin? Come on.
Putin is our avowed enemy and Trump's dear friend. Who's side is he on?
I try to keep reminding people that eventually that old poem ends with when they came for me, no one was around to help. These people need enemies, they need a target, they need someone or something to hate and generate anger. They will eat everyone else and then turn on one another.
J L - Somehow the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause in the US Constitution has been redacted. If you're wealthy, it's very likely you won't even be handcuffed when arrested.
But if the ICE thugs go after you kicking, beating with night sticks, hitting by multiple masked thugs is just fine.
JL...what is your source of your statement: "Obama mentioned that 'we tortured some folks', but advised us to not worry about it." I've searched but come up empty.
I thought that surely people would remember the venom with which chump rejected the sane approach to immigration that was hammered out. But alas, people only heard the cacophony of hatred that drowned out any rational discussion. Sadly, democrats, focused on the abortion issue, at least in Texas. The pushback against chump was almost nonexistent. I feared the worst.
Let’s not forget S.744, the 2013 Senate bill on comprehensive immigration reform, that passed by a vote of 68-32 in the Senate. The legislation died because Speaker John Boehner refused to bring it up in the House.
The bill you mention was bi-partisan only because ONE Republican supported it. Hardly what most would think "bi-partisan" means. Among other dumb ideas, it would have put into law an allowance of up to 5000 immigrants per DAY for SEVEN consecutive days before any attempt to close the border. It likely would not have passed the Senate even if Trump supported it.
You are operating from the idea that letting immigrants in is inherently bad. We have a lot of history that undermines that stance. This wouldn't be the country it is without our immigrant history.
History aside, we actually need more immigration. Look at the developing ratio of wage earners to retirees, it is unsustainable and current birthrate trends offer no solution to that imbalance.
Here's a breakdown of U.S. population by generation (approximate numbers/shares):
Millennials (Gen Y): ~74.2 million (21.8%). Born 1981-1996.
Generation Z (Gen Z): ~70.8 million (20.8%). Born 1997-2012.
Generation X (Gen X): ~65.6 million (19.3%). Born 1965-1980.
Baby Boomers: ~66.9 million (19.7%). Born 1946-1964.
Silent Generation: ~15.1 million (4.4%). Born 1928-1945.
Generation Alpha: Growing, with a significant share, born 2013-2024.
Source: Marketing Charts and Statista.
As we Boomers shuffle off the stage and life expectancy increases, the problem will continue for the following generations.
We have an essentially free and valuable resource of human capital on our doorstep. They would gladly participate in and boost the 70% portion of our consumer based economy.
China faces even worse demographic issues than we do, mostly of their own making. No one is begging to get into China. In geopolitical terms we have, in immigrants, a powerful advantage over China standing on our doorstep. We only need to realize what we have and use it.
A gentle reminder that 40% of illegal immigrants are here because they overstayed their visas not because they came across a small section of the southern border of which much of it has the Trump wall that any 6th grader with a sawz-all could cut through. The POS Trump wall has been breached over 6000 times and there are crews permanently assigned to patching it.
Certainly for it's value per dollar, The Grate Wall Of Trump was never the most effective way to regulate immigration. Trump is big on monuments to Trump. I think that the GWOT is in that category. The more costly, the better.
It was dumb legislation no matter when it was proposed. All it would have done is provide cover for Biden's lack of any interest in controlling the border. Actually, "lack of interest" is being charitable. I sincerely doubt he had any idea what was going on at the border. We are all losers for that debacle.
Annabel, Joe Biden did nothing for two years. Only when he saw his numbers going down did he act but it was too late. Democrats generally don’t except this proposition but I do. It’s a fact. This was one of the reasons just one that Joe Biden lost the election. It was a perfect storm of him losing the election including his age and frailties associated with it. Joe Biden lost touch with the realities of communicating with the governed. I can sight numerous other instances of him screwing up not least of which was choosing the wrong VP and then denying the people the opportunity to choose the next presidential nominee. He also kissed up to a modern day massive murderer in the name of prime minister Nytanyahoo. Need I continue because I’ve just begun?
Some of what you say I agree with. Joe Biden should have quit. Choosing Trump over Harris is the fault of the electorate. Harris was a great pick and would have made a good president. She got close. This, about immigration, I do not. Joe Biden's immigration policy was more humane whatever its failures or faults. There is a deep political divide and confusion in this country about immigrants. They have been used to foment hate and division. That is on the vulnerable electorate whose responsibility it is to not get fed hate and to be informed. It is the responsibility of those elected to the Congress, the GOP principally, who en masse abdicate their responsibility to the country in favor of the cult.
There is nothing wrong with disapproving of unregulated immigration. But there is something very wrong with not trying to fix it. Unlike #47 and his storm troopers going after anyone and everyone who is not white, or speaks a foreign language immigrants are the backbone of this country. Both my grandfather and grandmother at different times emigrated to the U.S. via Ellis Island. Instead of the evil & ignorant speech of DJT, Miller and Homan, we should be
looking at creating a system that works. However, the legislative branch would rather complain and villainize instead of fixing/improving that which is broken. We need the immigrants in this country because they often do the work that keeps our daily lives functioning.
I do not blame them, I blame our own “government”. Why in the world it should take 10 years or more to legally enter this country when it took 4-5 hours a century ago pretty much explains our current, non immigrant-immigrant policies, eh?
I figure we have to come up with a solution other than deportation, family separation, and raids by masked agents of the state.
Of course many solutions would involve resources other than walls, and political will to do the right thing. Do you remember those days when we tried to do the right thing?
My mother's parents both came, separately, from the city of Lemberg, now called Lviv, in western Ukraine, in 1912. That part of far western Ukraine was then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire in an area then called Galicia. It had been part of Austria Hungary for hundreds of years - as far back as the empress Maria Teresa! It had never been part of Russia until the soviets took over. At school, my grandparents learned German, not Russian! In fact, my Ukrainian grandmother had 2 brothers who stayed in Lemberg, and both died in WWI fighting for Austria Hungary.
Oddly enough, Today, if you want to fly from the Munich airport to Lviv, Ukraine, your destination will be listed as Lemberg!
And you also say "border" instead of borders. I've seen stats that say 3 times as many illegal immigrants cross the northern borders than the southern border.
The Republicans and the corporate media want us to believe that if you close the southern border all is well. Just another one of their BS conspiracy theories lapped up by gullible Americans.
You piqued my interest in comparing crossing numbers between the Southern and Northern borders.
The Southern Border has far outnumbered the Northern border. That would make sense as getting into Canada is no piece of cake. And in Canada they refer to us as their Southern Border problem. There has been a surge in people trying to get into Canada from the US in recent years. Go figure.
Yeah, and some of them are rather distinguished. Timothy Snyder and other Yale profs. People like that.
I came to Canada in 1966. Pure luck. At a symposium at a (US) college reunion, the subject of health care came up, and I called out from the audience, "I live in Canada. Eat your hearts out!"
My daughter is married to a Canadian and has dual-citizenship. My impression is that, at least in some regions, there can be a lot more waiting for service, and fewer options if the doc is not a good fit. That said, healthcare is a right of the whole citizenry. Here it is possible to obtain excellent healthcare, IF (a big IF) you can afford it.
The 3 to 1 times northern to southern border crossing was from around 2016 before Trump 1. A CPA friend of mine does the book keeping, taxes for a few Mexican restaurants in NE and he was told by the owners that instead of crossing the border from AZ they flew to Vancouver to cross sometimes. It kind of depends on what is happening between the US, Canada and Mexico at the time.
It's consistently 3:1 the Southern border to all the rest, Northern Border, the Gulf states and the coasts.
I live near the Northern border and the ratio just didn't sound right. I'm sure there are illegal aliens who went to Canada first, but they typically have the funds to get there first and aren't the bigger issue.
I also live in a university city and know the overstays by students is a part of the issue.
I hope we agree the system needs amending, not what we're doing today.
All good points. What I’m most preoccupied withis optics and the kinds of issues that can sink the popularity to an administration. So it’s less about what is happening although that is also important. Such as Texas and Florida governors sending thousands to clog up northern cities. It worked. Those slobs did anything. I’m so surprised that northern mayors didn’t confiscate the buses and make it a legal matter. If the buses had been confiscated I’ll bet the bus owners wouldn’t have allowed their buses to be illegally used to transport immigrants across state lines.
So it’s more to do with optics than substance. Biden lost on optics.
Controlling the inflow is one thing. Still Trump has done some pretty horrible things there: separation of children from their parents, disgusting conditions for detainees. But these roundups (sometimes brutally) of nonwhite people without due process is criminal. “Disappearing” people is deplorable. Sending them to countries where you know they’re going to be treated horribly? Unbelievable. We’re better than this. This is not America. This is not Democracy. This is not moral. This is not legal.
Bill, I think you are exactly right. The immigration system described in the article is official, federally sanctioned policy. There were checks at the point of exit from the ‘old country’ and screening processes at the point of entry at Ellis Island. What we saw in the Biden Administration with a completely uncontrolled southern border has played a role in where we (sadly) are today with an over-reaction on the part of ICE.
Agree. I’m not against people wanting a better life. But this opening was a I say, a gateway drug. And I must repeat for those who react negatively to my points. No nation on earth allows this transgression. What the heck is the matter with us to become so polarized over it. The opening was wrong. The oppression of the immigrants is wrong. I have told local police that if I were to witness a hooded thug dragging a woman down the street, I’m going to intervene. I will put my life on the line. I’ll run the F-er over with my car if I can. So I’m not what people want to categorize as.
Our government has historically destabilized countries that have had democratically elected governments (Iran, many in South and Central America). After the governments were overturned, many people lost their livelihoods, such as people who owned small businesses or farms. We were responsible for so many people immigrating from the Southern Border.
There is a phrase describing the mania that a lot of people who are against our sensible point of view have: suicidal empathy. We can’t tolerate things that no other country tolerates. The much vaunted Scandinavian utopii deport people all the time for overstaying their visas or entering the country illegally.
Keep in mind that most of Europe has open borders between the countries, just like state to state in the US. However, when I crossed the Norwegian/Swedish border they were stopping all trucks and allowing auto traffic through. This may have been to pay customs fees, but I don't know.
I've crossed several other European borders as well and it has always been like going from one US state to another.
Easy to say what one is for and against on a simple level but looking deeper one has to understand why people are running to get away, and to be here. Desperation, a familiar story. We have granted asylum at times more easily.
Look at prejudice, ignorance selfishness. We now have divided leadership, a divided country regarding immigrants altogether, and how we should treat them. Immigrants have, like the Jews of Europe, taken the brunt of the blame for people's discontent in their lives. And this has taken advantage of politically here. This is not a simple question nor have we dealt with the effects of this discord within this country about immigrants, now for decades. How our grandparents ( mine too, at the same time, from the same place in Eastern Europe) happened to get here,*their* circumstance taken to account, and then were welcomed with open arms, is a different America than we have now. We were fortunate to have grandparents come here at that time.
Bill you might be interested in this video by a history professor of Lithuanian descent, Dr, William Gudelunas. In it he describes the 1924 Imagination Control Act quotas. Legal Lithuanian immigration was capped at 344 people per year. He is thankful that his ancestors arrived before the new quotas. I found his videos by accident. In my opinion, he is a very entertaining presenter. One of the hallmarks of his style, is that he urges the audience to look at the history of a period through the societal norms and customs of the time period rather than impose today's norms upon them . I think you would like his presentations which are offered via the Rancho Mirage Library & Observatory's YouTube channel. Here is the link to the one about the Roaring Twenties which covers immigration law changes of that time period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDrUcBK33AM
Yes, the 1924 act prevented emigration from southern European nations because these nations were not considered "desirable" as northern European nations.
Bill, I'm inclined to agree with you, but I am disturbed by our inability to work on a rational system to deal with immigrants, asylum seekers and itinerant workers. Proposals that would improve the system have been presented. One party seems to be unable to organize strong support for immigration policy. The other party would rather "run" on the issue rather than solve it. It's disgustingly awful domestic and foreign policy.
You do know that non-citizens do have Constitutional rights and protections, right, including rights to asylum hearings? These rights are being violated daily by this administration. Do you approve of that?
Both sides of my family emigrated from Slovakia in the early 1900s through Ellis Island bringing their mining skills to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, then moving to Detroit for the auto industry. Immigration makes America great. [Please check out our June 2025 post on Immigration at: oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]
My father's side of my family migrated to the USA to spread the Methodist faith at the direction of John Wesley, my mom's side moved to the USA to escape poverty and religious persecution from the northern part of England in the 1600's.
I know nothing of my family but hard work and steadiness. My mom's family were and are a very strict and successful people. My dad's family are a great mix of kind and generous, more outgoing who also follow the faith, support Duke University in Durham, NC ( as do some within my mom's family).
My husband's family is from Iowa and are a mix of English, French and German.
As you can imagine, his family are made up of stubborn, tough, hard working, no-nonsense, faithful and productive persons. Many are engaged in the huge business of agriculture in some form.
THANKS TO YOU AND YOURS ....AS I AM THANKFUL FOR MY FAMILY....TOGETHER! WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!!!
We just returned from the Yucatan where the conquerors repeatedly used the excuse that the subjugated had no souls to justify using and abusing people. Miller and others in charge are treating current immigrants in America as though they don't have souls. [oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]
You are right Bill - legal and controlled immigration - where it's not about numbers but about people who are protected by the rule of law [oneclick2betterworld.substack.com].
My mother's mother was born in New York Harbor. My father's German (Ukraine) family escaped Russia and moved to Canada. We are indeed a country of immigrants.
Mamdani is giving people around the world hope, just as Lady Liberty did. I was at the grocery store in Germany the other day and a Korean-German woman was saying how Mamdani gave her hope for the US. If we can have hope for the US, we can have hope for the world. Mamdani's inauguration speech in which he referred the Frank Sinatra song telling us that NYC can be a beacon of light for others. NYC gives us hope.
I was once on a sailboat that entered New York Harbor about midnight. We motored up to Lady Liberty, turned hard to port (left) and anchored two or three hundred yards away. What an experience! (As was waking in the morning with her over my shoulder.)
Marlene, I'm almost 83, and growing up we knew many people who'd escaped the Holocaust. Every one of them was solid, smart, and hard-working. From a very early age, I knew that I was very fortunate to live in "the land of the free." Had our country been more welcoming to Jews and other oppressed souls, we could have saved more. Still, the intelligence and grit of these newcomers helped to build this country into the most powerful country in the world.
Lady Liberty inspired millions and still does, despite our many warts. I hope that we are able to repair the damage done by those children of immigrants past who choose to forget their ancestors.
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
Uh… according to tonight’s HCR post, Republicans have been exploiting racism to win elections since 1880. Furthermore, Reagan is the one who peefected the Nixon/Atwater Southern Strategy, putting it firmly in place. I think it’s fair to say that Republicans could not have won a single presidential election since 1968 without using racist dog whistles to signal their promise to preserve the advantages of white Americans, a promise they have delivered on, thereby securing the votes of a 15-point to 20-point majority of white votes in every presidential election since 1968.
You forget the elections in the 1920s where the Republicans all bowed to the KKK - a national organization then that paraded in Washington DC - and passed the immigration restriction act of 1924. Everything bad about America has come from Republicans since 1868. Like Harry Truman observed in 1948, "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
When Lincoln was killed, his Republican Party was killed as well. Racist dog whistles have permeated every election since, seems to me. The ones since Ike, I witnessed and called out. Time to bury the long dead spirit of Abe or honor him with a new party. His “republicans” turned traitor long ago.
Well, if you want to go with ignorance, using a noun instead of an adjective to describe the Klan is demonstrative. You can add to that lacking the knowledge that the Republicans flipped the Klan with their "southern strategy" to bring the "Dixiecrats" (southern antebellum Democrats*) into the Republican Party is also demonstrative.
Not only the Republicans. Until LBJ (maybe Kennedy) the South was the Solid South, Segregationist Democratic. That switched when LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed.
Dixiecrats caucused with Democrats, but Dixiecrats were not Democrats. They just called themselves by that name. Think Manchin but way worse, of course. Democrats made some ugly compromises to maintain ther coalition with Dixiecrats, but that’s the way the sausage is made in every democracy, world wide. Sometimes you have to hold your nose to keep the bastards out of power. Unfortunate, but that’s the way it works.
I don't think Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 won due to the "racist dog whistles" you claim they used. Think about McGovern, Carter, and Dukakis as candidates that did not persuade the voters they had the right policies. Trump has certainly won using the immigration issue, but when Biden had 12 million or more people immigrating into the US illegally during his tenure he helped hand a strong issue to the Republicans. Republican governors were wise politically to send some of them to the northern cities before the election, to let everyone see it was an expensive and unmanageable situation. And it was not unfair for them to do that, since those cities thought unlimited immigration was a good thing.
No one ever thought that unlimited immigration was a good thing. Every Dem presidential candidate was demonized, and starting with Nixon, Republicans had decided that dirty tricks was the way to go. I remember, although Woodward and Bernstein were the last ones to dig up the dirt, or even to see the mounds where the dirty tricks were buried (Reagan and Iran, Nixon undermining Johnson’s peace initiatives, Rove’s master level dirty tricks). It’s been a shit show long before chump. More of the same “rewrite” is just gift-wrapped propaganda.
As an intelligent resident of flyover country I recognize that most of us have a few problems. Much of the area was settled before Ellis Island and many families were in other parts before Castle Garden. The northern portion of flyover country never had slavery by law and the more uninformed seem to think they have no responsibility for institutions that don’t benefit them personally even though they vote for people who do. Since flyover country is populated by people who couldn’t or didn’t leave and people with success or education tend to move out there is both resentment and fear of losing contact with educated or successful children and neighbors. Immigrants are necessary to make up for declining population but are feared and resented for being different especially by people who don’t move. They don’t think the Civil War was about black people so much as they identify with Lincoln and victory and vote Republican. Keep insulting us and they will stay MAGA forever. On the other hand most people here have some intelligence and many of us are Democrats who never receive any funding so we don’t win so we never receive funds. The most important thing to do is vote Blue.
Politics shifted from social and economic equality to the use of "explosive" cultural issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, which are used to redirect anger toward "liberal elites."
Against this backdrop, Frank describes the rise of political conservatism in the social and political landscape of Kansas, which he says espouses economic policies that do not benefit the majority of people in the state.
Frank also claims a bitter divide between "moderate" and "conservative" Kansas Republicans (whom he labels "Mods" and "Cons") as an archetype for the future of politics in America, in which fiscal conservatism becomes the universal norm and political war is waged over a handful of hot-button cultural issues.
Robert, your claim of 12 million people immigrating illegally under Biden is untrue. So is your claim that "northern cities ... thought unlimited immigration was a good thing." Apparently, my memory is a little better than yours. Mayors in Chicago, New York and other major cities were begging Congress to revise immigration laws and provide financial relief for cities receiving large numbers of immigrants. Republican controlled Congress refused, at Donald Trump's behest.
Shocking revelation: Republicans lied about the figures to win elections.
You're wrong. Nixon would not have won without the Southern Strategy of bringing in the unreconstructed Confederate white supremacists of the South. That was reinforced by each of the others.
Why don't you crawl back to Flyover Loserville with the rest of the inbred white mouthbreathers whose transported English pigfucker ancestors we should never have allowed in.
I think Southerners in the late 1960's realized that the Dems didn't represent their values of limited govt. And about that time the Dems believed the power of govt should grow on steroids. In any case, I am glad your late wife successfully immigrated from Lithuania. My late wife's ancestors immigrated from Europe, anglicizing their last name to fit in. I will ignore your quick-comment profanity if you will try to stop disrespecting those of us who live in flyover country. The Founding Fathers had English ancestry, and I'm not going to apologize for their work in this country.
Robert, "limited government" is and always has been a smoke screen to conceal Southerners' real motivation: white supremacy.
If "limited government" is supposed to be a Republican principle, why has U.S. debt and deficit been increased under every Republican administration since the 1960s?
If "limited government" is the goal of Republicans, why do they keep inserting themselves into classrooms, bedrooms, courtrooms, churches and wombs?
If any party is responsible for "government overreach," that prize must go to Republicans.
Republicans believe limited government is best, which is why they try to limit the growth of govt spending more than Dems try to. R's want to leave more money in the hands of taxpayers. I don't believe that principle is a race-based issue or a strictly Southern issue. Dems are usually eager to spend more money because they think more programs are needed. I don't hear the Dems talking about any limits on the reach of govt. The record of both parties on the federal debt is a bad one. (You've noticed that Sen. Paul votes no on bills increasing the debt.) I don't think R's are involved in bedroom issues anymore. They do oppose abortion because they consider it taking a life, overriding concerns about "limited govt." Maybe the current system of state-by-state laws on abortion will be left to work on its own for a while.
What 60% to 90% (depending on the state) of white voters in the flyover value most is white supremacist dominance of the economic, legal, and political systems. Democrats, most of them, have more humane goals. So yes, Democrats do not represent the “values” of the vast majority white people in the flyerover. Democrats (some more than others, Dixiecrats being the worst) did sympathize with white supremacist “values” until about 1964. When Democrats stopped sympathizing with white supremacists, they lost the votes of white supremacists. People who vote to preseve white supremacist “values” don’t deserve respect. That’s why Democrats don’t respect them.
Yep. Nixon won primarily over Vietnam. Our protestors hammered at LBJ who happened to have become the most progressive leader in the mid 20th century. But he was a diehard anti communist from the cold war era. Eugene McCarthy would have made a fine president, lol. He was my pick. I always thought RFK was a moocher coming in late to take advantage of the anti war movement. McGovern couldn’t find a good VP. Our country is cooked like a country thanksgiving goose. What other good news would you like me to expel?
Nixon, Reagan, and Bush most certainly did use and win on racist dog whistles. The only Republican candidate since 1968 who didn’t was McCain, and he lost because he ran against the most charismatic politician since JFK. That, and Obama inspired the biggest turnout of black voters in history. Democrats need that kind of turnout to win again. Getting it, however, would require huge investment of money (billions) to manage a monumental, well-organized, get-out-the-vote effort. I don’t see that happening, but that’s where I put my money and effort, anyway. Been fighting these bastards since 1963. A few big wins but a lot more losses, to hugely detrimental effect, unfortunately. Truman’s assessment of Republicans, often cited by TCinLA, was and continues to be correct.
And don't forget dirty tricks. It was Lee Atwater who admitted on his deathbed that he entrapped Gary Hart and exposed him to public humiliation and thereby exit from public office. Of course let's not forget it was the Democrats who upheld slavery before Lincoln, and continued the proud tradition in Southern states until the Dixiecrats all became Republicans.
Yes, Republicans are masters of dirty trickery. However, Democrats today bear no relation to Democrats in the 1800s nor Dixiecrats in the South. Republicans today bear no relation to pre-1880 Republicans, but Republicans since 1880 have put white supremacist beliefs at the center of their platform.
Indeed they are, the arses die but their evil can be resurrected by new iterations. Who would think that 80 years after Ike, Adolf would be popular again.
What Republicans understand and Democrats ignore is what HCR just described: a LEGAL and supervised policy. Let me give you a quote from someone you may recognize and likely admire:
"The American people are a welcoming and generous people. But those who enter our country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States UNDETECTED, UNDOCUMENTED, AND UNCHECKED. Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws."
Barack Obama April 3, 2006
And he was speaking of the relatively minor illegal issues that existed 14 years before Biden opened the flood gates.
The difference is that Democrats support legal immigration: what we DO NOT SUPPORT is the denial of due process and the intentional cruelty directed toward the immigrants ((documented and undocumented) AND citizens based on the color of their skin.
Democrats and Republicans had worked out an agreement on this issue and Trump told the Republicans to drop it...and they did. Trump wanted to keep immigration problems UNSOLVED so he could use it in his campaign.
Some of us have memories stretching back to Bush II, who presented to Congress a major overhaul of laws and procedures governing an increasingly broken immigration system in the 1980s. Most, but not all Democrats were supportive, recognizing the urgency of change. Most Republicans opposed it (gasp), preferring dumb demagoguery to real reform.
The world of “vermin” and “Haitians eating cats and dogs” the liars and loonies among us want us to accept as true simply doesn’t exist. It’s as fake as the demented 3-dollar bill in the White House claiming the bombing of boats off Colombia and Venezuela has is because of fentanyl.
This is the year we break through the lies, the stupidity, the false fronts and phony excuses for war and depravity. “Not in my name.”
Morning, Ally! It's like the glass half full scenario. I can now get my substack subscription emails, but am still struggling to get my computer to receive replies from the readers. So don't "worry" if you don't hear back from me. More still, there are things much worse than my pitiful struggles!
Ha ha ha. What’s a matter, can’t you get any sleep? You should read my book, Donald’s Vanity Tantrums. It would be an adjunct to your understanding of contemporary political life. Money back guarantee l
You would think voters would pay attention to that. It's like Nixon and Reagan keeping a crisis brewing so they could "solve" it. It's despicable. Due process is supposed to apply to everyone. I don't recall where in the Constitution it says that it doesn't, including the procedures applied by the chief executive.
The vast majority of white voters do pay attention to that, and they like it. They vote for Republicans because Republicans promise to preserve the advantages of white Americans, and Republicans deliver on that promise.
I am sure Democrats support legal immigration. The problem is they also support, even promote illegal immigration. Four years of open border with upward of 10,000,000 wandering around the country. Folks who we have no idea who they are or where they are.
Democrats and ONE Republican proposed a plan that would codify into law up to 5,000 per DAY before making any attempt to stem the flow. There was no way this plan was going to fly no matter what Trump said.
Is it our duty to be keepers of the gates or cheerful lenders of the helping hand? Robert B. Parker often had his character Jesse Stone observe that as Chief of Police he was not in the right and wrong business, but the legal and illegal business, and that there was a big difference between the two. We should find a way to do the right things first, and adjust the law to be supportive if that is needed. This thinking aligns well with Peter Singer's essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Morality and ethics, and the difference between right and wrong are not rooted in quotas, but rather in need.
You make some salient points, yes illegal immigration spiked under Biden and he was slow to stem the tide. Harris made an unforced error when she offered no regrets about the matter as if nothing was learned.
Yet, to say the Democrats promoted illegal immigration is a stretch. The kept the wall, increased the technology along the border, attempted to mitigate the causes of the mass immigration from Central and South America. What evidence is there they actively promoted illegal immigration?
I don't think dems support illegal immigration. The issue is taking care of poor people displaced from Central America due to inhumane and illegal behavior from the US that has led to the breakdown of these counties: things like regime change and the insatiable desire for drugs from north of the border.
Biden did not open the floodgates. Don't get your information from Fox. Biden struggled to control immigration while discontinuing Trump/Miller's deliberately cruel separation of children, some of them infants, from their parents, and keeping kids in cages. It took him a while, but the border was never open.
Meanwhile Vice-President Harris made deals with several Central American countries to take in immigrants from some of the disaster countries from which they were fleeing, thus reducing the pressure on the US border.
The US was a major promoter and is still a party to the UN Convention on Refugees, which requires contracting states to admit people with a reasonable fear of persecution at home for religious or political reasons. These are the people who claim 'asylum' - and they need to have their claims adjudicated. That can be a slow process. The bipartisan bill agreed in the Senate in 2024 would have greatly increased resources for that process - but Trump preferred chaos and had his minions kill the bill.
The Moron-in-Chief of course deliberately - or stupidly, but Miller is not stupid - confuses 'asylum' for mentally ill people - most of whom are however not dangerous - with 'asylum' under the Refugee Convention.
"Biden struggled to control immigration while discontinuing Trump/Miller's deliberately cruel separation of children, some of them infants, from their parents, and keeping kids in cages. It took him a while, but the border was never open."
My understanding is that hundreds of deliberately "lost" children have yet to located. The magnitude of that crime has never been anywhere close to recognized by our society. We ignore great evil at our own peril.
Right. Many of the kids were so little they did not know their parents' names except as 'mommy' and 'daddy' - so very hard to reunite them with the parents, who were often deported while the kids were still held in the US.
The point was to be so cruel that potential immigrants would not come to the US because such horrible things would be done to them. Not every country enforces its public policies by such tactics.
If one doesn't know the difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants, and legal asylum seekers and illegal asylum seekers, then that person has nothing to say that I want to hear on the issue. And that includes Trump and his cronies.
John Gregory, thank You for that. I wonder just how many US citizens have traveled to, lived in countries in South America? It appears to me ….ignorant of exact numbers….that ‘we’ tend to gaze toward Europe and more recently Asia as well
for our vacations, or moving to live in another country.
I happened to be lucky to be in a College dance company that was invited to Brazil in gasp 1961. We toured from San Paulo to Recife including Brazilia, then partially built with no real inhabitants, but already had ‘favelas’
where the workers lived. We also went to Venezuela en rte
home. Even then, it was obvious to all of us that the govt of Venezuela was trying to gut the middle class. We could see it, almost smell it. That hotel we stayed in was only a few years later bombed in a civil war.
The obvious poverty in both of those countries has stayed with me. However, Brazilians seemed far happier then. And many, now here are wonderful, productive & generous people, whom …at least I’ve experienced …have added to this country in multiple wonderful ways.
I stand on Biden opening the flood gates. Illegal crossings during Trump's last year were in the low thousands per month. On virtually day one, Joe reversed everything Trump had in place and allowed upwards of 5,000 per DAY. Approx 10 million illegal crossings in his four years. That's 10 million released into the country and we have no idea who they are or where they are. Open Flood Gates is the only accurate description.
It doesn't take new laws to control the border. All it takes is the will to enforce existing law.
Don't get your data from Fox. The number of border crossings by 2024 was lower than in Trump's last year. And many of the people who did cross were not simply 'released into the country'. They came with asylum applications and they report to border control regularly while their cases are pending.
ICE is doing the horrific injustice of arresting a lot of these people AT THE COURTHOUSE (or the Immigration office) while they are taking legal steps to regularize their status under US law. They even dragged people out of a citizenship ceremony recently when the people were minutes away from becoming citizens. What possible public policy is served by that kind of cruelty? Who is being protected?
Biden didn't "open the floodgates," you MAGAt Piece of Shit. Go crawl back to Flyover Loserville where you belong with the rest of the inbred mouthbreathers we shouldn't have let in.
Now that was sure enlightening. How long did it take you to think of it? I bet you keep this as a boilerplate so you don't have to re-learn how to type it each time
Just keep on drinking your Fox News BS where everything Trump fucked up during Trump 1 was just fine. Thanks for playing mad hatter. Blocked now with the other ignorant MAGAs.
Please let’s remember who scuttled the bi-partisan immigration bill spearheaded by Republican Senator Langford. Had it been passed and signed into law by President Biden, we most likely would not be having this conversation. Thinking of the families and lives destroyed by the current administration’s reign of terror, those spineless cowards who “obeyed in advance” and voted for cruelty and hatred to gain power should never again be allowed to represent any constituent. I look forward to truth and reconciliation hearings (and consequences).
Immigrants would not come here if American employers would not hire them. PERIOD.
We need to go after the EMPLOYERS. They are as guilty as the undocumented workers…more so in that the workers are working to survive by doing hard labor for low wages. The employers are willing to hire the undocumented because it is cheap labor that they can exploit.
We should publicly condemn those employers and hold them accountable.
or accept that there are a lot of jobs that Americans won't do, at the wages that the employers pay (and there may not be a market for goods and services produced at a higher pay level). There is very close to full employment in the US (or was at the end of Biden's presidency), so the immigrants are not 'stealing' Americans' jobs, they are doing work that needs to be done.
And of course Republicans persisted in refusing to fund proper border control and thereby exacerbated the problem to win political points, way before Trump sleazed his way onto the scene.
My late wife always loved telling the story of how she came to America, age 3, with her family - Lithuanian refugees. She was born after the war in a refugee camp because her mother spoke German well enough to convince an SS Officer that the family were "Volksdeutsch" and should be evacuated from Lithuania ahead of the arrival of the Red Army. They came to America on a troopship with 6,000 other refugees. The first thing she saw when they arrived in New York and she looked out the porthole of their compartment was the Statue of Liberty.
My paternal & maternal grandparents immigrated from Italy & entered the US at Ellis Island. My parents were the 1st generation born in the US. Dad worked for old "Ma Bell" and wired most of the main telephone lines during the construction of the World Trade Center towers. While reading this letter, I couldn't help but think how perverted the Party of Lincoln has become. If Pres Lincoln were to visit us today, I'm sure WTF would be his 1st words.
As HCR pointed out in today’s post, the perversion of the Republican Party started at least as early as 1880, shortly after the most consequential assassination in US history.
NYC's population today is 40% immigrants. NYC has the lowest murder rate of any of the Big US cities and the longest life expectancy. What a Hell hole city!!!
It has been here all along. Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest (Indiana, Ohio, etc.) is an excellent read, leaving no doubt in my mind that MAGA and the white Christian nationalists that support's Trump's attempt to overthrow the Constitution and install a dictatorial theocracy are today's KKK, aka MAGA.
Yes. Thank you for your plain-speak identifying the close relationship between the KKK and MAGA. I will check out the Egan book. I continue to struggle yo understand how we got here.
Here here! My ancestors have been arriving on the shores of America in the early 1600s. Many in the mid 1800s must have arrived and processed through the facility that burned to the ground, which would explain why I find no arrival records for them. I’ve visited both Lady Liberty and Ellis Island with my daughter when she was 11. It was quite a day.. knowing my existence was only possible because of the opportunity for immigration through that physical portal made it very hallowed ground for me. It’s magical for me, yet in its day, an unimaginable hurdle for so many. 🩵
I am only alive because my mom came here through Ellis Island as well. My husband is an immigrant as well, which is why my daughter is alive. It is so historically ignorant to be anti-immigrant. Donald Trump has had 2 immigrant wives, and JD Vance's in-laws are immigrants. Why do they not acknowledge that immigrants do good and are needed as President Lincoln did?
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Me. too. My maternal grandfather, Alexander Richter, a teenager at the time, and his family came through Ellis Island not long after it was opened. Alex married my grandmother, Pearl Adams. descended from the Samuel Adams side of the family. My mom was born on Dec. 13, 1906. Her parents divorced, leaving my mom as an only child, to be raised by her maternal grandparents. My mom hated being an only child, so she had seven of us. Simply put, she was the greatest mom the world has ever known.
Again -that hatred ,racism,and greed took ,by far , the precedent. Denying facts stands blatantly obvious in today’s ongoing struggle . That we document,observe and resolve mass migration…usually comes down to what have they got we need-not how to solve the problem already apparent through careful deliberation of fact.
Such a concise explanation , Heather’s research and understanding present real issues still plaguing societies , not just here either.
But….here we are still… conscience speaking , compassion derived from lawful management,still fighting for balance in mankind. Balance for the lessers from the robber barons , the pin-hookers, the greedy . And so explains the want to demolish the Office of business/protection management (etc.) ….👏 Laws made set aside, manipulated, construed..those many “what he/they really meant to say ..” the law not clearly enough defined? Principle be dammed or ‘being damned’…are what’s waste of following the money versus the naked truths.
Ahhh, the history of immigrants coming to America. The one thing we rarely talk about, sadly, is that the immigrants coming here were processed by OTHER IMMIGRANTS!
Only Native Americans are the non-immigrants amongst us.
We are all undocumented invaders unless we or our ancestors were adopted by one of the nations of the first humans to cross the Behring straits to settle in North America
My ancestors probably came here from some “shithole” part of Yorkshire, then probably married some ‘wretched refuse’ fleeing the Irish potato famine a few generations later. I doubt they had the ‘proper papers’ back then. At some point, I’m the product of “illegal immigration” yet somehow I managed to get an education, find work, paid taxes and even sworn an oath to defend the Constitution — which I took seriously — unlike the prevaricating, demented criminal now in the White House.
Mine too- and many of today’s refugees from Latin American poverty, dictators and climate change ruining their farm land probably don’t have the $ to hire an immigration lawyer or the time to wait safely for legal processing before crossing
It is a mine field of bureaucratic bullschittery, just like everything is becoming these days. And repubs wanting to cut and simplify regulations is just a smoke screen to fool us suckers and losers.
Tita, it is clear to me that those who speak against immigrants do not have a clue about what is happening south of us or how we aided and abetted the mess. They all claim they would not come here undocumented, as an illegal as they always put it. Just this last week I told one woman that she has no idea what she would do in desperate circumstances.
Scots 'troublemakers' on my Mom's side. On the family tree there is a small group of people all born in the same area of Scotland, the next generation were born in the same county in Northern Ireland (The dates match up with some of the 'Removals' when the British moved the 'troublesome Scots' to Ireland to put them farther from England and to build up the Protestant population of Northern Ireland.) The next generation of that branch of the family were all born in Connecticut. Good thing no one was keeping 'troublemakers' out of the US back then.
Shirley, and not all of my ancestors were sterling characters. My great grandfather, born in Kentucky, and living in Stamping Ground, was a murderer and a horse thief. He ran off to Indiana and married under a false name. He was hard to track down once my cousin and I were doing genealogy.
It's, I don't know how many of mine were legal, but they were certainly coming for a better life. On my paternal side I have lots of German ancestry. I look upon myself as living on stolen land which is why I try to take care of it without piles of chemicals.
My grandparents came from Belarus and Russia I believe. My grandfather used to sleep in the fields he was so tired. Some how two people from 2 different countries met and married. I believe they went through Ellis Island, but I am not sure they were citizens.
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
I prefer "First Peoples" to "Native American". That is how Canada refers to its indigenous population. First, the people who lived here before Europeans weren't really "Native". Their ancestors didn't evolve here. They immigrated from elsewhere, just like the rest of us. They simply did it thousands of years before modern Europeans. Second, they aren't "Americans". They had established cultures with their own names long before modern Europeans named this continent.
Yes. The concept of “manifest destiny” could only be conceived of by people who think they are chosen by God to do what they are doing. They don’t understand the concept that we are ALL God’s children (if you believe in God). And if you don’t… try on “We are all part of the same human family”. No one is “destined” to rule over anyone else. We are meant to be partners!
While it took the European “discoverers” some time to realize that they had not reached India but rather an entire continent that stood in their way, the people they found on that continent had, most likely, crossed onto it from Asia by way of the North Pacific land bridge and/or pacific islands. So calling them Indians was not all that inaccurate.
Think of that phrase so often: “Give me your tired, your poor,” it’s as though we are meant to embrace immigrants, to hold them, to allow them to flourish, to give them rest, to allow them to provide for a better way of life. We’re supposed to be the open arms, not the ones who pull them from their homes, their jobs, their cars, their schools. Yet here we are…
Hoping 2026 is full of light. Thank you, Professor HCR for the history lesson it’s always good to be reminded often as to who we are suppose to be… a country of immigrants..
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
I came through Ellis Island in 1954. We emigrated from France and arrived on La Liberté. I became a naturalized citizen in 1960, when my parents were naturalized. There is nothing about being able to live here that I take for granted. My children and grandchildren were all born here. It’s our home. Yet I wonder if the day will come where I am sent back to France (or somewhere) because I vocally oppose trump and his policies. I know I’m not the only immigrant who wonders about that.
Hell, they can go back and deport anybody on any trumped up charges. It is government run amok. Anybody who speaks out is a target, including this big blabbermouth. Republicans have become the Trojan Horses of evil. Especially the hypocritical “Christians.’
Not for long, JD. This is the year it really unravels. The stinking doddering demented old criminal blob of shit wandering around the West Wing at 2 AM, tiny little thumbs tapping away spewing his lies and bullshit, will become so decrepit they won’t be able to keep him propped up any longer. Once he’s been dispatched, not even Gruppenfuhrer Miller can keep this evil circus going. The rest of them will scurry like rats off a sinking ship. That’s my New Year’s dream/delusion. Better than the alternative.
John, nicely put and I hope it does unravel. I think we are seeing the start of that. I do want his last breath to be in public, so that they cannot use a dead body in secret to continue the destruction.
Help hold us accountable to treat our immigrant families better. They deserve better.
There’s a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change! 🤞
I am looking forward to the day when your speadsheet won't be needed as much as it is now. I am also anticipating the LARGE number of changes you'll need to make on it, as allllll those seats flip to BLUE!!
This is our year. This is our time. Karma is coming. Be patient all, but don't stop striving for even a moment.
I think I’ll have to put a big banner on it next November saying, “I’m a teacher and it’s almost the holidays, please give me grace as I change a LOT of information because hello blue wave!” 🤣
Happy to not yet be asleep for her first post of the year! I do need to adjust my sleep schedule to be back at school instead of enjoying staying up late during winter break 🤪
America has always loved a good origin story, especially when it involves plucky newcomers, hard work, and a conveniently edited memory. We tell ourselves that the United States was built by immigrants, then hire political arsonists to set fire to the archives. The current Trump administration approach to immigration does not merely forget history, it performs a full theatrical denunciation of it, complete with scapegoats, villains, and a cast of officials who appear deeply offended by the existence of their own grandparents.
Enter Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and Kristi Noem, the self-appointed guardians of a mythic America that somehow sprang fully formed from the soil, unencumbered by ships, borders, hunger, or desperate hope. In their telling, immigrants are no longer builders, laborers, or neighbors. They are threats. They are invaders. They are everything except what history insists they have always been.
That history begins, inconveniently for them, with a seventeen-year-old Irish girl named Annie Moore.
On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore stepped off a steamship at Ellis Island with her two younger brothers and became the first person processed at the new federal immigrant station. She was not greeted with slogans about poison blood or replacement theory. She was processed because the nation recognized a simple fact: people were arriving in enormous numbers, and it was better to meet them with order, translation, sanitation, and protection than with chaos and cruelty.
Before Ellis Island, there was Castle Garden, a state-run effort to do something radical for its time. It protected immigrants from swindlers, helped them buy train tickets, and ensured they did not starve on the docks of New York. This was not charity. It was infrastructure. It was governance with a memory longer than a cable news segment.
The people arriving then were fleeing famine, political repression, economic collapse, and war. Irish families escaping the Potato Famine. Germans fleeing failed revolutions. Chinese and Mexican laborers seeking opportunity in California. The same story, different accents.
The irony, of course, is that the loudest voices condemning immigrants today are standing on a foundation poured by immigrants yesterday. The factories, railroads, farms, and mines that built American wealth were powered by people who arrived with little more than names, calloused hands, and a willingness to work. The nation knew this. It said so out loud.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln told Congress that the country needed immigrants. He spoke plainly about labor shortages and opportunity, about people eager to come if the government would simply help them do so. Republicans of the era agreed. Their platform called for immigration to be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. Lincoln signed laws that protected immigrant workers and facilitated their arrival.
This was not naïveté. It was realism. It was economics. It was nation-building.
Then, as now, fear eventually arrived to spoil the party. Economic downturns turned neighbors into scapegoats. Racism hardened into law. The Chinese Exclusion Act made clear that American generosity had limits, and those limits were racial. Even then, however, the federal government did not pretend that the nation was not built on migration. It built systems like Ellis Island to manage it.
Ellis Island was not a free-for-all. It involved inspections, health checks, and questions about work and finances. Only about two percent of arrivals were ultimately denied entry. The goal was not exclusion for its own sake. The goal was integration with order.
And towering over it all was the Statue of Liberty, holding a torch, standing on broken chains, and offering a poem that could not be clearer if it tried. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This was not a metaphor. It was a policy aspiration carved in copper and stone.
Today’s anti-immigrant crusade pretends this legacy does not exist. Or worse, it reframes it as a mistake. The descendants of Ellis Island arrivals now sneer at asylum seekers. Officials whose surnames echo across old ship manifests speak as if migration is a modern disease rather than the original American condition.
The hypocrisy would be impressive if it were not so dangerous.
Demonizing immigrants in a nation built by them is not a strength. It is amnesia weaponized. It replaces governance with grievance and history with paranoia. It tells the world that the golden door is now guarded by men who have forgotten how their own families walked through it.
America does not need fewer immigrants. It needs fewer liars. It needs leaders willing to remember that the republic was not diluted by newcomers. It was created by them.
The White Christian Nationalists, if they read their Bible, would know that they were required to"love the stranger" and accord him the full protection of the Law.
Thank you, Heather. I long for the day when Emma Lazarus' poem has meaning in this country again, for we will open our borders and our hearts to all those who seek to join us in this great experiment. Happy New Year.
Thank you. My grandmother came through Ellis Island at the age of 4. I always imagine her journey, the crowds, holding her mother or older sister’s hand as they waited to greet my great grandfather who had come a couple of years earlier. Their journeys and the opportunities in this country made my life possible. I work now so others can share that opportunity.
My father came from England at the age of six. My maternal grandfather from Austria. I recall a sixth or seventh grade history book with a chapter tiled something like "America, the Great Melting Pot".
Always loved the melting pot. A stew of wonderful ingredients with so many flavors, making one dish nutritious for all. Repubs are poisoning the pot and favoring banquets for the rich and gruel for us.
I wonder. Trump won the 2024 election because he promised to clamp down on immigration and it has only been since his heavy-handed mass deportation policy that Americans have changed their minds on this.
There are many Americans - real Americans - who continue to support Trump on immigration and they could,easily chnage their minds again, as history shows they have often done.
As the professor's essay shows, there has always been a reality gap between the high-blown ideal of the 'golden door' and US immigration laws. There were similarly high levels of deportation under Obama and Biden without the levels of controversy Trump has managed to engender. Trump, of course, has his own version of the 'golden door'.
Your point is excellent. However, there is no such thing in my mind as a real American who is a Trump supporter, as he is anti-Constitution. Our country is defined by the Constitution that set it apart from all others. To oppose it as Trump does makes him unAmerican. I believe the same of his supporters, have said so to some of them, and will continue to do do.
It appears to me that modern nominal "Republicans" have (in so many ways) gone full Orwell, and desire to dispose of the very republic from which they draw their name.
Why do people immigrate to the United States? Generally speaking, many (most?) people come here to work. Yes, the wages my ancestors received were plenty low, but enough to live on and raise a family. Yes, immigrants are hoping for “better lives.” Some come from countries that discriminate against them, hunt them down and beat them, say nonsensical things like “They are eating our dogs and cats,” etc. The wages that many (most?) immigrants receive for their hard work are quite low, but better than what they had been able to earn “back home.” AND, the work gets done! The crops get planted and harvested, the cattle and the hogs and the chickens get butchered and packed up, the dishes get washed, etc. SO, are there other people/entities that benefit from the hard labor of the “poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free?” Yup, businesses benefit. Government can benefit too - increased tax rolls….
Biden started his Administration with an open borders policy. He said "it's not who we are" to prevent refugees from flowing in. Voters didn't think he did enough to stop the flow. Trump has at least stopped the flow. Unfortunately, he's pretty much closed to door to an immigration policy that would let the US set criteria for who can come in, and the Administration is not just trying to deport the criminals or other bad guys.
There was no such thing as a Biden “open borders” policy in this country, nor has there ever been, save for pre-Civil War times. And *allowing* in people fleeing from persecution is exactly who we are — not an aberration. Our immigration system is overloaded and barely functional, due to Congress’ unwillingness to actually roll up its sleeves and create something that matches the challenge posed by the breakdown of law, order, economic, ecological and political stability, both in this hemisphere and elsewhere.
Millions come here to escape true calamity, both “legally” and “illegally.” The overwhelming majority come here to work, to pay taxes, to see their kids go to school. Even so, nobody out there is saying ‘let ‘em all in.’ All Trump has done is create bogeymen, violate habeus corpus, abrogated Congressional authority to himself, and filled the land with brute terror and clumsy, misplaced intimidation.
Trump most likely hâtes immigrants because he hated his parents. They gave him no love so he has no love to give . At some time immigration needs to be controlled but imust be done in a just and caring way No matter what Trump would like us believe, no man or woman is garbage . That alone ought to
Trump and Congress have all the levers and an opportunity to at least try to fix our immigration laws. Not with transient executive orders, not with overzealous illegal seizures, and not with political theater. If the laws are broken, pass better legislation. If the laws are fine, then Congress needs to appropriate more funds for the border and the courts. But most of us are tired of the scapegoating and gaslighting that goes on election to election; the blaming and empty promises that never seem to fix anything. As long as I can remember, candidates have claimed to have the answers for illegal entry, but nothing changes. Here's hoping 2026 brings us politicians of any persuasion who are sincere about their promise to fix things.
“As the husband of a naturalized American citizen, I’ve seen firsthand just how broken our immigration system is,” said Republican Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17). “I have said all along that parties have failed to fix this problem for decades and it is going to take both parties working together to solve it. That’s why I was proud to join Republicans and Democrats in introducing the Dignity Act — the first serious, bipartisan immigration reform proposal in over a decade. The Dignity Act will secure our porous border, create a process for those already here to pay restitution and integrate into American society, and fix our legal immigration system so that people who want to come here can do so and can contribute to our society, our economy, and our culture as immigrants have and always will. I’m glad to see this legislation endorsed by the Problem Solvers Caucus — a testament to its broad support as well as its ability to finally solve a problem that has evaded leaders for decades.”
Heather's podcast today covers exactly this same material on our immigration history.
As Annabel Ascher (first to post) says here, everything about America distills from how everyone coming here wanted whatever it was that made America different from all the source places.
Now, with the criminal demagogue and his crew reigning, we could do well to remember much more than just the Emma Lazarus poem. We could even ask, first day of 2026, that there be no more taking for granted that Dems running for office, podcasters, and other media figures remain so largely illiterate to virtually all the novels, songs, memoirs, and films that have answered to all the new and unique expectations from all the various immigrants.
Donald's ilk of powerful, organized interests have otherwise corrupted education – sidelined our many good teachers, so let's start this year by remembering the vitality Donald's criminal crew aims to kill:
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” “The Verdict,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Joan Didion’s “Where I Was From,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” Sarah Kendzior’s “The Last American Road Trip,” Tia Levings’ “A Well-Trained Wife,” Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”;
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War,” and Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems, and those in the three volumes of Garrison Keillor’s “Good Poems”;
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” and any number of Bruce Springsteen or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
It's a chequered history, Phil. Ken Burns' masterly documentary 'The US and the Holocaust' shows that many desperate immigrants were turned away from the 'golden door'. Stephen J Gould's 'The Mismeasure of Man' describes the absurd IQ tests immigrants on Ellis Island were forced to take after a long and arduous sea journey to show that they were not 'feeble-minded' and that there was a strong disposition towards people from Nordic countries as opposed to immigrants from southern and eastern europe. Between 1933 and 1943, the US didn't even fill the quota for Germany. The US response to the Holocause severely challenged the romantic notion of America as a nation of immigrants.
Plus the 110,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated behind barbed wire in 10 inland America internment camps -- far from their homes along the Pacific coast, from which they'd all been forcibly uprooted. Rachel Maddow tells how groundless all of official America's fears and "reasoning" were at the time, in "Burn Order."
Let's call it not "a chequered history," but one continuously pitting decency (and life itself, in the case of Holocaust refugees) against mad officialdom, mad elites.
I think a chequered history is a good description. I don't know how the US compares to other countries in this regard. I do think we need not feel guilty about our overall record as a country that has upheld representative govt, the Constitution, and human rights better than most other countries. Maddow can second guess all she wants. (I know, Trump is degrading some of these things.) The US allows a foreign tourist, including wealthy ones, to come into our country to give birth in order to have the baby be a US citizen. That's way too accommodating, and it's wrong. But I wouldn't be surprised if SCOTUS upholds birthright citizenship in all situations. Most countries not in the Western Hemisphere do not allow birthright citizenship, or they restrict it.
Rachel isn't second guessing, Robert. She's writing history.
At the time of the Japanese-American incarcerations, many Americans let themselves be led by racist paranoia completely at odds with the truth. Worse, to kowtow to this, many of our otherwise finest elites joined in acting upon the evidence-free conspiracy theories.
That's why we need history that's honest, Robert.
One reason we have the criminal in office, and ruling the news virtually every day for ten years now, derives from schools stripped not only of the truths in humanities, but erased of history, too (and instead fed the offend-nobody pabulum of the corporate-packaged textbooks). Republicans created swagger and arrogance based on lies, and Dems from the largely humanities-empty schools had virtually no ammo to answer the fear, paranoia, and hatreds.
I agree that the incarcerations during WWII were wrong. As were the FDR's too tepid steps to allow European Jews to immigrate to the US. I only learned of the 1921 Tulsa massacre in 2021, 100 yrs after the fact. Yes, the US has made some bad mistakes on racial issues. But I think many other countries don't obsess about our mistakes from previous centuries as much as we do. We have other problems to address besides race relations, and I think we have made a whole lot of progress on the issue compared to 1940, that we should be proud of. Unfortunately some people think every issue we have is a race issue. And more generally, we should have some caution in judging actions of our leaders nearly 100 years ago, and remember that 100 years from now, Americans of all stripes will be critical of steps we take today or in 2030, because they are not standing in our shoes.
My 18 year old maternal grandmother arrived at Ellis Island from Finland in 1905. She said she was afraid they would find her physically unfit, but she was accepted and went on to marry another Finn, have 8 children, and loved her adoptive country fiercely until she died at 102. Her story is woven into my feelings about belonging, and building a just country/community for everyone.
Both my paternal and maternal grandparents came to the US from Finland. I don’t know when they arrived, but it had to be late 19th or early 20th century. I know they worked hard and were never a burden on the US. The deportation of immigrants without due process is unacceptable and un-American.
My mother's parents came to America around 1915 from Budapest, Hungary. My father's parents arrived around the same time from Odessa, Ukraine. I am second generation Hungarian / Ukrainian-American.
But I still wish a day would come when a National Declaration of Immigration Truth would be declared... and that all Native Americans would receive compensation for having had their land stollen from them.
(You'll note that the terms of treaties signed by the US government with Native tribes were regularly broken... an early example of how trusting the word of the US government is frequently not a good idea... see: the "guarantee" of Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons.)
One of the best songs on topic is “Geronimo’s Cadillac “ by Michael Murphy 1972. Stirring. But Jim Ringer did a much more soulful version of it. He was Mary MaCaslin’s husband.
You can easily find Jim Ringer and Geronimo’s Cadillac on YouTube. Not live but he does a magnificent performance with it. Unfortunately he died of booze and didn’t take care of his wife Mary who was a sweetheart folk singer spirit. I never saw her but wish I had the opportunity to perform at her feet last days on earth. She lived in California and I’m in CT.
Per HCR “Republicans realized they had to court anti-Chinese votes in California after a razor-thin loss there in 1880, lawmakers turned back to the issue.” So, Republicans have been using racism to get elected since 1880. I didn’t realize that they needed it that soon but am not surprised that they went that route as soon as they saw it would work, and they’ve really leaned into it since they implemented the Southern Strategy in 1968, perfected it in 1980, and have been successfully winning elections with it ever since.
Well, the racism in our elections preceded 1880, that’s an interesting point she referenced though and I’m glad to know it. Perhaps since then the dogwhistling allowed both parties legitimacy to white-identifying voters who found more overt racism offensive. Our racism goes all the way back to the forced migration of native peoples and we are STILL denying many the land of their ancestors. A lot of immigrants have Native American ancestry and imo should be granted citizenship on those grounds. Our boarders are an illusion, and I’m not really saying that some frame for understanding territory doesn’t make sense, but what fake-history frame are we even talking about?
And then of course, there is the forced migration and enslavement of the African Americans who BUILT the country.
When we do amend the constitution to define Immigration, Territory and Citizenship I think education requirements as well as reparation outlines are essential. And no more importing extra racism when we have enough of our own home grown to root out. What are these alien billionaires doing anyway?
I disagree, but it's important to understand, I think, that voters don't usually vote based on a single issue. Taxes, foreign policy, health care, education are all important issues. And people who voted against open borders are not necessarily racist or against Hispanics.
Of course, at least in my lifetime, our borders have always been controlled. Controlled well enough, probably not, and at some point control begins to mess with public liberty. There is surely room for improvement, but remedies that involve people are not always simple. Trump is wreaking havoc and trashing international relationships. "Open" borders is a slogan not a reality.
The issues you cite pale in comparison to racism for many voters. The prez has destroyed our foreign relations, thrown scraps to the working and middle classes re: taxation, works to destroy public health and education. Yet his followers stick with him. Racism and hate are all they have.
Politicians on the Right and the Left do try to push our buttons on single issues. I get fundraising emails from both sides doing that, all the time. And many times they'll go to a different issue if that's too tired or not working. I'm not sure the Dems don't get more benefit from the abortion issue than the R's. The last time I drank kool-aid I was 11.
Sorry, I'm free to disagree. For what little it's worth, nobody I know votes based on a single issue... and good for them. I'm sure there's been a lot of political science studies and papers on this, people can look at those if they want.
1. In 2026, why does it take a force funded by a bill purposely passed by both parties that is larger than the armies of many nations and our own USMC to "protect" citizens from non-citizens?
2. Once all the "dangerous" non-citizens have been deported, what happens to an unconstitutional federal army (dubbed "police") occupying our cites, neighborhoods, and homes? What is its intended purpose?
Donald can see from his pal dictators and demagogues how nicely one can keep power, and tighten screws wherever one likes, if police, military, and secret police freely roam.
I've had these questions of why our two parties were militarizing our police forces for years, but moreso after so much funding was passed by TWO parties months ago to create ICE. It seemed more about controlling citizens than protecting them from non-citizens. Even before ICE, the police of no nation killed its own citizens at the rates police kill them in the USA, It makes sense to me if an oligarchy doesn't value rank and file citizens and sees us as "the enemy.". Do citizens or oligarchs control none, one or both parties?
Yeah the money sloshing in our elections is dizzying to the point of nausea. How many malnutritioned children do you suppose we could properly feed with that wasted money that currently pollutes our airwaves with vitriol and obfuscation?
It’s not even the illusion of a representative democracy anymore.
I am only alive because of Ellis Island. And that goes for millions of others.
This country was FOUNDED on immigration. The Republicans understood this as well as anyone, as recently as Ronald Reagan.
What a sad descent into bigotry bordering on madness…
Same here, Annabel. Both of my parents came from their war torn countries to escape tyranny and Nazism. Ms. Liberty was the first thing they saw on the island and she gave them hope. I wish to lean on her again.
My boss prepared some exhibits for the 1986 reopening of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, one of which was an audio recording of voices of real immigrants describing their first glimpse of statue approaching it by sea. It brought tears to my eyes to hear to it.
And this essay by Dr. Richardson brought tears to my eyes. (We New Yorkers often refer to the statue as "Our Lady of the Harbor." Those of us with pagan leanings recognize its semiotic significance as perhaps the earliest indication of the pivotal role We the Empathetic People would play in the modern acknowledgement of our species' first and oldest deity. [Which is why it would not surprise me if Trump and his Christonazis attempt to destroy it -- an atrocity I most profoundly hope will somehow be prevented, as I have no doubt its occurrence would trigger an actual, infinitely violent civil war].)
In my book, I have Trump hauling the statue back to France. “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.”
Worse: It'll be renamed in big bold gilt letters "Trump Libertarian Monument"
And the torch will be replaced by a raised middle finger.
I want to laugh, but strange things have happened with this orange buffoon.
Try this one, if you haven't heard it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gOoySyNlI&list=RDX3gOoySyNlI&start_radio=1
Excellent video.
As a second- and third-generation American, I know my family members came through Ellis Island in 1905 and 1925.
Their great-grandchildren are all college-educated and five out of 15 have served their country in uniform.
Immigrants enrich America.
My ancestors came here before the American Revolution on my father's side of the family. My mother's mother's side were shipped here after the Battle of Cullodan. My mother's grandfather came from Cornwall before the Civil War, so no connections to Ellis Island, alas.
Very moving and beautiful.
Thank you. So beautiful, and so sad in these times. But, we will turn this cruel tide.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you so very much. RefJim, for posting this. I did not know of this well crafted, emotionally powerful song -- an invocation, really -- and after wiping my eyes, I added it to my modern folk-music library, where it companions such works as these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwPk4dJaBw&list=RDipwPk4dJaBw&start_radio=1 (For correct lyrics scroll down to "The right lyrics are hard to find?")
Nice! really well done.
Really lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Christonazis. Good. But I prefer Christianists. Invented some years ago by Hendrik Herzberg. Never caught on. It's time it did.
Respectfully disagree; Christonazis is the more properly descriptive noun for three reasons: (1)-It connects the MAGAT movement with its Original Nazi origins and thus with Hitler's recognition of the ecogenocidal history of Christianity as an invitation to easy nazification; (2)-It accurately conveys the definitive element of ecogenocidal white male supremacy that distinguishes Christonazism from the more specifically religious hatred of definitively multi-racial (or perhaps non-racial) Islamism; (3)-it therefore accurately conveys the long-term Christonazi intent to fulfill Hitler's dream of making Earth an Aryan-ruled -- that is, white-ruled -- planet.
(FYI, the "T" added to "MAGA" stands for either "Traitor" or "Terrorist" and thereby transforms the acronym from a Big Lie into a statement of truth.)
I can’t believe he would attempt to destroy Ellis Island. However, nothing he does or says shocks me anymore.
My grandparents came through Ellis Island in 1913. I was able to find my grandfathers name, where he came from, and the name of the ship he traveled on.
How did he dupe 77 million people. I wonder how many regret their choice.
Shades of the Taliban and their treatment of the monumental Bamiyan Buddhas.
Loren, I understand why you would think that of the evil trump gang. But please don't verbalize this atrocity or even think it! Let's hope what she symbolizes will become a reality not just for America but the world! Call me naive.
GOD, give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
JL Graham,
What a thoughtful gift your boss prepared. We need to be reminded of the details of our beautiful and difficult history ie mistreatment of the Indians and so many non-white immigrants or persons of various faiths or no faith....what is our problem???? Maybe it is we "white" persons and not the "others" who need to be purged!
If prejudices could be destroyed and respect for one another could be increased, how much stronger and productive we could be as human beings!
Maybe people as a part of our military are changed and turn from these attitudes....when they realize that to survive, each must take care of the other!
We are a better and stronger nation when we take care of one another....each and all!....remember LADY LIBERTY'S MESSAGE!
"Maybe people as a part of our military are changed and turn from these attitudes....when they realize that to survive, each must take care of the other!"
Certainly that happens in a fundamental way, when people are aware of their dependency on one another. The problem comes with regarding others as disposable, and war does that. I recall hearing an interview, long ago, with a woman who vividly recalled life in London, England during the Biltz. She spoke of the joy of victory mixed with a sadness that, base on what she experienced, the petty British classism had been suspended for "we're all in this together" for the duration of the war, and rushed back promptly once life had normalized. Do we need a human enemy to see our own universal vulnerability and agency? What if we had met the invasive, heartless, predator COVID with a united front. But we lost the plot and many more of our neighbors than would likely have been the case with a united front. The virus's secret weapon was the unmanaged human ego. And strangely, and frighteningly, some worship that and call it virtue.
JL Graham,
COVID revealed the monsters we truly are as well as the unbridled power of a disease. Those who do the hard work in group homes and their employers were overcome by the power of a disease that attacked the most vulnerable. It also revealed a power we could not manage. We were made helpless by this cruel attack on us.
The employees, especially in healthcare facilities or group homes as well as childcare facilities, were also made vulnerable and more than likely brought it home to their families.
I will never forget the pictures of many bodies of the dead and not enough places to store them before burial outside of hospitals.
JL, I agree that we are basically selfish, and as we can see, the way the Trump administration is using Hispanics as a diversion from their own "lawlessness" and daily destruction of our country and rule of law,
COVID brought out the best and worse of human nature.
Scientists fought back with their knowledge and concern for humanity. Deaths declined and we were made wiser for the moment.
We need to be reminded "not to turn" from those who have been unjustly taken and are being used by the so called "leaders" of our country as a diversion from the REAL crimes taking place within our nation's capital!!!!
I am waiting for another "cure" JL Graham.
Yes, I visited after the restoration. I cried.
When I visited Ellis Island, I was retracing my grandparents’ steps to safety and hope for the future. This is why people had been still coming despite all the difficulties of migration. But remove safety and hope, and immigration dwindles. What a bad bargain for them and for us!
My grandson and I visited Ellis Island when we visited summer before last. I think I read every plaque, read every sign, visited every room…my great grandfather arrived from Sweden in about 1875 or so.
J L, I got a tiny bit of what hopeful immigrants experienced when they came here and saw "Lady Liberty." A few years ago, I was on a cruise with my family. At the end of the cruise, we came into New York harbor in the morning. The sun was shining brightly on the statue and even I, with my poor vision could see it. I had been to the Statue of Liberty before, but it was nothing like coming into the harbor that morning. I found myself crying, thinking of what it must have been like for immigrants looking to enter the Golden Door. I will not forget!
Thinking of hearing, shortly after WWII, the Irving Berlin musical setting of Emma Lazarus’ poem sung by an excellent choir shortly after it was written. Even the memory brings tears.
🫶
GOD, give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
I have copies of the manifests of both sides of my family; the Italian side and the Eastern European Jewish side. They can be found online. Mine came in around 1905 - 1910-15. The Lithuanian and Ukrainian side around 1905 before the great pogroms. The Sicilians on mother’s side all came from the same town. They must have had fun conversations talking about the old days in Connicatini Bagni.
I’ve never been against regulated immigration but was very against tens of thousands rushing over the border every week. Sorry I never approved and will never approve.
Bill--it should be governed by three C's--Control, Clarity, and Compassion. There was a bill in congress in 2024, Bi-partisan. But DT told the Republicans to tank it because he wanted the issue. And his masters wanted to do just what they are doing--spark terror in our population. So here we are.
Thank you Annabel for mentioning the 2024 bi-partisan bill which provided the funding and structures to process more people who had not completed their immigration documentation. Tanked because traitor trump wanted to use hatred of “illegal aliens” to fuel his MAGA cult. So much hatred.
Hoping we see a continuing decline of the Putin puppet in 2026..... and a return to compassion and clarity as you describe.
Exactly, and cruelty is the intent, not the consequence. A direct copy of 1933 Germany.
I support controlled immigration but not cruelty. Not torture or any other abuses of people here without permission. No destruction of families. No deportations and penalties without fundamental due process of law. We let that one go because some were arrested as "terrorists" after 9/11, "The worst of the worst". And likely some were, and yet even they deserved prosecution with due process of law. Many did little or nothing wrong were imprisoned, abused, and sometimes tortured. One such person (there were many) was fingered erroneously by the Canadian Government, which formally and publicly apologized when his innocence was established. So far I am aware our government never did.
Obama mentioned that "we tortured some folks", but advised us to not to worry about it. Now Trump is greatly widening that unrepaired crack in the rule of equal protection to send people of varying status (but conspicuously brown) to torture camps without trial. He is even threatening the same for some naturalized, and even native citizens. Targeted tyranny is not just wrong; it tends to spread.
There are many here that agree with you. History gives us the lense to see clearly that what is happening here is not the misapplication of or ignoring the law. Debating these details misses the point which is the destruction of our constitutional order to satisfy the industrial oligarchy, the very same that used Hitler as their face to rouse the rabble to force the democratic government to bend to their, not Hitler's, will to gain contol of the industrialized world. Hitler was their front as Trump is now. They have been working on this since the end of the first world war.
Do you wonder why Trump has to talk with Putin for two hours before meeting with Zelinsky? And an hour after? He sends a realestate developer to negotiate "Peace" with Putin? Come on.
Putin is our avowed enemy and Trump's dear friend. Who's side is he on?
Memorable line, J L:
"Targeted tyranny is not just wrong; it tends to spread."
I try to keep reminding people that eventually that old poem ends with when they came for me, no one was around to help. These people need enemies, they need a target, they need someone or something to hate and generate anger. They will eat everyone else and then turn on one another.
J L - Somehow the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause in the US Constitution has been redacted. If you're wealthy, it's very likely you won't even be handcuffed when arrested.
But if the ICE thugs go after you kicking, beating with night sticks, hitting by multiple masked thugs is just fine.
JL...what is your source of your statement: "Obama mentioned that 'we tortured some folks', but advised us to not worry about it." I've searched but come up empty.
People who admire Obama should think hard about "we tortured some folks."
Cruelty is the intent, has been since chump’s first political breath it seems
He sees the world in the binary terms of winners and losers only.
How do prisoners fare in detention when they are in for assaulting a police officer?
I'm not advocating for violence but if someone is going to get pardoned by Trump, I'm wondering if a few extra-curricular activities are happening.
I thought that surely people would remember the venom with which chump rejected the sane approach to immigration that was hammered out. But alas, people only heard the cacophony of hatred that drowned out any rational discussion. Sadly, democrats, focused on the abortion issue, at least in Texas. The pushback against chump was almost nonexistent. I feared the worst.
Let’s not forget S.744, the 2013 Senate bill on comprehensive immigration reform, that passed by a vote of 68-32 in the Senate. The legislation died because Speaker John Boehner refused to bring it up in the House.
That's just too much power invested in a single person. Republicans seek out and exploit those flaws in public security like malware designers.
The bill you mention was bi-partisan only because ONE Republican supported it. Hardly what most would think "bi-partisan" means. Among other dumb ideas, it would have put into law an allowance of up to 5000 immigrants per DAY for SEVEN consecutive days before any attempt to close the border. It likely would not have passed the Senate even if Trump supported it.
https://thehill.com/opinion/4812643-border-act-2024-reforms-biden/
You are operating from the idea that letting immigrants in is inherently bad. We have a lot of history that undermines that stance. This wouldn't be the country it is without our immigrant history.
History aside, we actually need more immigration. Look at the developing ratio of wage earners to retirees, it is unsustainable and current birthrate trends offer no solution to that imbalance.
Here's a breakdown of U.S. population by generation (approximate numbers/shares):
Millennials (Gen Y): ~74.2 million (21.8%). Born 1981-1996.
Generation Z (Gen Z): ~70.8 million (20.8%). Born 1997-2012.
Generation X (Gen X): ~65.6 million (19.3%). Born 1965-1980.
Baby Boomers: ~66.9 million (19.7%). Born 1946-1964.
Silent Generation: ~15.1 million (4.4%). Born 1928-1945.
Generation Alpha: Growing, with a significant share, born 2013-2024.
Source: Marketing Charts and Statista.
As we Boomers shuffle off the stage and life expectancy increases, the problem will continue for the following generations.
We have an essentially free and valuable resource of human capital on our doorstep. They would gladly participate in and boost the 70% portion of our consumer based economy.
China faces even worse demographic issues than we do, mostly of their own making. No one is begging to get into China. In geopolitical terms we have, in immigrants, a powerful advantage over China standing on our doorstep. We only need to realize what we have and use it.
I'm not really worried about population decline. The human population of the world has tripled in my lifetime.
Another country that doesn't, um, welcome immigrants: Japan. They have a population problem.
A gentle reminder that 40% of illegal immigrants are here because they overstayed their visas not because they came across a small section of the southern border of which much of it has the Trump wall that any 6th grader with a sawz-all could cut through. The POS Trump wall has been breached over 6000 times and there are crews permanently assigned to patching it.
Certainly for it's value per dollar, The Grate Wall Of Trump was never the most effective way to regulate immigration. Trump is big on monuments to Trump. I think that the GWOT is in that category. The more costly, the better.
?
It was dumb legislation proposed two years too late. Give me a break and stop supporting a loser. Not you.
It was dumb legislation no matter when it was proposed. All it would have done is provide cover for Biden's lack of any interest in controlling the border. Actually, "lack of interest" is being charitable. I sincerely doubt he had any idea what was going on at the border. We are all losers for that debacle.
Annabel, Joe Biden did nothing for two years. Only when he saw his numbers going down did he act but it was too late. Democrats generally don’t except this proposition but I do. It’s a fact. This was one of the reasons just one that Joe Biden lost the election. It was a perfect storm of him losing the election including his age and frailties associated with it. Joe Biden lost touch with the realities of communicating with the governed. I can sight numerous other instances of him screwing up not least of which was choosing the wrong VP and then denying the people the opportunity to choose the next presidential nominee. He also kissed up to a modern day massive murderer in the name of prime minister Nytanyahoo. Need I continue because I’ve just begun?
Some of what you say I agree with. Joe Biden should have quit. Choosing Trump over Harris is the fault of the electorate. Harris was a great pick and would have made a good president. She got close. This, about immigration, I do not. Joe Biden's immigration policy was more humane whatever its failures or faults. There is a deep political divide and confusion in this country about immigrants. They have been used to foment hate and division. That is on the vulnerable electorate whose responsibility it is to not get fed hate and to be informed. It is the responsibility of those elected to the Congress, the GOP principally, who en masse abdicate their responsibility to the country in favor of the cult.
There is nothing wrong with disapproving of unregulated immigration. But there is something very wrong with not trying to fix it. Unlike #47 and his storm troopers going after anyone and everyone who is not white, or speaks a foreign language immigrants are the backbone of this country. Both my grandfather and grandmother at different times emigrated to the U.S. via Ellis Island. Instead of the evil & ignorant speech of DJT, Miller and Homan, we should be
looking at creating a system that works. However, the legislative branch would rather complain and villainize instead of fixing/improving that which is broken. We need the immigrants in this country because they often do the work that keeps our daily lives functioning.
“…tens of thousands rushing over the border every week” is an exaggerated misrepresentation.
I do not blame them, I blame our own “government”. Why in the world it should take 10 years or more to legally enter this country when it took 4-5 hours a century ago pretty much explains our current, non immigrant-immigrant policies, eh?
Also bear in mind that being in this country illegally is a misdemeanor, not a felony. React accordingly.
Agreed, but we have to admit it's still a crime.
Like jay-walking
Jay-walking isn't even a violation in NYS.
I figure we have to come up with a solution other than deportation, family separation, and raids by masked agents of the state.
Of course many solutions would involve resources other than walls, and political will to do the right thing. Do you remember those days when we tried to do the right thing?
If you don't there was this guy named Obama...
My mother's parents both came, separately, from the city of Lemberg, now called Lviv, in western Ukraine, in 1912. That part of far western Ukraine was then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire in an area then called Galicia. It had been part of Austria Hungary for hundreds of years - as far back as the empress Maria Teresa! It had never been part of Russia until the soviets took over. At school, my grandparents learned German, not Russian! In fact, my Ukrainian grandmother had 2 brothers who stayed in Lemberg, and both died in WWI fighting for Austria Hungary.
Oddly enough, Today, if you want to fly from the Munich airport to Lviv, Ukraine, your destination will be listed as Lemberg!
But you're ok with the immigrants that overstay their visas, which account for about 40% of the illegal immigrants in the US according to several stories if you Google It?( https://www.visaverge.com/visa/visa-overstays-now-make-up-40-of-undocumented-immigrants-in-us/ ). /s
And you also say "border" instead of borders. I've seen stats that say 3 times as many illegal immigrants cross the northern borders than the southern border.
The Republicans and the corporate media want us to believe that if you close the southern border all is well. Just another one of their BS conspiracy theories lapped up by gullible Americans.
You piqued my interest in comparing crossing numbers between the Southern and Northern borders.
The Southern Border has far outnumbered the Northern border. That would make sense as getting into Canada is no piece of cake. And in Canada they refer to us as their Southern Border problem. There has been a surge in people trying to get into Canada from the US in recent years. Go figure.
https://moving2canada.com/immigration/immigration-to-canada/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_Canada
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters
Yeah, and some of them are rather distinguished. Timothy Snyder and other Yale profs. People like that.
I came to Canada in 1966. Pure luck. At a symposium at a (US) college reunion, the subject of health care came up, and I called out from the audience, "I live in Canada. Eat your hearts out!"
My daughter is married to a Canadian and has dual-citizenship. My impression is that, at least in some regions, there can be a lot more waiting for service, and fewer options if the doc is not a good fit. That said, healthcare is a right of the whole citizenry. Here it is possible to obtain excellent healthcare, IF (a big IF) you can afford it.
The 3 to 1 times northern to southern border crossing was from around 2016 before Trump 1. A CPA friend of mine does the book keeping, taxes for a few Mexican restaurants in NE and he was told by the owners that instead of crossing the border from AZ they flew to Vancouver to cross sometimes. It kind of depends on what is happening between the US, Canada and Mexico at the time.
Here's link to the figures from 2016 until 2024.
It's consistently 3:1 the Southern border to all the rest, Northern Border, the Gulf states and the coasts.
I live near the Northern border and the ratio just didn't sound right. I'm sure there are illegal aliens who went to Canada first, but they typically have the funds to get there first and aren't the bigger issue.
I also live in a university city and know the overstays by students is a part of the issue.
I hope we agree the system needs amending, not what we're doing today.
Majority arrive at our airports, with visa, and then over-stay the visa.
The last thing this country needs is educated, distinguished, profs and grad students infiltrating our country.
What will that lead to? A population of critical thinkers in already un-American liberal universities? Please sweet Jesus save us! /s/s/s
All good points. What I’m most preoccupied withis optics and the kinds of issues that can sink the popularity to an administration. So it’s less about what is happening although that is also important. Such as Texas and Florida governors sending thousands to clog up northern cities. It worked. Those slobs did anything. I’m so surprised that northern mayors didn’t confiscate the buses and make it a legal matter. If the buses had been confiscated I’ll bet the bus owners wouldn’t have allowed their buses to be illegally used to transport immigrants across state lines.
So it’s more to do with optics than substance. Biden lost on optics.
Controlling the inflow is one thing. Still Trump has done some pretty horrible things there: separation of children from their parents, disgusting conditions for detainees. But these roundups (sometimes brutally) of nonwhite people without due process is criminal. “Disappearing” people is deplorable. Sending them to countries where you know they’re going to be treated horribly? Unbelievable. We’re better than this. This is not America. This is not Democracy. This is not moral. This is not legal.
It doesn’t matter whether they are white or non white. Maybe stop seeing color everywhere you look.
Bill, I think you are exactly right. The immigration system described in the article is official, federally sanctioned policy. There were checks at the point of exit from the ‘old country’ and screening processes at the point of entry at Ellis Island. What we saw in the Biden Administration with a completely uncontrolled southern border has played a role in where we (sadly) are today with an over-reaction on the part of ICE.
Agree. I’m not against people wanting a better life. But this opening was a I say, a gateway drug. And I must repeat for those who react negatively to my points. No nation on earth allows this transgression. What the heck is the matter with us to become so polarized over it. The opening was wrong. The oppression of the immigrants is wrong. I have told local police that if I were to witness a hooded thug dragging a woman down the street, I’m going to intervene. I will put my life on the line. I’ll run the F-er over with my car if I can. So I’m not what people want to categorize as.
Our government has historically destabilized countries that have had democratically elected governments (Iran, many in South and Central America). After the governments were overturned, many people lost their livelihoods, such as people who owned small businesses or farms. We were responsible for so many people immigrating from the Southern Border.
There is a phrase describing the mania that a lot of people who are against our sensible point of view have: suicidal empathy. We can’t tolerate things that no other country tolerates. The much vaunted Scandinavian utopii deport people all the time for overstaying their visas or entering the country illegally.
Keep in mind that most of Europe has open borders between the countries, just like state to state in the US. However, when I crossed the Norwegian/Swedish border they were stopping all trucks and allowing auto traffic through. This may have been to pay customs fees, but I don't know.
I've crossed several other European borders as well and it has always been like going from one US state to another.
Easy to say what one is for and against on a simple level but looking deeper one has to understand why people are running to get away, and to be here. Desperation, a familiar story. We have granted asylum at times more easily.
Look at prejudice, ignorance selfishness. We now have divided leadership, a divided country regarding immigrants altogether, and how we should treat them. Immigrants have, like the Jews of Europe, taken the brunt of the blame for people's discontent in their lives. And this has taken advantage of politically here. This is not a simple question nor have we dealt with the effects of this discord within this country about immigrants, now for decades. How our grandparents ( mine too, at the same time, from the same place in Eastern Europe) happened to get here,*their* circumstance taken to account, and then were welcomed with open arms, is a different America than we have now. We were fortunate to have grandparents come here at that time.
Bill you might be interested in this video by a history professor of Lithuanian descent, Dr, William Gudelunas. In it he describes the 1924 Imagination Control Act quotas. Legal Lithuanian immigration was capped at 344 people per year. He is thankful that his ancestors arrived before the new quotas. I found his videos by accident. In my opinion, he is a very entertaining presenter. One of the hallmarks of his style, is that he urges the audience to look at the history of a period through the societal norms and customs of the time period rather than impose today's norms upon them . I think you would like his presentations which are offered via the Rancho Mirage Library & Observatory's YouTube channel. Here is the link to the one about the Roaring Twenties which covers immigration law changes of that time period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDrUcBK33AM
Yes, the 1924 act prevented emigration from southern European nations because these nations were not considered "desirable" as northern European nations.
So he opens the door to the rest of his life.
Bill, I'm inclined to agree with you, but I am disturbed by our inability to work on a rational system to deal with immigrants, asylum seekers and itinerant workers. Proposals that would improve the system have been presented. One party seems to be unable to organize strong support for immigration policy. The other party would rather "run" on the issue rather than solve it. It's disgustingly awful domestic and foreign policy.
You are right Bill - Legal and controlled immigration is best for our country allowing our country to grow and thrive.
You do know that non-citizens do have Constitutional rights and protections, right, including rights to asylum hearings? These rights are being violated daily by this administration. Do you approve of that?
How dare you. Do you have no shame?
Ya, we know.
I asked a legitimate question and you chose not to answer.
Ya, we know.
Both sides of my family emigrated from Slovakia in the early 1900s through Ellis Island bringing their mining skills to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, then moving to Detroit for the auto industry. Immigration makes America great. [Please check out our June 2025 post on Immigration at: oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]
jimcynfinnell,
My father's side of my family migrated to the USA to spread the Methodist faith at the direction of John Wesley, my mom's side moved to the USA to escape poverty and religious persecution from the northern part of England in the 1600's.
I know nothing of my family but hard work and steadiness. My mom's family were and are a very strict and successful people. My dad's family are a great mix of kind and generous, more outgoing who also follow the faith, support Duke University in Durham, NC ( as do some within my mom's family).
My husband's family is from Iowa and are a mix of English, French and German.
As you can imagine, his family are made up of stubborn, tough, hard working, no-nonsense, faithful and productive persons. Many are engaged in the huge business of agriculture in some form.
THANKS TO YOU AND YOURS ....AS I AM THANKFUL FOR MY FAMILY....TOGETHER! WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!!!
We just returned from the Yucatan where the conquerors repeatedly used the excuse that the subjugated had no souls to justify using and abusing people. Miller and others in charge are treating current immigrants in America as though they don't have souls. [oneclick2betterworld.substack.com]
I agree. Legal and controlled immigration.
You are right Bill - legal and controlled immigration - where it's not about numbers but about people who are protected by the rule of law [oneclick2betterworld.substack.com].
My mother's mother was born in New York Harbor. My father's German (Ukraine) family escaped Russia and moved to Canada. We are indeed a country of immigrants.
Marlene, here is an article in the Guardian which talks about the history of New York and how Mamdani fits that history.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/01/zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-antisemitism?utm_term=6957b3418331ecf63d5983f5c6e50fcb&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email
Mamdani is giving people around the world hope, just as Lady Liberty did. I was at the grocery store in Germany the other day and a Korean-German woman was saying how Mamdani gave her hope for the US. If we can have hope for the US, we can have hope for the world. Mamdani's inauguration speech in which he referred the Frank Sinatra song telling us that NYC can be a beacon of light for others. NYC gives us hope.
I was once on a sailboat that entered New York Harbor about midnight. We motored up to Lady Liberty, turned hard to port (left) and anchored two or three hundred yards away. What an experience! (As was waking in the morning with her over my shoulder.)
Marlene, I'm almost 83, and growing up we knew many people who'd escaped the Holocaust. Every one of them was solid, smart, and hard-working. From a very early age, I knew that I was very fortunate to live in "the land of the free." Had our country been more welcoming to Jews and other oppressed souls, we could have saved more. Still, the intelligence and grit of these newcomers helped to build this country into the most powerful country in the world.
Lady Liberty inspired millions and still does, despite our many warts. I hope that we are able to repair the damage done by those children of immigrants past who choose to forget their ancestors.
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
Makes me proud to be a New Yorker!
Uh… according to tonight’s HCR post, Republicans have been exploiting racism to win elections since 1880. Furthermore, Reagan is the one who peefected the Nixon/Atwater Southern Strategy, putting it firmly in place. I think it’s fair to say that Republicans could not have won a single presidential election since 1968 without using racist dog whistles to signal their promise to preserve the advantages of white Americans, a promise they have delivered on, thereby securing the votes of a 15-point to 20-point majority of white votes in every presidential election since 1968.
You forget the elections in the 1920s where the Republicans all bowed to the KKK - a national organization then that paraded in Washington DC - and passed the immigration restriction act of 1924. Everything bad about America has come from Republicans since 1868. Like Harry Truman observed in 1948, "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
When Lincoln was killed, his Republican Party was killed as well. Racist dog whistles have permeated every election since, seems to me. The ones since Ike, I witnessed and called out. Time to bury the long dead spirit of Abe or honor him with a new party. His “republicans” turned traitor long ago.
Ignorance shows once again. KKK was a Democrat thing.
Well, if you want to go with ignorance, using a noun instead of an adjective to describe the Klan is demonstrative. You can add to that lacking the knowledge that the Republicans flipped the Klan with their "southern strategy" to bring the "Dixiecrats" (southern antebellum Democrats*) into the Republican Party is also demonstrative.
Not only the Republicans. Until LBJ (maybe Kennedy) the South was the Solid South, Segregationist Democratic. That switched when LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed.
Dixiecrats caucused with Democrats, but Dixiecrats were not Democrats. They just called themselves by that name. Think Manchin but way worse, of course. Democrats made some ugly compromises to maintain ther coalition with Dixiecrats, but that’s the way the sausage is made in every democracy, world wide. Sometimes you have to hold your nose to keep the bastards out of power. Unfortunate, but that’s the way it works.
I don't think Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 won due to the "racist dog whistles" you claim they used. Think about McGovern, Carter, and Dukakis as candidates that did not persuade the voters they had the right policies. Trump has certainly won using the immigration issue, but when Biden had 12 million or more people immigrating into the US illegally during his tenure he helped hand a strong issue to the Republicans. Republican governors were wise politically to send some of them to the northern cities before the election, to let everyone see it was an expensive and unmanageable situation. And it was not unfair for them to do that, since those cities thought unlimited immigration was a good thing.
No one ever thought that unlimited immigration was a good thing. Every Dem presidential candidate was demonized, and starting with Nixon, Republicans had decided that dirty tricks was the way to go. I remember, although Woodward and Bernstein were the last ones to dig up the dirt, or even to see the mounds where the dirty tricks were buried (Reagan and Iran, Nixon undermining Johnson’s peace initiatives, Rove’s master level dirty tricks). It’s been a shit show long before chump. More of the same “rewrite” is just gift-wrapped propaganda.
You got that right, bro.
Hey I’m supposed to be sleeping. Dag.
What would this world be like today if throughout history every person had stayed in their birthplace?
A mind-boggling thought. I have a bro who had never been out of NC but once. Almost a time capsule…
As an intelligent resident of flyover country I recognize that most of us have a few problems. Much of the area was settled before Ellis Island and many families were in other parts before Castle Garden. The northern portion of flyover country never had slavery by law and the more uninformed seem to think they have no responsibility for institutions that don’t benefit them personally even though they vote for people who do. Since flyover country is populated by people who couldn’t or didn’t leave and people with success or education tend to move out there is both resentment and fear of losing contact with educated or successful children and neighbors. Immigrants are necessary to make up for declining population but are feared and resented for being different especially by people who don’t move. They don’t think the Civil War was about black people so much as they identify with Lincoln and victory and vote Republican. Keep insulting us and they will stay MAGA forever. On the other hand most people here have some intelligence and many of us are Democrats who never receive any funding so we don’t win so we never receive funds. The most important thing to do is vote Blue.
@Janis -- most of flyover country was farm-labor.
E.G. Until relaatively recently, N. Dak had Democratic senators Byron Dorgan, Heidi Heidcamp, Kent Conrad. South Dak - Tom Daschle, Tim Johnson.
Check out What's the matter with Kansas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_Matter_with_Kansas%3F_(book)
Politics shifted from social and economic equality to the use of "explosive" cultural issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, which are used to redirect anger toward "liberal elites."
Against this backdrop, Frank describes the rise of political conservatism in the social and political landscape of Kansas, which he says espouses economic policies that do not benefit the majority of people in the state.
Frank also claims a bitter divide between "moderate" and "conservative" Kansas Republicans (whom he labels "Mods" and "Cons") as an archetype for the future of politics in America, in which fiscal conservatism becomes the universal norm and political war is waged over a handful of hot-button cultural issues.
Memories are short. Remember that there was a bipartisan immigration bill proposed during the Biden administration?
Trump insisted it be killed.
And Trump was able to do that because the vast majority of white voters in the flyover supported him with fierce ferocity.
Robert, your claim of 12 million people immigrating illegally under Biden is untrue. So is your claim that "northern cities ... thought unlimited immigration was a good thing." Apparently, my memory is a little better than yours. Mayors in Chicago, New York and other major cities were begging Congress to revise immigration laws and provide financial relief for cities receiving large numbers of immigrants. Republican controlled Congress refused, at Donald Trump's behest.
Shocking revelation: Republicans lied about the figures to win elections.
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/breaking-down-the-immigration-figures/
You're wrong. Nixon would not have won without the Southern Strategy of bringing in the unreconstructed Confederate white supremacists of the South. That was reinforced by each of the others.
Why don't you crawl back to Flyover Loserville with the rest of the inbred white mouthbreathers whose transported English pigfucker ancestors we should never have allowed in.
Really, is this insulting invective from you truly justified, needed, appropriate?
Thanks...
Was that really necessary? One thing I love about this community is the common courtesy we usually show one another.
I think Southerners in the late 1960's realized that the Dems didn't represent their values of limited govt. And about that time the Dems believed the power of govt should grow on steroids. In any case, I am glad your late wife successfully immigrated from Lithuania. My late wife's ancestors immigrated from Europe, anglicizing their last name to fit in. I will ignore your quick-comment profanity if you will try to stop disrespecting those of us who live in flyover country. The Founding Fathers had English ancestry, and I'm not going to apologize for their work in this country.
“Their values of limited government“ is but a dog whistle for government that doesn’t prioritize wealthy white men.
Robert, "limited government" is and always has been a smoke screen to conceal Southerners' real motivation: white supremacy.
If "limited government" is supposed to be a Republican principle, why has U.S. debt and deficit been increased under every Republican administration since the 1960s?
If "limited government" is the goal of Republicans, why do they keep inserting themselves into classrooms, bedrooms, courtrooms, churches and wombs?
If any party is responsible for "government overreach," that prize must go to Republicans.
Republicans believe limited government is best, which is why they try to limit the growth of govt spending more than Dems try to. R's want to leave more money in the hands of taxpayers. I don't believe that principle is a race-based issue or a strictly Southern issue. Dems are usually eager to spend more money because they think more programs are needed. I don't hear the Dems talking about any limits on the reach of govt. The record of both parties on the federal debt is a bad one. (You've noticed that Sen. Paul votes no on bills increasing the debt.) I don't think R's are involved in bedroom issues anymore. They do oppose abortion because they consider it taking a life, overriding concerns about "limited govt." Maybe the current system of state-by-state laws on abortion will be left to work on its own for a while.
What 60% to 90% (depending on the state) of white voters in the flyover value most is white supremacist dominance of the economic, legal, and political systems. Democrats, most of them, have more humane goals. So yes, Democrats do not represent the “values” of the vast majority white people in the flyerover. Democrats (some more than others, Dixiecrats being the worst) did sympathize with white supremacist “values” until about 1964. When Democrats stopped sympathizing with white supremacists, they lost the votes of white supremacists. People who vote to preseve white supremacist “values” don’t deserve respect. That’s why Democrats don’t respect them.
Yep. Nixon won primarily over Vietnam. Our protestors hammered at LBJ who happened to have become the most progressive leader in the mid 20th century. But he was a diehard anti communist from the cold war era. Eugene McCarthy would have made a fine president, lol. He was my pick. I always thought RFK was a moocher coming in late to take advantage of the anti war movement. McGovern couldn’t find a good VP. Our country is cooked like a country thanksgiving goose. What other good news would you like me to expel?
Nixon, Reagan, and Bush most certainly did use and win on racist dog whistles. The only Republican candidate since 1968 who didn’t was McCain, and he lost because he ran against the most charismatic politician since JFK. That, and Obama inspired the biggest turnout of black voters in history. Democrats need that kind of turnout to win again. Getting it, however, would require huge investment of money (billions) to manage a monumental, well-organized, get-out-the-vote effort. I don’t see that happening, but that’s where I put my money and effort, anyway. Been fighting these bastards since 1963. A few big wins but a lot more losses, to hugely detrimental effect, unfortunately. Truman’s assessment of Republicans, often cited by TCinLA, was and continues to be correct.
And don't forget dirty tricks. It was Lee Atwater who admitted on his deathbed that he entrapped Gary Hart and exposed him to public humiliation and thereby exit from public office. Of course let's not forget it was the Democrats who upheld slavery before Lincoln, and continued the proud tradition in Southern states until the Dixiecrats all became Republicans.
Yes, Republicans are masters of dirty trickery. However, Democrats today bear no relation to Democrats in the 1800s nor Dixiecrats in the South. Republicans today bear no relation to pre-1880 Republicans, but Republicans since 1880 have put white supremacist beliefs at the center of their platform.
Never forget Lee Atwater. His spirit is hard at work
Unfortunately many evil spirits are being resurrected by the US Dept of Necromancy
Indeed they are, the arses die but their evil can be resurrected by new iterations. Who would think that 80 years after Ike, Adolf would be popular again.
oi
What Republicans understand and Democrats ignore is what HCR just described: a LEGAL and supervised policy. Let me give you a quote from someone you may recognize and likely admire:
"The American people are a welcoming and generous people. But those who enter our country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States UNDETECTED, UNDOCUMENTED, AND UNCHECKED. Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws."
Barack Obama April 3, 2006
And he was speaking of the relatively minor illegal issues that existed 14 years before Biden opened the flood gates.
The difference is that Democrats support legal immigration: what we DO NOT SUPPORT is the denial of due process and the intentional cruelty directed toward the immigrants ((documented and undocumented) AND citizens based on the color of their skin.
Democrats and Republicans had worked out an agreement on this issue and Trump told the Republicans to drop it...and they did. Trump wanted to keep immigration problems UNSOLVED so he could use it in his campaign.
Some of us have memories stretching back to Bush II, who presented to Congress a major overhaul of laws and procedures governing an increasingly broken immigration system in the 1980s. Most, but not all Democrats were supportive, recognizing the urgency of change. Most Republicans opposed it (gasp), preferring dumb demagoguery to real reform.
The world of “vermin” and “Haitians eating cats and dogs” the liars and loonies among us want us to accept as true simply doesn’t exist. It’s as fake as the demented 3-dollar bill in the White House claiming the bombing of boats off Colombia and Venezuela has is because of fentanyl.
This is the year we break through the lies, the stupidity, the false fronts and phony excuses for war and depravity. “Not in my name.”
'This is the year we break through the lies, the stupidity, the false fronts and phony excuses for war and depravity. “Not in my name.”'
High Five to This; thanks, ICTT.
Morning, Lynell! Well said.
Morning, Ally! It's like the glass half full scenario. I can now get my substack subscription emails, but am still struggling to get my computer to receive replies from the readers. So don't "worry" if you don't hear back from me. More still, there are things much worse than my pitiful struggles!
And some of us remember Reagan giving illegal immigrants amnesty.
I thought you had memories dating back to Charlemagne.
I never had any illusions about your age — about 4 1/2, going on 90 or so.
Really just buy his book...self promotion is so lame.
Ha ha ha. What’s a matter, can’t you get any sleep? You should read my book, Donald’s Vanity Tantrums. It would be an adjunct to your understanding of contemporary political life. Money back guarantee l
You would think voters would pay attention to that. It's like Nixon and Reagan keeping a crisis brewing so they could "solve" it. It's despicable. Due process is supposed to apply to everyone. I don't recall where in the Constitution it says that it doesn't, including the procedures applied by the chief executive.
The vast majority of white voters do pay attention to that, and they like it. They vote for Republicans because Republicans promise to preserve the advantages of white Americans, and Republicans deliver on that promise.
"We'll shaft you less than those other guys!"
Well said, TY
I am sure Democrats support legal immigration. The problem is they also support, even promote illegal immigration. Four years of open border with upward of 10,000,000 wandering around the country. Folks who we have no idea who they are or where they are.
Democrats and ONE Republican proposed a plan that would codify into law up to 5,000 per DAY before making any attempt to stem the flow. There was no way this plan was going to fly no matter what Trump said.
Is it our duty to be keepers of the gates or cheerful lenders of the helping hand? Robert B. Parker often had his character Jesse Stone observe that as Chief of Police he was not in the right and wrong business, but the legal and illegal business, and that there was a big difference between the two. We should find a way to do the right things first, and adjust the law to be supportive if that is needed. This thinking aligns well with Peter Singer's essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Morality and ethics, and the difference between right and wrong are not rooted in quotas, but rather in need.
You make some salient points, yes illegal immigration spiked under Biden and he was slow to stem the tide. Harris made an unforced error when she offered no regrets about the matter as if nothing was learned.
Yet, to say the Democrats promoted illegal immigration is a stretch. The kept the wall, increased the technology along the border, attempted to mitigate the causes of the mass immigration from Central and South America. What evidence is there they actively promoted illegal immigration?
I don't think dems support illegal immigration. The issue is taking care of poor people displaced from Central America due to inhumane and illegal behavior from the US that has led to the breakdown of these counties: things like regime change and the insatiable desire for drugs from north of the border.
And soon we will be those immigrants fleeing this insane regime in America.
Biden did not open the floodgates. Don't get your information from Fox. Biden struggled to control immigration while discontinuing Trump/Miller's deliberately cruel separation of children, some of them infants, from their parents, and keeping kids in cages. It took him a while, but the border was never open.
Meanwhile Vice-President Harris made deals with several Central American countries to take in immigrants from some of the disaster countries from which they were fleeing, thus reducing the pressure on the US border.
The US was a major promoter and is still a party to the UN Convention on Refugees, which requires contracting states to admit people with a reasonable fear of persecution at home for religious or political reasons. These are the people who claim 'asylum' - and they need to have their claims adjudicated. That can be a slow process. The bipartisan bill agreed in the Senate in 2024 would have greatly increased resources for that process - but Trump preferred chaos and had his minions kill the bill.
The Moron-in-Chief of course deliberately - or stupidly, but Miller is not stupid - confuses 'asylum' for mentally ill people - most of whom are however not dangerous - with 'asylum' under the Refugee Convention.
"Biden struggled to control immigration while discontinuing Trump/Miller's deliberately cruel separation of children, some of them infants, from their parents, and keeping kids in cages. It took him a while, but the border was never open."
My understanding is that hundreds of deliberately "lost" children have yet to located. The magnitude of that crime has never been anywhere close to recognized by our society. We ignore great evil at our own peril.
Right. Many of the kids were so little they did not know their parents' names except as 'mommy' and 'daddy' - so very hard to reunite them with the parents, who were often deported while the kids were still held in the US.
Cruelty is the point. That’s not my line, it’s the Republican line.
The point was to be so cruel that potential immigrants would not come to the US because such horrible things would be done to them. Not every country enforces its public policies by such tactics.
If one doesn't know the difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants, and legal asylum seekers and illegal asylum seekers, then that person has nothing to say that I want to hear on the issue. And that includes Trump and his cronies.
John Gregory, thank You for that. I wonder just how many US citizens have traveled to, lived in countries in South America? It appears to me ….ignorant of exact numbers….that ‘we’ tend to gaze toward Europe and more recently Asia as well
for our vacations, or moving to live in another country.
I happened to be lucky to be in a College dance company that was invited to Brazil in gasp 1961. We toured from San Paulo to Recife including Brazilia, then partially built with no real inhabitants, but already had ‘favelas’
where the workers lived. We also went to Venezuela en rte
home. Even then, it was obvious to all of us that the govt of Venezuela was trying to gut the middle class. We could see it, almost smell it. That hotel we stayed in was only a few years later bombed in a civil war.
The obvious poverty in both of those countries has stayed with me. However, Brazilians seemed far happier then. And many, now here are wonderful, productive & generous people, whom …at least I’ve experienced …have added to this country in multiple wonderful ways.
I stand on Biden opening the flood gates. Illegal crossings during Trump's last year were in the low thousands per month. On virtually day one, Joe reversed everything Trump had in place and allowed upwards of 5,000 per DAY. Approx 10 million illegal crossings in his four years. That's 10 million released into the country and we have no idea who they are or where they are. Open Flood Gates is the only accurate description.
It doesn't take new laws to control the border. All it takes is the will to enforce existing law.
Don't get your data from Fox. The number of border crossings by 2024 was lower than in Trump's last year. And many of the people who did cross were not simply 'released into the country'. They came with asylum applications and they report to border control regularly while their cases are pending.
ICE is doing the horrific injustice of arresting a lot of these people AT THE COURTHOUSE (or the Immigration office) while they are taking legal steps to regularize their status under US law. They even dragged people out of a citizenship ceremony recently when the people were minutes away from becoming citizens. What possible public policy is served by that kind of cruelty? Who is being protected?
Biden didn't "open the floodgates," you MAGAt Piece of Shit. Go crawl back to Flyover Loserville where you belong with the rest of the inbred mouthbreathers we shouldn't have let in.
Now that was sure enlightening. How long did it take you to think of it? I bet you keep this as a boilerplate so you don't have to re-learn how to type it each time
Just keep on drinking your Fox News BS where everything Trump fucked up during Trump 1 was just fine. Thanks for playing mad hatter. Blocked now with the other ignorant MAGAs.
Trash. Fox News about Biden.
That's very useful. Anything specific to offer? If not, why do you waste life minutes you'll never get back?
Please let’s remember who scuttled the bi-partisan immigration bill spearheaded by Republican Senator Langford. Had it been passed and signed into law by President Biden, we most likely would not be having this conversation. Thinking of the families and lives destroyed by the current administration’s reign of terror, those spineless cowards who “obeyed in advance” and voted for cruelty and hatred to gain power should never again be allowed to represent any constituent. I look forward to truth and reconciliation hearings (and consequences).
Immigrants would not come here if American employers would not hire them. PERIOD.
We need to go after the EMPLOYERS. They are as guilty as the undocumented workers…more so in that the workers are working to survive by doing hard labor for low wages. The employers are willing to hire the undocumented because it is cheap labor that they can exploit.
We should publicly condemn those employers and hold them accountable.
or accept that there are a lot of jobs that Americans won't do, at the wages that the employers pay (and there may not be a market for goods and services produced at a higher pay level). There is very close to full employment in the US (or was at the end of Biden's presidency), so the immigrants are not 'stealing' Americans' jobs, they are doing work that needs to be done.
before Biden opened the flood gates
Documentation?
And of course Republicans persisted in refusing to fund proper border control and thereby exacerbated the problem to win political points, way before Trump sleazed his way onto the scene.
My late wife always loved telling the story of how she came to America, age 3, with her family - Lithuanian refugees. She was born after the war in a refugee camp because her mother spoke German well enough to convince an SS Officer that the family were "Volksdeutsch" and should be evacuated from Lithuania ahead of the arrival of the Red Army. They came to America on a troopship with 6,000 other refugees. The first thing she saw when they arrived in New York and she looked out the porthole of their compartment was the Statue of Liberty.
Grateful Americans from the git go. Unlike Rupert who came to dismantle and give us destruction as entertainment.
It is madness -- the images of Kristi Puppy-Killer Noem and Stephen the Ghoul Miller dancing to 'Ice Ice Baby' made me want to vomit.
My paternal & maternal grandparents immigrated from Italy & entered the US at Ellis Island. My parents were the 1st generation born in the US. Dad worked for old "Ma Bell" and wired most of the main telephone lines during the construction of the World Trade Center towers. While reading this letter, I couldn't help but think how perverted the Party of Lincoln has become. If Pres Lincoln were to visit us today, I'm sure WTF would be his 1st words.
As HCR pointed out in today’s post, the perversion of the Republican Party started at least as early as 1880, shortly after the most consequential assassination in US history.
So true, the party was assassinated too
White racist right-wingers are fully welcome.
With the same agenda as Rupert, destroy or control…
NYC's population today is 40% immigrants. NYC has the lowest murder rate of any of the Big US cities and the longest life expectancy. What a Hell hole city!!!
So correct: “bigotry bordering on madness” Who have we become?🥺😢
It has been here all along. Timothy Egan's book, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest (Indiana, Ohio, etc.) is an excellent read, leaving no doubt in my mind that MAGA and the white Christian nationalists that support's Trump's attempt to overthrow the Constitution and install a dictatorial theocracy are today's KKK, aka MAGA.
Yes. Thank you for your plain-speak identifying the close relationship between the KKK and MAGA. I will check out the Egan book. I continue to struggle yo understand how we got here.
Here here! My ancestors have been arriving on the shores of America in the early 1600s. Many in the mid 1800s must have arrived and processed through the facility that burned to the ground, which would explain why I find no arrival records for them. I’ve visited both Lady Liberty and Ellis Island with my daughter when she was 11. It was quite a day.. knowing my existence was only possible because of the opportunity for immigration through that physical portal made it very hallowed ground for me. It’s magical for me, yet in its day, an unimaginable hurdle for so many. 🩵
I am only alive because my mom came here through Ellis Island as well. My husband is an immigrant as well, which is why my daughter is alive. It is so historically ignorant to be anti-immigrant. Donald Trump has had 2 immigrant wives, and JD Vance's in-laws are immigrants. Why do they not acknowledge that immigrants do good and are needed as President Lincoln did?
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When I lived in Italy, I didn’t register to vote but now I know I could have.
Me. too. My maternal grandfather, Alexander Richter, a teenager at the time, and his family came through Ellis Island not long after it was opened. Alex married my grandmother, Pearl Adams. descended from the Samuel Adams side of the family. My mom was born on Dec. 13, 1906. Her parents divorced, leaving my mom as an only child, to be raised by her maternal grandparents. My mom hated being an only child, so she had seven of us. Simply put, she was the greatest mom the world has ever known.
Annabel, "What a sad descent into bigotry bordering on madness…” is itself powerful poetry.
Again -that hatred ,racism,and greed took ,by far , the precedent. Denying facts stands blatantly obvious in today’s ongoing struggle . That we document,observe and resolve mass migration…usually comes down to what have they got we need-not how to solve the problem already apparent through careful deliberation of fact.
Such a concise explanation , Heather’s research and understanding present real issues still plaguing societies , not just here either.
But….here we are still… conscience speaking , compassion derived from lawful management,still fighting for balance in mankind. Balance for the lessers from the robber barons , the pin-hookers, the greedy . And so explains the want to demolish the Office of business/protection management (etc.) ….👏 Laws made set aside, manipulated, construed..those many “what he/they really meant to say ..” the law not clearly enough defined? Principle be dammed or ‘being damned’…are what’s waste of following the money versus the naked truths.
I do so love a great story.
TY, Heather🫶
Ahhh, the history of immigrants coming to America. The one thing we rarely talk about, sadly, is that the immigrants coming here were processed by OTHER IMMIGRANTS!
Only Native Americans are the non-immigrants amongst us.
We are all undocumented invaders unless we or our ancestors were adopted by one of the nations of the first humans to cross the Behring straits to settle in North America
My ancestors probably came here from some “shithole” part of Yorkshire, then probably married some ‘wretched refuse’ fleeing the Irish potato famine a few generations later. I doubt they had the ‘proper papers’ back then. At some point, I’m the product of “illegal immigration” yet somehow I managed to get an education, find work, paid taxes and even sworn an oath to defend the Constitution — which I took seriously — unlike the prevaricating, demented criminal now in the White House.
Mine too- and many of today’s refugees from Latin American poverty, dictators and climate change ruining their farm land probably don’t have the $ to hire an immigration lawyer or the time to wait safely for legal processing before crossing
It is a mine field of bureaucratic bullschittery, just like everything is becoming these days. And repubs wanting to cut and simplify regulations is just a smoke screen to fool us suckers and losers.
I’ve never heard of a Republican wanting to “cut immigration red tape.” They like it, it seems.
Republican idea of cutting red tape is to send ICE after immigrants and deport them.
Tita, it is clear to me that those who speak against immigrants do not have a clue about what is happening south of us or how we aided and abetted the mess. They all claim they would not come here undocumented, as an illegal as they always put it. Just this last week I told one woman that she has no idea what she would do in desperate circumstances.
Mine, too ICTT. Potato famine for sure on my Mom's side, and most likely some English and Scottish scum on my Dad's side.
Scots 'troublemakers' on my Mom's side. On the family tree there is a small group of people all born in the same area of Scotland, the next generation were born in the same county in Northern Ireland (The dates match up with some of the 'Removals' when the British moved the 'troublesome Scots' to Ireland to put them farther from England and to build up the Protestant population of Northern Ireland.) The next generation of that branch of the family were all born in Connecticut. Good thing no one was keeping 'troublemakers' out of the US back then.
Shirley, and not all of my ancestors were sterling characters. My great grandfather, born in Kentucky, and living in Stamping Ground, was a murderer and a horse thief. He ran off to Indiana and married under a false name. He was hard to track down once my cousin and I were doing genealogy.
It's, I don't know how many of mine were legal, but they were certainly coming for a better life. On my paternal side I have lots of German ancestry. I look upon myself as living on stolen land which is why I try to take care of it without piles of chemicals.
My grandparents came from Belarus and Russia I believe. My grandfather used to sleep in the fields he was so tired. Some how two people from 2 different countries met and married. I believe they went through Ellis Island, but I am not sure they were citizens.
I’d like to hear more about that…sounds very interesting and it.is.fact. TY
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
That's a good point that hadn't occurred to me. Immigrants processed by immigrants. :-)
Thanks. 👍
💯
Even they emigrated, but they were the very first, and by far the most established. They truly discovered the place.
I prefer "First Peoples" to "Native American". That is how Canada refers to its indigenous population. First, the people who lived here before Europeans weren't really "Native". Their ancestors didn't evolve here. They immigrated from elsewhere, just like the rest of us. They simply did it thousands of years before modern Europeans. Second, they aren't "Americans". They had established cultures with their own names long before modern Europeans named this continent.
The treaties with the US identify indigenous people as "Indians", so it is important to keep that name on some level.
The treaties were as disingenuous as the name they applied to the First People.
As we all know, history is written by the victors and remains the "truth" until the victims become the victors.
Look at how we treat the American Indians. I think I have found the basis of our inhumanity to others not born here.
Yes. The concept of “manifest destiny” could only be conceived of by people who think they are chosen by God to do what they are doing. They don’t understand the concept that we are ALL God’s children (if you believe in God). And if you don’t… try on “We are all part of the same human family”. No one is “destined” to rule over anyone else. We are meant to be partners!
While it took the European “discoverers” some time to realize that they had not reached India but rather an entire continent that stood in their way, the people they found on that continent had, most likely, crossed onto it from Asia by way of the North Pacific land bridge and/or pacific islands. So calling them Indians was not all that inaccurate.
Think of that phrase so often: “Give me your tired, your poor,” it’s as though we are meant to embrace immigrants, to hold them, to allow them to flourish, to give them rest, to allow them to provide for a better way of life. We’re supposed to be the open arms, not the ones who pull them from their homes, their jobs, their cars, their schools. Yet here we are…
Hoping 2026 is full of light. Thank you, Professor HCR for the history lesson it’s always good to be reminded often as to who we are suppose to be… a country of immigrants..
Diversity is our greatest strength. How fitting that an immigrant is now mayor of New York City, home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! Let’s keep singing the no kings anthem together at protests in 2026: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
The phrase fits well with the Sermon on the Mount.
YES. One of our key goals for 2026? Brighten the flame on the Statue of Liberty. Let the Light drive out the darkness of 2025.
I came through Ellis Island in 1954. We emigrated from France and arrived on La Liberté. I became a naturalized citizen in 1960, when my parents were naturalized. There is nothing about being able to live here that I take for granted. My children and grandchildren were all born here. It’s our home. Yet I wonder if the day will come where I am sent back to France (or somewhere) because I vocally oppose trump and his policies. I know I’m not the only immigrant who wonders about that.
Hell, they can go back and deport anybody on any trumped up charges. It is government run amok. Anybody who speaks out is a target, including this big blabbermouth. Republicans have become the Trojan Horses of evil. Especially the hypocritical “Christians.’
Not for long, JD. This is the year it really unravels. The stinking doddering demented old criminal blob of shit wandering around the West Wing at 2 AM, tiny little thumbs tapping away spewing his lies and bullshit, will become so decrepit they won’t be able to keep him propped up any longer. Once he’s been dispatched, not even Gruppenfuhrer Miller can keep this evil circus going. The rest of them will scurry like rats off a sinking ship. That’s my New Year’s dream/delusion. Better than the alternative.
John, nicely put and I hope it does unravel. I think we are seeing the start of that. I do want his last breath to be in public, so that they cannot use a dead body in secret to continue the destruction.
Help hold us accountable to treat our immigrant families better. They deserve better.
There’s a calendar on my spreadsheet so we can target our calls/letters/emails/faxes to flood offices in an organized manner.
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Nokings) as a resource to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
Add a comment to help keep this bumped ✊ New eyes seeing this means new ripples for change! 🤞
Thank you, Megan!
I am looking forward to the day when your speadsheet won't be needed as much as it is now. I am also anticipating the LARGE number of changes you'll need to make on it, as allllll those seats flip to BLUE!!
This is our year. This is our time. Karma is coming. Be patient all, but don't stop striving for even a moment.
I think I’ll have to put a big banner on it next November saying, “I’m a teacher and it’s almost the holidays, please give me grace as I change a LOT of information because hello blue wave!” 🤣
Megan, way to start the New Year!
Happy to not yet be asleep for her first post of the year! I do need to adjust my sleep schedule to be back at school instead of enjoying staying up late during winter break 🤪
The Nation of Immigrants, Now Featuring Bouncers
America has always loved a good origin story, especially when it involves plucky newcomers, hard work, and a conveniently edited memory. We tell ourselves that the United States was built by immigrants, then hire political arsonists to set fire to the archives. The current Trump administration approach to immigration does not merely forget history, it performs a full theatrical denunciation of it, complete with scapegoats, villains, and a cast of officials who appear deeply offended by the existence of their own grandparents.
Enter Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and Kristi Noem, the self-appointed guardians of a mythic America that somehow sprang fully formed from the soil, unencumbered by ships, borders, hunger, or desperate hope. In their telling, immigrants are no longer builders, laborers, or neighbors. They are threats. They are invaders. They are everything except what history insists they have always been.
That history begins, inconveniently for them, with a seventeen-year-old Irish girl named Annie Moore.
On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore stepped off a steamship at Ellis Island with her two younger brothers and became the first person processed at the new federal immigrant station. She was not greeted with slogans about poison blood or replacement theory. She was processed because the nation recognized a simple fact: people were arriving in enormous numbers, and it was better to meet them with order, translation, sanitation, and protection than with chaos and cruelty.
Before Ellis Island, there was Castle Garden, a state-run effort to do something radical for its time. It protected immigrants from swindlers, helped them buy train tickets, and ensured they did not starve on the docks of New York. This was not charity. It was infrastructure. It was governance with a memory longer than a cable news segment.
The people arriving then were fleeing famine, political repression, economic collapse, and war. Irish families escaping the Potato Famine. Germans fleeing failed revolutions. Chinese and Mexican laborers seeking opportunity in California. The same story, different accents.
The irony, of course, is that the loudest voices condemning immigrants today are standing on a foundation poured by immigrants yesterday. The factories, railroads, farms, and mines that built American wealth were powered by people who arrived with little more than names, calloused hands, and a willingness to work. The nation knew this. It said so out loud.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln told Congress that the country needed immigrants. He spoke plainly about labor shortages and opportunity, about people eager to come if the government would simply help them do so. Republicans of the era agreed. Their platform called for immigration to be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. Lincoln signed laws that protected immigrant workers and facilitated their arrival.
This was not naïveté. It was realism. It was economics. It was nation-building.
Then, as now, fear eventually arrived to spoil the party. Economic downturns turned neighbors into scapegoats. Racism hardened into law. The Chinese Exclusion Act made clear that American generosity had limits, and those limits were racial. Even then, however, the federal government did not pretend that the nation was not built on migration. It built systems like Ellis Island to manage it.
Ellis Island was not a free-for-all. It involved inspections, health checks, and questions about work and finances. Only about two percent of arrivals were ultimately denied entry. The goal was not exclusion for its own sake. The goal was integration with order.
And towering over it all was the Statue of Liberty, holding a torch, standing on broken chains, and offering a poem that could not be clearer if it tried. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This was not a metaphor. It was a policy aspiration carved in copper and stone.
Today’s anti-immigrant crusade pretends this legacy does not exist. Or worse, it reframes it as a mistake. The descendants of Ellis Island arrivals now sneer at asylum seekers. Officials whose surnames echo across old ship manifests speak as if migration is a modern disease rather than the original American condition.
The hypocrisy would be impressive if it were not so dangerous.
Demonizing immigrants in a nation built by them is not a strength. It is amnesia weaponized. It replaces governance with grievance and history with paranoia. It tells the world that the golden door is now guarded by men who have forgotten how their own families walked through it.
America does not need fewer immigrants. It needs fewer liars. It needs leaders willing to remember that the republic was not diluted by newcomers. It was created by them.
https://essayx.substack.com/p/the-nation-of-immigrants-now-featuring
New ripples for change. As the old ones fade away, new ones needed…
Thank You, Megan.
thank you!
Megan— Adding this comment to keep it bumped up!!
The White Christian Nationalists, if they read their Bible, would know that they were required to"love the stranger" and accord him the full protection of the Law.
Thank you, Heather. I long for the day when Emma Lazarus' poem has meaning in this country again, for we will open our borders and our hearts to all those who seek to join us in this great experiment. Happy New Year.
The poem did not speak to the Rupert’s or the muskrats.
Thank you. My grandmother came through Ellis Island at the age of 4. I always imagine her journey, the crowds, holding her mother or older sister’s hand as they waited to greet my great grandfather who had come a couple of years earlier. Their journeys and the opportunities in this country made my life possible. I work now so others can share that opportunity.
My father came from England at the age of six. My maternal grandfather from Austria. I recall a sixth or seventh grade history book with a chapter tiled something like "America, the Great Melting Pot".
Always loved the melting pot. A stew of wonderful ingredients with so many flavors, making one dish nutritious for all. Repubs are poisoning the pot and favoring banquets for the rich and gruel for us.
I stand with the words of Emma Lazarus. So does every real American.
I wonder. Trump won the 2024 election because he promised to clamp down on immigration and it has only been since his heavy-handed mass deportation policy that Americans have changed their minds on this.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx
There are many Americans - real Americans - who continue to support Trump on immigration and they could,easily chnage their minds again, as history shows they have often done.
As the professor's essay shows, there has always been a reality gap between the high-blown ideal of the 'golden door' and US immigration laws. There were similarly high levels of deportation under Obama and Biden without the levels of controversy Trump has managed to engender. Trump, of course, has his own version of the 'golden door'.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/trump-us-gold-card-visa-launch
Your point is excellent. However, there is no such thing in my mind as a real American who is a Trump supporter, as he is anti-Constitution. Our country is defined by the Constitution that set it apart from all others. To oppose it as Trump does makes him unAmerican. I believe the same of his supporters, have said so to some of them, and will continue to do do.
It appears to me that modern nominal "Republicans" have (in so many ways) gone full Orwell, and desire to dispose of the very republic from which they draw their name.
Feeding on Fox-type information produces bad citizens.
But “entertained” ones
No shit, Sherlock…
It's an entirely different kind of "gold".
Why do people immigrate to the United States? Generally speaking, many (most?) people come here to work. Yes, the wages my ancestors received were plenty low, but enough to live on and raise a family. Yes, immigrants are hoping for “better lives.” Some come from countries that discriminate against them, hunt them down and beat them, say nonsensical things like “They are eating our dogs and cats,” etc. The wages that many (most?) immigrants receive for their hard work are quite low, but better than what they had been able to earn “back home.” AND, the work gets done! The crops get planted and harvested, the cattle and the hogs and the chickens get butchered and packed up, the dishes get washed, etc. SO, are there other people/entities that benefit from the hard labor of the “poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free?” Yup, businesses benefit. Government can benefit too - increased tax rolls….
@Russell. Trump stole the election. We actually won. We had good messaging.
It's true that there are many sadists -- and that Trump is one of them.
Biden started his Administration with an open borders policy. He said "it's not who we are" to prevent refugees from flowing in. Voters didn't think he did enough to stop the flow. Trump has at least stopped the flow. Unfortunately, he's pretty much closed to door to an immigration policy that would let the US set criteria for who can come in, and the Administration is not just trying to deport the criminals or other bad guys.
There was no such thing as a Biden “open borders” policy in this country, nor has there ever been, save for pre-Civil War times. And *allowing* in people fleeing from persecution is exactly who we are — not an aberration. Our immigration system is overloaded and barely functional, due to Congress’ unwillingness to actually roll up its sleeves and create something that matches the challenge posed by the breakdown of law, order, economic, ecological and political stability, both in this hemisphere and elsewhere.
Millions come here to escape true calamity, both “legally” and “illegally.” The overwhelming majority come here to work, to pay taxes, to see their kids go to school. Even so, nobody out there is saying ‘let ‘em all in.’ All Trump has done is create bogeymen, violate habeus corpus, abrogated Congressional authority to himself, and filled the land with brute terror and clumsy, misplaced intimidation.
Not much of an achievement if you ask me.
No achievement at all. All chump does is create bogeymen.
No, low information voters believed that lie, preferring to believe “they’re eating the pets”.
Trump most likely hâtes immigrants because he hated his parents. They gave him no love so he has no love to give . At some time immigration needs to be controlled but imust be done in a just and caring way No matter what Trump would like us believe, no man or woman is garbage . That alone ought to
be ground for impeachment !
Emma Lazarus' poem is a fitting thought next to the Beatitudes.
Trump and Congress have all the levers and an opportunity to at least try to fix our immigration laws. Not with transient executive orders, not with overzealous illegal seizures, and not with political theater. If the laws are broken, pass better legislation. If the laws are fine, then Congress needs to appropriate more funds for the border and the courts. But most of us are tired of the scapegoating and gaslighting that goes on election to election; the blaming and empty promises that never seem to fix anything. As long as I can remember, candidates have claimed to have the answers for illegal entry, but nothing changes. Here's hoping 2026 brings us politicians of any persuasion who are sincere about their promise to fix things.
My rep, a MAGAT Cubana breaks on Trump immigration. https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-12-09/florida-congresswoman-maria-elvira-salazar-breaks-ranks-with-miamis-cuban-american-republicans-and-trump.html
That Trump veto re the Micosukee Tribe is a slap to another Miami Batiastiano Rep. who was born in Cuba and is a naturalized citizen.
Bipartisan Dignity Act.
https://problemsolverscaucus.house.gov/media/press-releases/problem-solvers-caucus-endorses-bipartisan-dignity-act
“As the husband of a naturalized American citizen, I’ve seen firsthand just how broken our immigration system is,” said Republican Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17). “I have said all along that parties have failed to fix this problem for decades and it is going to take both parties working together to solve it. That’s why I was proud to join Republicans and Democrats in introducing the Dignity Act — the first serious, bipartisan immigration reform proposal in over a decade. The Dignity Act will secure our porous border, create a process for those already here to pay restitution and integrate into American society, and fix our legal immigration system so that people who want to come here can do so and can contribute to our society, our economy, and our culture as immigrants have and always will. I’m glad to see this legislation endorsed by the Problem Solvers Caucus — a testament to its broad support as well as its ability to finally solve a problem that has evaded leaders for decades.”
Heather's podcast today covers exactly this same material on our immigration history.
As Annabel Ascher (first to post) says here, everything about America distills from how everyone coming here wanted whatever it was that made America different from all the source places.
Now, with the criminal demagogue and his crew reigning, we could do well to remember much more than just the Emma Lazarus poem. We could even ask, first day of 2026, that there be no more taking for granted that Dems running for office, podcasters, and other media figures remain so largely illiterate to virtually all the novels, songs, memoirs, and films that have answered to all the new and unique expectations from all the various immigrants.
Donald's ilk of powerful, organized interests have otherwise corrupted education – sidelined our many good teachers, so let's start this year by remembering the vitality Donald's criminal crew aims to kill:
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” “The Verdict,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Joan Didion’s “Where I Was From,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” Sarah Kendzior’s “The Last American Road Trip,” Tia Levings’ “A Well-Trained Wife,” Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”;
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America”; Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War,” and Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems, and those in the three volumes of Garrison Keillor’s “Good Poems”;
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” and any number of Bruce Springsteen or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
It's a chequered history, Phil. Ken Burns' masterly documentary 'The US and the Holocaust' shows that many desperate immigrants were turned away from the 'golden door'. Stephen J Gould's 'The Mismeasure of Man' describes the absurd IQ tests immigrants on Ellis Island were forced to take after a long and arduous sea journey to show that they were not 'feeble-minded' and that there was a strong disposition towards people from Nordic countries as opposed to immigrants from southern and eastern europe. Between 1933 and 1943, the US didn't even fill the quota for Germany. The US response to the Holocause severely challenged the romantic notion of America as a nation of immigrants.
All true, Russell, all you say.
Plus the 110,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated behind barbed wire in 10 inland America internment camps -- far from their homes along the Pacific coast, from which they'd all been forcibly uprooted. Rachel Maddow tells how groundless all of official America's fears and "reasoning" were at the time, in "Burn Order."
Let's call it not "a chequered history," but one continuously pitting decency (and life itself, in the case of Holocaust refugees) against mad officialdom, mad elites.
I think a chequered history is a good description. I don't know how the US compares to other countries in this regard. I do think we need not feel guilty about our overall record as a country that has upheld representative govt, the Constitution, and human rights better than most other countries. Maddow can second guess all she wants. (I know, Trump is degrading some of these things.) The US allows a foreign tourist, including wealthy ones, to come into our country to give birth in order to have the baby be a US citizen. That's way too accommodating, and it's wrong. But I wouldn't be surprised if SCOTUS upholds birthright citizenship in all situations. Most countries not in the Western Hemisphere do not allow birthright citizenship, or they restrict it.
Rachel isn't second guessing, Robert. She's writing history.
At the time of the Japanese-American incarcerations, many Americans let themselves be led by racist paranoia completely at odds with the truth. Worse, to kowtow to this, many of our otherwise finest elites joined in acting upon the evidence-free conspiracy theories.
That's why we need history that's honest, Robert.
One reason we have the criminal in office, and ruling the news virtually every day for ten years now, derives from schools stripped not only of the truths in humanities, but erased of history, too (and instead fed the offend-nobody pabulum of the corporate-packaged textbooks). Republicans created swagger and arrogance based on lies, and Dems from the largely humanities-empty schools had virtually no ammo to answer the fear, paranoia, and hatreds.
Honest history, how I wish some who lean so far that they change who they are, would hardly recognize themselves.
I agree that the incarcerations during WWII were wrong. As were the FDR's too tepid steps to allow European Jews to immigrate to the US. I only learned of the 1921 Tulsa massacre in 2021, 100 yrs after the fact. Yes, the US has made some bad mistakes on racial issues. But I think many other countries don't obsess about our mistakes from previous centuries as much as we do. We have other problems to address besides race relations, and I think we have made a whole lot of progress on the issue compared to 1940, that we should be proud of. Unfortunately some people think every issue we have is a race issue. And more generally, we should have some caution in judging actions of our leaders nearly 100 years ago, and remember that 100 years from now, Americans of all stripes will be critical of steps we take today or in 2030, because they are not standing in our shoes.
Maybe they'll then have some good history, Robert, of which to avail themselves.
My 18 year old maternal grandmother arrived at Ellis Island from Finland in 1905. She said she was afraid they would find her physically unfit, but she was accepted and went on to marry another Finn, have 8 children, and loved her adoptive country fiercely until she died at 102. Her story is woven into my feelings about belonging, and building a just country/community for everyone.
Both my paternal and maternal grandparents came to the US from Finland. I don’t know when they arrived, but it had to be late 19th or early 20th century. I know they worked hard and were never a burden on the US. The deportation of immigrants without due process is unacceptable and un-American.
Addendum to my previous comment:
My mother's parents came to America around 1915 from Budapest, Hungary. My father's parents arrived around the same time from Odessa, Ukraine. I am second generation Hungarian / Ukrainian-American.
But I still wish a day would come when a National Declaration of Immigration Truth would be declared... and that all Native Americans would receive compensation for having had their land stollen from them.
(You'll note that the terms of treaties signed by the US government with Native tribes were regularly broken... an early example of how trusting the word of the US government is frequently not a good idea... see: the "guarantee" of Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons.)
One of the best songs on topic is “Geronimo’s Cadillac “ by Michael Murphy 1972. Stirring. But Jim Ringer did a much more soulful version of it. He was Mary MaCaslin’s husband.
You can easily find Jim Ringer and Geronimo’s Cadillac on YouTube. Not live but he does a magnificent performance with it. Unfortunately he died of booze and didn’t take care of his wife Mary who was a sweetheart folk singer spirit. I never saw her but wish I had the opportunity to perform at her feet last days on earth. She lived in California and I’m in CT.
Per HCR “Republicans realized they had to court anti-Chinese votes in California after a razor-thin loss there in 1880, lawmakers turned back to the issue.” So, Republicans have been using racism to get elected since 1880. I didn’t realize that they needed it that soon but am not surprised that they went that route as soon as they saw it would work, and they’ve really leaned into it since they implemented the Southern Strategy in 1968, perfected it in 1980, and have been successfully winning elections with it ever since.
Well, the racism in our elections preceded 1880, that’s an interesting point she referenced though and I’m glad to know it. Perhaps since then the dogwhistling allowed both parties legitimacy to white-identifying voters who found more overt racism offensive. Our racism goes all the way back to the forced migration of native peoples and we are STILL denying many the land of their ancestors. A lot of immigrants have Native American ancestry and imo should be granted citizenship on those grounds. Our boarders are an illusion, and I’m not really saying that some frame for understanding territory doesn’t make sense, but what fake-history frame are we even talking about?
And then of course, there is the forced migration and enslavement of the African Americans who BUILT the country.
When we do amend the constitution to define Immigration, Territory and Citizenship I think education requirements as well as reparation outlines are essential. And no more importing extra racism when we have enough of our own home grown to root out. What are these alien billionaires doing anyway?
I disagree, but it's important to understand, I think, that voters don't usually vote based on a single issue. Taxes, foreign policy, health care, education are all important issues. And people who voted against open borders are not necessarily racist or against Hispanics.
Of course, at least in my lifetime, our borders have always been controlled. Controlled well enough, probably not, and at some point control begins to mess with public liberty. There is surely room for improvement, but remedies that involve people are not always simple. Trump is wreaking havoc and trashing international relationships. "Open" borders is a slogan not a reality.
The issues you cite pale in comparison to racism for many voters. The prez has destroyed our foreign relations, thrown scraps to the working and middle classes re: taxation, works to destroy public health and education. Yet his followers stick with him. Racism and hate are all they have.
Plenty are, even those on here who keep up the pretense of rational racism…
@Robert Gray. I can introduce you to hundreds, if not thousands of single issue voters -- mostly on abortion.
The genius of the Nixon southern strategy was to identify and elevate those folks.
Sounds like you drank the kool -aid.
Politicians on the Right and the Left do try to push our buttons on single issues. I get fundraising emails from both sides doing that, all the time. And many times they'll go to a different issue if that's too tired or not working. I'm not sure the Dems don't get more benefit from the abortion issue than the R's. The last time I drank kool-aid I was 11.
Admit "that voters don't usually vote based on a single issue" is BS.
Sorry, I'm free to disagree. For what little it's worth, nobody I know votes based on a single issue... and good for them. I'm sure there's been a lot of political science studies and papers on this, people can look at those if they want.
Republicans should be asked “When and from where did your immigrant ancestors arrive here?” and “What would you inscribe on the Statue of Liberty?”
Three of my grandparents came through Ellis Island.
They sure don’t make Republicans like they used to, do they?
You mean since the day Abe lost his life to a murderous demagogue.
HEH! HEH! HEH!
Two questions
1. In 2026, why does it take a force funded by a bill purposely passed by both parties that is larger than the armies of many nations and our own USMC to "protect" citizens from non-citizens?
2. Once all the "dangerous" non-citizens have been deported, what happens to an unconstitutional federal army (dubbed "police") occupying our cites, neighborhoods, and homes? What is its intended purpose?
Police state, Ed.
Donald can see from his pal dictators and demagogues how nicely one can keep power, and tighten screws wherever one likes, if police, military, and secret police freely roam.
Both very good questions and a crucial topic in and of itself.
I've had these questions of why our two parties were militarizing our police forces for years, but moreso after so much funding was passed by TWO parties months ago to create ICE. It seemed more about controlling citizens than protecting them from non-citizens. Even before ICE, the police of no nation killed its own citizens at the rates police kill them in the USA, It makes sense to me if an oligarchy doesn't value rank and file citizens and sees us as "the enemy.". Do citizens or oligarchs control none, one or both parties?
My view is that they're both controlled by oligarchs. It's all about the money. Republican or Democrat, it's beginning to look like it doesn't matter.
Yeah the money sloshing in our elections is dizzying to the point of nausea. How many malnutritioned children do you suppose we could properly feed with that wasted money that currently pollutes our airwaves with vitriol and obfuscation?
It’s not even the illusion of a representative democracy anymore.
@Nuhfer. Still speaking for Putin? Dividing us to conquer us?
Daniel. Take a logic course. Rhetorical questions and ad hominem attacks don't address questions.
In my early morning haze I read your comment as "a cruel topic." That, too.
Happy New Year, Professor Richardson!
This is the history that some of us learned and some of us didn't.
Thank you for filling in the gaps.