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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Maybe There *Are* Limits to Xenophobia As A Political Weapon?

Open Thread: Maybe There *Are* Limits to Xenophobia As A Political Weapon?

by Anne Laurie|  October 23, 20189:55 pm| 17 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Immigration, Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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public service from Shep Smith of Fox News:
“President Trump is calling caravan a national emergency, claiming criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. important note: Fox News knows of no evidence to suggest he’s accurate, and POTUS has offered no evidence” 1/2

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 22, 2018

And not just the ‘News’ side of Fox. Per the Washington Post, “A ‘Fox & Friends’ voter panel rebels when asked about the migrant caravan”:

Steve Doocy was about 30 seconds into Monday’s episode of “Fox & Friends” when he announced a Fox News alert.

“The migrant caravan in Central America is growing,” Doocy said when the alert graphic stopped obscuring his face…

Doocy brought out a panel of four people identified as independent voters and asked about the caravan.

“It’s north of apparently 7,000 people strong,” Doocy told the first independent voter, Michael Willner. “How big a problem is that, that the United States has uneven immigration laws?”

“I think uneven immigration laws are a problem for any country, and I think our immigration laws need to be modernized and updated,” Willner said.

“But this country is founded on immigration,” he continued. “And all of us come from immigrants.”

Doocy tried again.

“By the time it gets here, it could be 10,000. It could be 20,000,” he said. “What should the United States do?”

“This is the mightiest country on the planet,” Willner replied. “I think we can handle a caravan of people, unarmed, coming to this country.”

“Okay,” Doocy said, pointing to the second independent voter. “Cathy: real quick.”

“I think the immigration crisis we’re seeing is a result of the failure of the two democratic parties to actually engage the issue,” said Cathy Stewart, a vice president with Independent Voting…

“Sure,” said Doocy. And, moving on: “John, real quick.”

But John Opdyke continued the previous independent voters’ line of thought.

“There’s a humanitarian crisis taking place in Central America, and yet this issue gets turned into a complete political football,” he said. “There’s very little honest discussion about what’s actually happening.”

“And Aaron?” Doocy said. His voice had fallen to something like a raspy whisper.

“Treating this as an ‘invasion’ is a bad idea, and it’s going to end horribly if it is treated such as that way,” said Aaron Commey, a libertarian and the final independent voter on the panel.

Doocy collected his notes and sat up on his stool.

“Sure, but the backdrop is the midterms, so it all becomes political,” he told the voters. “So let’s see what happens!”…

In October 2014 before the midterms, GOP candidates & media suddenly filled up with charges that thanks to a "border crisis," ISIS was sending terrorists over from Mexico. (In some embellishments, they had Ebola too.) Trump's basically running a sequel. https://t.co/WxkjJgZsYn

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 22, 2018



Even once-reliable neoconservatives…

Yes getting hysterical about Central American refugees who want to apply for asylum in either Mexico or US is pandering to a nativist constituency. As we saw in April, the number who will actually reach our border will be tiny and they are no threat. https://t.co/rMyTFN3s6V

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) October 21, 2018

An @NBCNews fact check found that internal US government documents on the caravan make no mention of Middle Easterners, criminals or a terror threat, despite President Trump's assertions. https://t.co/ecMqfVtVaR

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 23, 2018

I believe that's just what it says at the base of the Statue of Liberty, no? https://t.co/4hfye8h1x2

— David Roberts (@drvox) October 22, 2018

So you’re taking actions that will undoubtedly increase the flows of Central Americans crossing the border illegally? That’s a genius move, Mr. President. https://t.co/9iBtN4mse5

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 22, 2018

“We are opposed to caravans of refugees.”

So, no Thanksgiving this year?

“Wait, wut?” pic.twitter.com/uNTQh6Ti8s

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 22, 2018

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Reader Interactions

17Comments

  1. 1.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    I’ve heard that some Republicans have said that the caravans are being funded by Soros, seems more likely that they’re funded my the Kochs(or Mercers, or Aldelsons….).

  2. 2.

    tobie

    October 23, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    Thank, Dog, Drezner points out that if the Republicans really cared about migration from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, they would try to use the power of the US to help create better conditions in those countries. Soft power is a foreign concept to these folks. They are really and truly morons.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    October 23, 2018 at 10:54 pm

    Amazing that Shep still has a job.

  4. 4.

    tomtofa

    October 23, 2018 at 10:56 pm

    Trump decided that the caravan would be this week’s plot point. Everyone is into it.
    So fucking sick of this.

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    October 23, 2018 at 10:58 pm

    The New York Times has fallen for it hook line and sinker.

    Now two days in a row. Happening all over again. pic.twitter.com/r1RYRnbF0n

    — Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov) October 23, 2018

    If your news coverage of the caravan doesn't include a map like this, front and center, you're doing it wrong… pic.twitter.com/s026JJYoov

    — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 23, 2018

    They are at Mexico’s southern border. It’s a long way to the US from there.

  6. 6.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    October 23, 2018 at 11:01 pm

    Completely not the point, but I know one of those panelists. In college, I once drunkenly spilled Lucky Charms all over a sleeping bag he was using that weekend

  7. 7.

    Paul T

    October 23, 2018 at 11:08 pm

    Where are all the Branch Dildoansand Militia Border Patrollers? I can hardly wait for the morons to start rolling out of bed, cashing their Social Security checks, and rolling to the border to “protect” us.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    October 23, 2018 at 11:22 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: On the face of it, ridiculous – but, applying the “every accusation is a confession” principle….

  9. 9.

    satby

    October 23, 2018 at 11:27 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: not only are they at the southern border of Mexico, but the Mexican government is working to admit only visa holders, though it’s possible for some to sneak across. But a crowd of thousands isn’t very stealthy.

  10. 10.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 23, 2018 at 11:34 pm

    “I think the immigration crisis we’re seeing is a result of the failure of the two democratic parties to actually engage the issue,” said Cathy Stewart, a vice president with Independent Voting…

    I’m sure this is just a verbal stumble, but it sounds like she’s learned well—it’s both sides’ fault, and still everybody to blame is in the Democratic Party!

  11. 11.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 23, 2018 at 11:36 pm

    I’m telling you, Trump thinks all non-white migration to the US is orchestrated by foreign governments who are trying to offload their criminals and deviants. It’s one of the few things he consistently thinks. For him it’s always Mariel boatlift 1980. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone else mention this but I am POSITIVE this is what he “thinks” in the gobbets of mush that quiver where a brain may once have been.

  12. 12.

    SectionH

    October 23, 2018 at 11:38 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Fallen for it? They’re fucking complicit in it.

  13. 13.

    JGabriel

    October 24, 2018 at 4:17 am

    via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    David Roberts
    @drvox

    Tomi Lahren
    @TomiLahren
    We owe NOTHING to people trying to barge into this country. Nothing. Turn around. #BuildThatWall #MigrantCaravans

    I believe that’s just what it says at the base of the Statue of Liberty, no?

    Ah, yes, Emma Lazarus’s beloved poem, The Nativist Colossus:

    “Don’t give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost,
    Back where they came from. We
    Owe them nothing.”

    So inspiring, the ancient message of condemnation to fellow men and women, our nation finding unity in our American bigotry. It brings a Boehner-like tear to one’s eye.

  14. 14.

    Shantanu Saha

    October 24, 2018 at 4:21 am

    @debbie: Shep Smith is Fox’s token normal person.

  15. 15.

    Bostonian

    October 24, 2018 at 5:16 am

    Can you imagine how much screaming The Deuce did backstage when that was over? “You call these Independent voters? They sound like goddamn Democrats!”

  16. 16.

    Citizen_X

    October 24, 2018 at 7:57 am

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh no, that was the other Democratic Party.

  17. 17.

    Mr. Prosser

    October 24, 2018 at 10:14 am

    @tobie: If there was an economic advantage for the masters, the present administration* would be drawing up plans for an invasion of all three countries with the caravan as a pretext.

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