Why Are More People Not Outraged About How Bernie Sanders Frames His Views on Immigrants?

[TomCADem]

Remember when Donald Trump said he wants fewer immigrants from “shithole countries” and more from places like Norway?

https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/04/15/sandersimmigrants/

Are people really taking Bernie Sanders to task about what he told Trevor Noah last week during The Daily Show’s Between the Scenes digital segment?

As Sanders stated (bold and italics are our own emphasis):

“Nobody, I mean not many people believe in open borders. If you simply opened the borders, you’d have people from Vietnam and China and Mexico and Latin America coming in. And no one thinks that is a plausible approach. On the other hand, I think the strength of this nation is the diversity and the new ideas from immigrants from all walks of life have given this country. So you need a rational, non-racist immigration policy which welcomes people in from all over the world to improve our economy, but clearly you cannot have open borders.”

Ironically enough, Sanders’ stance against “a rational, non-racist immigration policy” gets a bit lost when he also thinks that it’s a bad idea to “have people from Vietnam and China and Mexico and Latin America coming in.”

[CentralMass]

1. Nothing but negativity TomCaDem.

[Celerity]

9. +1

[SouthernProgressive]

16. Lashing out and negativity are damn near the cornerstones of Sanders career and current run. NT

[wasupaloopa]

2. We have third generation Vietnamese Americans here.

Their grandparents were boat people and refugees after the war.

[RainCaster]

3. I saw the work ethic of those people and I was impressed

Anyone from that part of the world has my vote to get in to our shithole country.

[MaryMagdaline]

4. Because no one thinks he is a racist

He’s always seen open borders as a threat to American wage earners. Many economic liberals see it that way, too ... that it’s a race to the bottom and only strict controls on immigration will keep wages up here ... that the billionaires bus in cheap labor to keep the rest of us down.

Bernie believes in workers’ rights throughout the world.

I don’t equate Bernie’s views with those of the Deplorables.

I’ve come to think differently on immigration, and tend to believe we need young workers to pay into social security. But I’m ok with Bernie’s heart on this issue.

[Princetonian]

6. +1000

4. Because no one thinks he is a racist
View profile
He’s always seen open borders as a threat to American wage earners. Many economic liberals see it that way, too ... that it’s a race to the bottom and only strict controls on immigration will keep wages up here ... that the billionaires bus in cheap labor to keep the rest of us down.

Bernie believes in workers’ rights throughout the world.

I don’t equate Bernie’s views with those of the Deplorables.

I’ve come to think differently on immigration, and tend to believe we need young workers to pay into social security. But I’m ok with Bernie’s heart on this issue.

Link to tweet

[TomCADem]

8. Why Conservatives Praise Bernie Sanders on Immigration

Who is in support of open borders? It is sort of like politicians fear mongering about the spread of Sharia Law. It is just a racist dog whistle to appeal to racist fears about immigrants. Yet, despite that no one can name a single candidate that is supporting "open borders," Bernie continues to rail against "open borders" just like Donald Trump to demonize immigrants. Heck, in the clip in the OP, Bernie is not talking about immigrants from Norway. No, he has to call out Asian and Hispanic countries.

https://time.com/4170591/bernie-sanders-immigration-conservatives/

Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the adamantly pro-life co-chair of Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign who has dismissed global warming as a hoax and repeatedly supported shutting down the federal government, praised Sanders’ immigration stance several times in August.

“I admire Bernie’s passion and I notice that his immigration position is closer to mine than it is some of the presidential candidates on the Republican side,” King said in an interview with an Iowa radio station over this past summer. “He’s said ‘Let’s take care of American workers.’ I’m all for that.”

Also this summer, King compared Sanders with Republican candidate Donald Trump, saying they’re “both speaking with non-politically correct language, and Bernie has taken some positions that I agree with. And part of his immigration policy is something that I agree with.”

* * *
But the praise is not accidental. Sanders’ opposition to the 2007 immigration reform bill and his rhetoric about the effect of immigrant labor on American workers have dismayed immigration activists and liberal allies in the past. He has expressed concern repeatedly over the years that guest workers in the United States depress wages and squeeze Americans out of their jobs.

[StTimofEdenRoc]

5. Because after nearly three years of being "Outraged" I am drained

I have to pick and choose. Is anyone else feeling this way?

[jberryhill]

7. Because he is ultimately inconsequential

Bernie Sanders has approximately zero chance of becoming the party's nominee.

People aren't getting too terribly excited about him one way or the other.

[ucrdem]

10. Dog whistle.

Not the first.

p.s. Vermont and NH are both under 2% African-American per a quick Google search. Is this relevant? Well, I think it is. JMHO, YMMV.

[Eric J in MN]

11. Bernie Sanders' position on immigration is as far left as any of the 2020 candidates.

None of them want open borders.

Bernie Sanders wants to decriminalize the border. Julián Castro was the leader on that issue.

Joe Biden doesn't want to decriminalize the border.

[SouthernProgressive]

15. Biden is on record as having voted for a pathway to citizenship as Sanders fought hard against it.

Sanders might be to the left of the people of Vermont. He is not to the left of our field.

[TomCADem]

27. Ann Coulter says she would vote for Bernie Sanders - Coulter a Leftist?

Steve King and Ann Coulter are leftists? This is also not new. Steve King, the White Supremecist from Iowa, was praising Bernie's immigration views back in 2015 and here is Ann Coulter this year once again praising Bernie's immigration views.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2019/04/18/ann-coulter-bernie-sanders-could-get-my-vote-despite-socialist-stuff/3505539002/

Conservative provocateur Ann Coulter often makes headlines by caustically deriding political figures, but she drew attention Wednesday by saying nice things – about democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In a preview of an interview on PBS' "Firing Line With Margaret Hoover" that is scheduled to air Friday, Coulter said she might back the Vermont senator's 2020 presidential bid because of his past opposition to immigration legislation that he feared would drive down wages for American workers. “If he went back to his original position, which is the pro-blue-collar position. I mean, it totally makes sense with him," she said.

Coulter and other conservatives have praised Sanders for his opposition to a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2007. "At a time when the middle class is shrinking, the last thing we need is to bring – over a period of years – millions of people into this country who are prepared to lower wages for American workers," Sanders said at the time. He also said America had a "very serious immigration problem" and that "our border is very porous."

[elleng]

12. We've had quite enough outrage, thank you.

[Gothmog]

13. Interesting video

[SouthernProgressive]

14. He has fought against a pathway to citizenship....

Both he and his wife worked to dump nuclear waste into minority communities.

This is the ugliest side of populism. Sanders has been historically consistent with respect to his isolationist policies hidden behind populist rhetoric.

[Autumn]

19. Dumping nuclear waste. LOL Straight out of Turning Point USA. Haven't hear that one for a while.

It was felt that TX was the safest place for it. Do you know who else co-sponsored the bill? Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, both Black women from Texas.

There is widespread scientific evidence to suggest, on the other hand, that locations in Texas — some of which receive less than 12 inches of rainfall a year, a region where the groundwater table is more than 700 feet below the surface — is a far better location for this waste. This is not a political assertion, it is a geological and environmental reality.

[Autumn]

26. I apologized for the AJ post. I didn't realize the video of Biden was from that site and I

didn't look for another copy of the same video from a reputable site, and there were plenty others to chose from. I accept that was on me, but the video being shown on their site doesn't change the fact that those were Biden's actions, one was from a news souce and the other on AJ. I just posted the longest video, and I didn't twist Biden's actions.

It also doesn't change the facts that I gave you on your Turning Point USA nuclear waste comment, that talking point comes from them. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, both Black women from Texas were co-sponsors on the bill along with 21 others, to store nuclear waste there because geological and environmental studies showed that location was the best place to store it.

[SouthernProgressive]

30. "I apologized for the AJ post."

It wasn't hard to recognize. Hard to believe you didn't see the big "Infowars" logo.

Glad you have changed your position on them. Good to know.

With the Sanders/Trump attacks on the media they have left themselves and their surrogates with few outlets to go to. It will lead to more Infowar "mistakes." Populism is populism no matter who is promoting it.

[Autumn]

31. And there you go. nt

[BlueWI]

17. Because not everyone regards bashing Sanders as a full-time pursuit.

Some do.

[Autumn]

18. We are not outraged because we are capable of understanding what Bernie said.

And also most of us don't hate him. In 2018 there were 22,491 refugees resettled in the United States, under a refugee ceiling of 45,000 for that year. I would have liked to see the ceiling met but...Trump. You can't blame that on Bernie. Do you think that we should have open borders so that people can come flooding into our country, just walk across the border, with no process? What if 50,000 crossed the border in a week? Where would they go? What would they do?

[MrsCoffee]

20. Because he says so many outrageous things.

[IronLionZion]

21. Trump is racist, Bernie was talking about developing countries would have more immigrants

wanting a better life in the US. Fewer people from developed countries would want to immigrate to the US.

Trump wants more whites. For Bernie, it's about workers' wages not race.

[MineralMan]

23. Because Sanders is becoming more and more irrelevant?

I mean...

[Thekaspervote]

28. This!

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. "he also thinks that it's a bad idea to "have people from Vietnam and China and Mexico..."

The art of the smear. It is so reassuring to know that we Democrats are capable of it also

Of course Bernie doesn't think that let alone say that. It is not news to anyone that billions of people live in poor mostly third world nations and that any sane person would consider any remotely acceptable route available for their family to escape extreme poverty.

Bernie doesn't think it's a bad idea to have people from the nations listed coming into America. He, like all of our candidates for president, thinks it would be a bad idea for the U.S. to have completely open borders because if we did the U.S. would be overwhelmed by economic migrants. And no, the bulk of them wouldn't be coming from countries like Norway.

Bernie, like all of our Democratic candidates, wants a rational, workable and humane immigration policy, not open borders. He, like all of our Democratic candidates, supports the U.S. providing sanctuary to all legitimate refugees under international law, and that includes those arriving from Latin America etc. He supports family reunification efforts that prioritize immigrants from "Vietnam and China and Mexico and Latin America coming in" who already have family members living in the U.S.

[Hortensis]

25. He's always done a balancing act to draw RW and LW populilsts.

The first part of his statement is spoken to his social conservative populists, the rest to reassure his LW radical/socialistic followers that he's really on the "right side" of this issue.

Note that while immigration issues are very important to his social conservatives, immigration's far less important than class resentments and healthcare to his LW factions. ALSO that his following seems to be dominated by the antagonisms of the social cons, at least one hopes from the behaviors of 2016. In any case, he has to keep them happy.

As to why we aren't seeming more expressions of outrage from Democrats? I'm still trying to figure out how any normal Democrat could support him. Of course much of the answer is probably in earnest statements like, "I like both Biden and Sanders" and "I like Kamala, but Bernie's my second choice."

[awesomerwb1]

29. When in doubt

just look at his voting record on immigration. #not the best

[Hoyt]

32. Not only does Sanders want to stop them at the border, but punish them at home by

reneging on trade agreements, imposing tariffs, etc. That's my main problem with Sanders, and policies like Warren's "Economic Patriotism."

[R B Garr]

33. Has anyone demanded an apology from Bernie for these offensive

comments? This needs full exposure.

[betsuni]

34. K&R