Eugene Robinson: Arizona’s Act of Vengeance

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Arizona’s Act of Vengeance

Posted on Apr 26, 2010
By Eugene Robinson


Arizona’s draconian new immigration law is an abomination—racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation, which Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed Friday, goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional.

Brewer, who caved to xenophobic pressures that previous governors had the backbone to resist, should be ashamed of herself. The law requires police to question anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being an undocumented immigrant—a mandate for racial profiling on a massive scale. Legal immigrants will be required to carry papers proving they have a right to be in the United States. Those without documentation can be charged with the crime of trespassing and jailed for up to six months.

Activists for Latino and immigrant rights—and supporters of sane governance—held weekend rallies denouncing the new law and vowing to do everything they can to overturn it. But where was the tea party crowd? Isn’t the whole premise of the tea party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom? It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim—and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state—would send the tea partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish?

And what is the deal with Sen. John McCain? The self-proclaimed practitioner of “straight talk” was once a passionate advocate of sensible, moderate immigration reform. Now, facing a primary challenge from the right, he says he supports the new law, which is as far from sensible and moderate as it could possibly be. Are six more years in the Senate really worth abandoning what seemed like bedrock principles? Or were those principles always situational? ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/arizonas_act_of_vengeance_20100426/

[RandomThoughts]

1. More are joining the fight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9345798&mesg_id=9346594

[ixion]

2. A very poignant point about the teabaggers

where are they now? Isn't this exactly the kind of big-brother-government they rail against? Shouldn't they be rallying outside the gov's mansion?

Response from the teabaggers: *Crickets*

It's not about big government or personal freedom. For them, it's about race, and politics. Nothing more.

[CLANG]

5. Their corporate overlords haven't given marching instructions yet.

[n2doc]

6. ...

[tavalon]

8. It's all about the fact that there is a black guy in the White House

and people of color all over the place, acting uppity and all that. KKK=Teabaggers.

[sweetloukillbot]

9. Teabaggers only support the 2nd and 10th amendments

And the 1st if they think they can throw it back in a liberal's face. They could give two shits about the 4th, and they don't care too much for the 14th either.

[Enthusiast]

3. But

the tea party movement belief that an overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom is only a concern when it is directed at white people. You know, the affront to white people like desegregation and basic civil rights for minorities. You know, reverse racism. Don't tell me Teabaggers aren't racist!

[tavalon]

7. Yes, the teabaggers are just a KKK redo

Hence, no outrage over the fascism and racism in that abomination of a bill. Last time around, it was white sheets, now it's teabags. Same as it ever was.......

[sinkingfeeling]

4. The comments have all the tidy-white republican/teabaggers in an uproar.