Can America step back from the brink of civil war or a failed fascist state? The answer seems to be “probably not”. It appears to be one of them because, judging by last week, the political far right is now “mainstream in America.”
Donald Trump leads Republican polls as their next preferred presidential candidate, though that’s clearly a problem in itself – Trump can’t take a beating, and if he does, he’ll call his number again Thousands of followers attack – but the only one of Trump’s major challenges is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It turns out that while he wasn’t as clueless or rude as Trump, he used to be a bit mean.
Last week, DeSantis arranged for 48 Venezuelan asylum seekers to board a mock flight to Boston, promising jobs, housing and education for their children. But as soon as the plane took off, the passengers were told they were flying to Martha’s Vineyard, a very leftist (and wealthy) holiday island in Massachusetts.
Why? For a political gimmick. No job, no housing, no education is waiting. They just got dumped and DeSantis and the Republicans in general back off and laugh and say, “What do you think?” Local residents have never faced an influx of asylum seekers.
It all happened at the end of last week. By Saturday, Texas had joined the circus in delivering 50 migrants, including a one-month-old baby, to the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.
It was part of a coordinated campaign by Republicans in southern states to protest the arrival of asylum seekers and to embarrass the Biden administration ahead of the November midterm elections.
Of course, it could be illegal – it’s a federal crime to take people out of state – not to mention it’s deeply immoral.
Defending himself, DeSantis told the media, “Even those little problems that border towns face every day bring to their front doors and they suddenly go crazy and they’re very upset that this is happening.” It happens. Just to tell you, you know, their virtue signaling is a scam.”
DeSantis may be right about fraudulent virtue signals—traditionally, the “blue states” won by Democrats have one of the largest gaps in the country between right-wing and poor (that is, between blacks and whites). Admittedly, southern states do most of the hard work of relocating asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants.
But using the asylum seekers themselves as political football… well, that’s unprecedented. In the US, it seems. We’ve been doing this here for decades.
New Matilda is a small independent media agency. We survive on the contributions of our readers and never lose a lawsuit. If you took anything away from this post, giving back something might help us keep telling the truth to the authorities. Every bit matters.
Chris Graham is the publisher and editor of New Matilda. He is the former founding editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker. Chris’ reporting has been recognized with the Walkley Award, Walkley High Praise and two human rights awards.
FREE: Receive breaking news and alerts, as well as our regular newsletter with breaking news and major investigations.
Post time: Sep-26-2022