Coop Scoop: On the Border of Insanity
The border crisis is politically manufactured and could be politically solved.
February 1, 2024
By Marc Cooper
If you want to measure the immense depth of our current political dysfunction you need only take a quick peek into the “border crisis” to see just how far down the rabbit hole we have gone. It’s rare to see when a political party, in this case the House GOP and its sure-to-be presidential nominee, are doing everything they can right out in public that we would expect them to do only in private. But MAGA and its followers have lost any and all sense of shame and feel they no longer even need to pretend that they are interested in governing, in solving any problems, in engaging in any dialogue and they have no problem demonstrating their commitment to a continuing legal and legislative logjam for the most banal of political purposes.
First, the narcissistic psychopath that is the virtual Republican nominee starts beating the drum again about the poisonous effects of so many foreigners – migrants—coming into the country with their diseased minds and bodies, intent on poisoning our bloodline, over running our cities and perhaps even conspiring with Taylor Swift to help install a communist dictatorship. The fear mongering is way over the top but as political demagogy goes, it’s pretty much a sure winner. It always is.
We have seen historically, and quite a bit just these last 30 years, that one of the great weaknesses of groups of human beings is their irrational and often dangerous fear of other groups of human beings, especially one that is poorer and looks different and doubly so if they are darker skinned and speak a different language. The now undisputed gains in the macro-economy are rendering impotent the whining from the Right about the “Biden Economy.” So Orange Jesus has jumped horses and gone back to the old reliable of intense xenophobia.
There is no question that there is an elevated and seemingly unstoppable flow of migrants across the border and –by the way—through the airports on tourist and other visas that are then overstayed. The reasons for this inflow are myriad and have little to do with “so-called” border policy. We can tick off a few relevant factors. The Central American economy and the pillars of its civic society were pretty much demolished by Ronald Reagan’s regional wars of the 1980’s and we are now reaping the full consequences. The NAFTA package of two decades ago decimated the subsistence farmers of southern Mexico who have been forced to pull up stakes. It basically comes down to he United States having a 2000 mile long land border that butts up against an impoverished Global South. Wages for immigrant workers -legal or not- are ten to twenty times higher than they are in rural Mexico and most all of Central America. Let’s not even get to Venezuela from where some 7 million have recently fled the marvels and miracles of President Maduro’s “revolutionary” regime. Argentina is now also in the crapper with 150% inflation and an extremist president who doesn’t seem to be all there; I would expect a new contingent of Argentines to be soon joining the northward flow of migration. And Nicaraguans who have always been reticent to emigrate are now doing so in much greater number as Daniel Ortega continues to defile Sandinismo and tightens his one family dictatorship. Cuba’s economy has also entered a new phase of radical shortages and folks are leaving in droves.
If the minimum wage is Canada was 10 times higher than the U.S. – if you could make $1000 a day by picking tomatoes or washing dishes — you too might also be jumping over some border walls and trekking through glaciers to get to the Great Northern Paradise, eh?
This massive flow into the Unites states via Mexico –taken over the last 4 decades—is the largest cross-border migration in modern history – one of biblical proportions and that includes tens of millions. Trying to stop that flow, trying to stop people from flooding into the US as their societies crumbles, makes about as much sense and will be just about as effective as standing on the Dover Cliffs and yelling out loud for someone to stop the tides. It’s not going to happen.
The United States also requires a good chunk of immigration to maintain and grow the economy. It’s going to be hard for the xenophobes – and that’s what those “concerned about the border” are—to explain why at a time there is an unprecedented pile up at the border we also have the lowest unemployment rate in decades and continuing booming growth (in spite of two constant years of CW that we were headed for an all-consuming recession). We need younger, foreign workers, period. As many as a million new ones a year. If we just recognized the fact, issued the visas, and calmly regulated this flow, tehre would be no “crisis.”
America’s birth rate, like all developed countries, is anemic. And, fortunately, our educational system has not been stagnant and over the last 50 years or so and has completely re-configured the American work force. The percentage of high school grads that go to college has more than doubled since World War II. De-industrialization has reconfigured the nature of “jobs.” A lot of these changes have been for the worse. Some for the better, Either way, if one does not recognize the changes then immigration cannot be understood, let alone managed. So here’s a question for you: how many parents do you know who are staying up nights hoping that when Johnny graduates high school he can get that job down at the car wash or on the construction site while his sisters takes on the work of live-in maid? You know any kids taking students loans to study bussing tables, gardening and roofing?
The issue we face is NOT “immigration,” it is rather how to manage what is the inevitable flow of humanity to our shores. There are solutions, or at least, some remedies. And we know what they are because in the last 20 years they have been on several occasions packaged into proposed legislation, reviewed by both parties, won support from sectors of both parties and then have consistently been voted down. Comprehensive reform would create a massive number of work permits, an acceleration in processing asylum at the border, more immigration judges, and some rational path to legalization and residency for the 10-15 million already resident without legal standing. Remember that while the President has some, and quite limited, authority to decree policy tweaks at the border, it is congress and congress alone that must approve and shape that policy. And congress has consistently failed, over and over again. Much like opposing abortion, they would rather have the political issue than the political remedy.
We are seeing that in spades this week. President Biden, apparently, has forced a Democratic capitulation in a yet-to-be-revealed “border deal” with a group of Senate Republicans. Sounding exactly like Donald Trump. Biden has twice said this week he is ready “to shut down the border tomorrow” if Congress approves this deal we have not seen. I assume that the agreement has a number of points that Democrats want: funding for Israel and Ukraine (which has been cynically tied to the border issue) and some forward-looking reforms for migrant processing. The Republicans have put Biden in a jam that I am sympathetic to but his mouthing off about closing the border is not only political suicide for a Democratic candidate, it is also immoral and repulsive and should not be rationalized. It will only heighten the ignorance and undue fear.
The good news for Biden, though, is that the Republicans are even more craven than he is so he probably won’t get his Trumpian chance to shut the border.. Mitch McConnell told his congressional troops and House allies that they should think twice about passing this measure as it would upset Donald Trump who wants no solution, just the issue itself to harp on for his campaign of fear. The religious nut, House Speaker Mike Johnson, is also blocking the bill as he does not want his name on a measure that would require some Democratic votes. As I write this on Wednesday, I think there is little to no chance of it passing unless Johnson can skew it farther to the right – thereby losing the Democratic and even some Republican Senate votes. So as of today, a 99% chance of no immigration legislation.
Instead, we have the absolutely bizarre tragi-comedy today of MAGGAT House Republicans moving to impeach DHS Secretary Alexander Mayorkas for his alleged failure to control the border and allow the current “invasion.” Impeachment should be used for high crimes and misdemeanors, not for policy differences and the only crime Mayorkas has committed is working for a Democratic president. With a 3 seat majority, it’s not clear the Republicans even have the votes to get to formal impeachment. And if they do, the Senate is not going to touch this travesty with a ten foot pole. This is100% political theater.
Instead of doing anything to remedy the border crisis, the MAGGATS are going to do NOTHING except engage in right wing virtue-signaling. Scapegoating Mayorkas to earn more Brownie points among its riled up and howling base of racists. Indeed, imagine a series of interviews with MAGGAT voters in, say, Iowa or Wisconsin and ask them directly, how is it, sir, that immigration is affecting “your life” apart from someone to cart away your dirty dishes? No matter. Jews had little to no effect on the lives of ordinary Germans and, initially, Hitler even downplayed antisemitism because he thought the Germans wouldn’t but it. Goebbels thought differently and finally convinced Hitler that with enough propaganda, Germans can be convinced that Jews were at the root of all the indignities average Germans experienced. And the rest is history.
Which brings us to Fox News, the caravans, the breathless reports about mentally-ill fentanyl-armed migrants storming the border, and so on and so on. Nothing is going to change policy-wise as a debased Republican House works only for The Leader and not for us. It’s going to get worse and do not buy into the now relentless propaganda. Biden cannot continue to show weakness on this issue and cower and capitulate to Republican demands. That’s why he must take immediate action to shut down the current stunt run by the fascist and rogue Governor of Texas who is defying the Supreme Court by permitting his National Guard to block Border Patrol from the borders! That guard must be immediately federalized and Biden must take command. Likewise with the trucker bozos and their “Army of God” currently barreling toward the border. There are legal ways to stop this before it spins into bloody violence and now is the time.
One final piece of news: Nancy Pelosi.
I’ve never been a fan of hers. I’ve always seen her as more of a hardball pol from a politically connected East Coast family rather a benign Queen of Social Justice from San Francisco. This week, the octogenarian former speaker threw some of her admirers for a loop when she loudly suggested –as if she were Richard Nixon-- that the FBI investigate what she said are links between some ceasefire in Gaza activists and Russia. Wowza! She tried a couple of times to clarify and water down such a stupid and chilling statement but I am afraid its substance still sticks. Apart from its appalling stench disregarding civil liberties, it’s about as reckless a statement she could have made. Somewhere between 65-80% of Democrats favor a cease fire and Nancy’s not gonna make them rush to the polls to reward her or the party for her insulting statement. There’s an easy solution here. Nancy Pelosi should resign and take the time to enjoy her $200m in net worth while she’s still young enough.++
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