(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Prepare Yourselves For Trump's Hardcore Attacks On Immigrants To Win Him The Election... Unless? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-24 I believe the die has finally been cast for this election cycle and that the reaction of our citizenry to Trump’s attacks on immigrants will decide the outcome. After struggling to adapt to Kamala Harris taking the reigns of the Democratic nomination, Trump seems to have finally zeroed in on a strategy. It can be summarized by his most recent rally: ‘Sickening’ Chant Breaks Out Against Legal Immigrants At Donald Trump Rally The audience at Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday, erupted in applause and chanted, “Send them back,” after the former president said some immigrants — who are in America with legal immigration status — will be deported if he beats Democratic rival Kamala Harris and wins back the White House in November. America will soon learn whether we will follow the majority of European countries down the dark path of anti-immigration moral panic or whether we’ll follow the lead of Scandinavian countries in the most recent round of elections and step back from the brink. For myself, I’m sorry to say that I am not optimistic about how it’s looking for November or the future in general. There is a consensus emerging among many researchers that climate change, immigration, and the rise of fascism in European and American politics are intricately related. The basic dynamic that’s arisen is that climate change is increasingly driving migrants to leave their home countries in search of habitable ones. The resource instability is creating political and social instability that is rendering large swaths of our planet nearly uninhabitable for anyone who yearns for a reasonably stable life for themselves and their children. Those who already live in wealthy countries are mostly uninterested in harboring these refugees or sharing their wealth. The resentment that has built up over these problems isn’t going anywhere. In most wealthy countries, it still seems to be intensifying. Keir Starmer in Britain, for example, has seen his popularity plummet after the recent election and is now praising Meloni’s inhuman anti-immigration policies. He’s not doing this because he believes that the policies have been effective. He’s not stupid, he’s knows they haven’t. He’s a politician and he knows what the British people want. Likewise, I think we need to recognize that while Donald Trump is stupid, his handlers may not be quite as stupid as we had hoped. Trump doubling down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric may not be just Trump being Trump. It may be his team telling him that it’s finally starting to turn the tide back in his favor. I don’t know what can be done about this other than to continue to remind Americans that we’re better than this and that Trump’s lies about immigration in America are merely racism without any legitimate plan to effectively deal with the underlying issues. We must continue to remind America that Trump isn’t a deal maker. He doesn’t have the political capital or the relationships in Congress to get a good immigration deal passed. He’s the one who killed the deal that his own party agreed on this summer. Will it be enough? I’m not optimistic. Global events seem to be showing us that in all but only the most enlightened Democratic Socialist societies, going hard against immigrants is a winning bet. And America is anything but an enlightened society in the Scandinavian model. If you look at the history of the immigration issue in the United States, you can essentially track the increase in this phenomenon of immigrants from south of our border beginning to stay “illegally” year-round to the Reagan era Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. These laws created so much fear among our immigrant communities that they stopped viewing their place in our country as seasonal workers who had in the past returned to their home countries each year after their work here was done. The unintended consequences of the Reagan era policies were to create the modern immigration experience we see today, with migrants traveling to our country and living in the shadows because the return journey is just too risky. Donald Trump’s fascist plans would only compound this reality, driving immigrants further into the shadows, leading to more desperation and likely even more crime, both from desperate migrants and directed towards them. It won’t change the fact that even Donald Trump’s America is still going to be a preferable destination to many of the countries to our south. I don’t know what a winning rhetorical position for Democrats will look like and maybe it’s too late or otherwise unwise to propose one. I do think that it’s very likely that arriving at a proposal that keeps fascists out of power over the long term and satiates the blood lust of our voting citizenry is going to be a very very tough thing to engineer. It’s probably going to involve some out of the box thinking if we want to arrive at something that’s both reasonably humane and also prevents us from losing more and more elections. Is it some sort of well-designed infrastructure for seasonal workers? Do we need to work with Mexico to build out their cities along our border to provide campus-like living and part time work accommodations for seasonal workers who want to travel back and forth? How can we create a place for the increasing number of refugees in our societies without losing our countries to the fascists who seem to be so well positioned to use immigration to dismantle our democracies? How can we reject or reform the Starmer/Meloni model of sending immigrants back to where they came from (and the torture, starvation, and death that entails) into something that Jesus wouldn’t damn us for? Is our only hope in appealing to the better nature of our citizenry and moving forward with the previously agreed upon bill in Congress? Is that even where we want to arrive at as liberals? Whatever the case, I do think that we should all begin to prepare ourselves for what may be coming in November: ie a very very ugly truth about our neighbors and family members that we’re still hesitant to fully reconcile. Do any of you have any advice for Harris in terms of the rhetorical tools she could use on this issue to prevent the unimaginable? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/24/2272621/-Prepare-Yourselves-For-Trump-s-Hardcore-Attacks-On-Immigrants-To-Win-Him-The-Election-Unless?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/