On the Perils of the Trult - Part III of III

by Steven B. Orkin

Welcome back to the final installment of this post.

While we’re here, let’s have a side-talk about immigration, because this issue is rampantly abused by the Trult for various evil purposes. They routinely and vehemently exclaim there is “a crisis at the border!”, usually as a deflection from other issues they don’t want to talk about, e.g., “Mr. Cruz, why don’t you support a woman’s right to choose?” “Because there’s a crisis at the border that Joe Biden has NOT taken care of!” They declare with righteous indignation that “Democrats want open borders!” and that there’s a ‘Replacement Theory’ conspiracy underway in which the Democrats are “trying to get more immigrants to become citizens to they can increase their voter rolls and steal elections!”

Are you fucking kidding me?!

Let’s break it down.

• Absolutely no question there are legitimate issues at the border. Illegal immigration is a BIG problem requiring a multifaceted approach that we're still struggling to create. The reason why we’re struggling to create it is because it’s an immensely complex issue with no easy solution. There are a lot of people in this country illegally and there should be some level of accountability for that (conversely, there also needs to be a more achievable path to citizenship). Though illegal immigrants do provide certain benefits to our society, they likewise drain a lot of financial and social resources that could and should be used for actual citizens.
  

Note that this is NOT to say that “Illegal immigrants are stealing American jobs!”, another ‘old reliable’ phrase with no foundation in reality that the Trult likes to throw around to whip their ignorant base into a frenzy (demonizing ‘The Other’ is right out of the Fascist Playbook). There are two things “stealing American jobs”:

 

1.     Robotics.

2.     Outsourcing. 

Both of them are 100% homegrown problems the Trult doesn’t want to talk about because they cast a negative light on their good pal, Corporate America.To be fair, the hard truth is there’s very little we can do about robotics. Technology marches on. As it continues to become more and more sophisticated, particularly as it more closely integrates with AI tech, a large percentage of blue-collar jobs and certain types of white-collar jobs will eventually be eliminated. We have barely begun to have a national conversation regarding what we’re going to do about that, but it will have to involve something called UBI (Universal Basic Income). That’s a conversation for another day.

 

Outsourcing? 100% fixable with one simple technique: Penalize corporations who do it. “Oh, you’re moving your Customer Service Call Center to India? No problem. Just be aware that all those nice, shiny tax breaks we’ve been giving you up to now will end the second someone in that building picks up the fucking phone. Have a nice day.”

‘Saving American jobs’ and addressing illegal immigration are two entirely separate issues. The realities of robotics and outsourcing don’t preclude the fact that we’ve got an illegal immigration problem (and let me be very, very clear: Immigration is NOT a problem. Illegal immigration IS a problem. This distinction is of course, completely lost on the Trult. Remember: Different is inferior. Different is wrong.). We need a firm, sophisticated, compassionate, broad-ranging strategy to address this issue, one that utilizes a wide array of techniques. ‘Building a wall’ is not even on the list of those techniques, let alone a solution in and of itself (though there are measures we need to employ to physically secure the border more effectively and consistently). The notion that a big wall would ‘prevent illegal immigration’ is infantile, the equivalent of trying to restore the Sistine Chapel with latex paint and brushes from Lowe’s (When you think about it, MAGA itself is conceptually infantile. What does ‘Make America Great Again’ actually mean? Nothing. It’s a vacuous marketing slogan with no substance whatsoever.).

Further inflaming the situation is the Trult’s hysterical (and delusional) assessment that “murderers, pedophiles, and other criminals are POURING across the border every day, FLOODING our nation with drugs, destroying our way of life, and infecting everyone around them with COVID!! (which really isn’t a big deal when it inconveniences them) Are there murderers, pedophiles, other criminals, and drugs entering this country illegally? Yes, there absolutely are. Is it a problem? Yes, it absolutely is. Do the “murderers, pedophiles, and other criminals” constitute 90% of the illegal immigrants entering this country, as the Trult would have you believe? No, they absolutely do not.   

• Would you like to know how many people in this country actually believe we should have ‘open borders’, in which anyone from anywhere can come and go through our country however and whenever they want? Seven. Seven people believe that ‘open borders’ is a great idea. Of those seven, four of them have a grandma in Mexico they just want to see more often without the hassle of border crossings

• ‘Replacement Theory’ is a hardcore, top-shelf, grade A, QAnon-consistent, extremist, Trult conspiracy theory that has no foundation in reality. Further, it begs the question, “Why would immigrants be so susceptible to Democrat ideology, they would automatically vote for them?” Could it be because a massive percentage of American citizens of color, let alone immigrants, are completely disenfranchised from Trult ideology because they feel excluded, even persecuted by it? I think we all know the answer to that question. Replacement Theory reflects typical Trult paranoia and fear. What have we learned about ‘The Other’ from the Trult? Different is inferior. Different is wrong.

Hang on a sec. I have to stop at Lowe’s to pick up some paint and brushes so I can effectively describe the Trult’s current, juvenile, tantrum-like technique of ‘voicing their immigration concerns’.

Ah. There we go.

Trultist ‘leaders’ like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have taken to misleading innocent people into boarding buses and planes, and then shipping them to cities they (the Trult) don’t like to ‘prove a point’. It’s soulless political grandstanding, completely devoid of humanity, decency, and compassion.

I understand that some of those people are in this country illegally and that, again, illegal immigration is a big problem. But putting people on a plane and shipping them to Martha’s Vineyard isn't about immigration. It’s about humanity.

Ron DeSantis lied to those people. He made a conscious decision to put them on that plane and ship them to a place where their presence would create chaos and where they would not have a significant opportunity to succeed. Had it not been for the kindness of the people of Martha's Vineyard, they would have suffered terribly. He sent those people there for the sole purpose of aggravating everyone who doesn't agree with him. He did not take one single moment to consider the welfare or dignity of the people on that plane as fellow human beings. He disposed of them the same way he'd toss a soda can in the trash. He did it to make a political point. If that's not sociopathy, I don't know what is.

What’s more, it is NOT the answer to this problem! It's only making it worse! DeSantis should be ashamed of himself, and if he's not ashamed of himself, he should be even MORE ashamed of himself! Through his actions and behavior, he has amply demonstrated on multiple occasions that he has nothing but a sinkhole for a soul. He's actually much more dangerous than Donald Trump because he's intelligent enough to know better. In fact, he DOES know better. He just doesn't care. He's content to be a hardcore, stone-cold fascist. He represents a clear and active danger to the welfare of this country. God help us if he ever somehow becomes President.

Naturally, the Trult handily deflected culpability for this disgusting stunt by attempting to discredit Barack Obama, e.g., “He’s got a nice big house there! Why didn’t he take care of all those people?!”

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that they were strangely quiet a few weeks later during Hurricane Ian, which displaced tens of thousands of Floridians. Donald Trump doesn’t just have a “big house” there. He has a sprawling luxury resort that he had ample opportunity to open to his fellow Floridians in need. Did he do that? Of course not! I guess all those stolen documents are still taking up too much room to fit a bunch of ‘lowlife’ storm victims. What he did do was, well… nothing. Not one goddamn thing. Didn’t offer to help. Didn’t so much as post a weblink to enable others to help.

Oh, I’m sorry. I misspoke. He actually did do something during the storm. While his fellow locals were being flooded out of their homes and in some cases, fighting for their lives, Donald Trump was begging for ‘campaign donations’ which is now a euphemism for ‘money to pay the gargantuan legal fees I’m generating as I fight off multiple lawsuits’. You know, the ones that will, God willing, put him in jail where he belongs, or at the very least, prevent him from ever holding a political office again.

The Trult are extremists, maybe even terrorists. I did another websearch to define a term. Here’s what came up.

 

Like a parasitic tapeworm, the Trult has insinuated itself into what used to be the GOP, destroying its credibility and endangering the citizens of this country, including the people who are supposed to be their constituents. They seek a totalitarian government in which they hold all the cards and make all the rules. They intend to undermine the Constitution and eliminate democracy in this country. As previously noted, they have already made excellent progress in this regard and they’re not even fully in power, yet. There is now very little distinction between conservative thought and Trult thought. That’s a BIG problem. An existential crisis-level problem.

Somewhere, buried beneath the chaos, quivering in terror, is the actual GOP. Adam Kinzinger recently stated that he and Liz Cheney aren’t brave. They’re just surrounded by cowards. I think he’s being overly modest regarding himself and Cheney, but he is nevertheless absolutely right: The GOP ARE cowards.

They need to grow a pair and start taking back their party if they ever want to play an active role in government again. Here’s what they need to do to regain at least a shred of integrity:

1. Reject Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Until they completely disassociate themselves from that hate-mongering, corruption-drenched, narcissistic sociopath, they have no credibility as a political party and do not deserve a voice in political discourse any more than the Trult itself does. 
2. Stop allowing the Trult to stomp on the Constitution and democratic principles! Stop them from deviously manipulating conditions to suit their agenda! Stop them from quashing voting rights! Stop them from gerrymandering! Stop them from fabricating voter fraud conspiracies! Stop them from taking rights away from women and the LGBTQ+ community! 
3. Stop consorting with bargain-basement morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Herschel Walker, and Jim Jordan, as well as despicable, spineless, misanthropic weasels like Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul.

As for the rest of us, we need to take this election seriously, get our asses in gear, and vote, vote, VOTE!! Vote in such volume that the inevitable “I lost, so the election must have been rigged!” outcries will be laughed off the airwaves. Vote like our lives and our country depend on it!  

Because they absolutely do.

Thank you for reading.

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