President Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president, including Bush, in an attempt to convince Republicans to come to the bargaining table and agree on an immigration reform package that would allow him to slow down the pace of deportations. In the meantime, however, countless families are devastated. And the GOP shows no sign of budging.
Stumeanity
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I love it. A brave new word for a craven old system. Did you see “The Simpsons” Sunday? Where it’s revealed that even though there are 99 Democrats in the Senate at some point in the future, the Republican still gets his way?
I would have preferred “MEANPIDITY” because “STUMEANITY” doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily. But it’s Ted’s ‘toon so it’s his decision. I share the sentiment, though.
🙂
A Senate majority became a filibuster-proof majority became a more-REAL-Dem-Senators-than-Blue-Dogs majority. Goalposts have magically come alive and are moving farther and farther away every year.
I missed that Simpsons episode. Thanks for mentioning it. It is TOO TRUE.
Obama’s biggest error was in ever believing that Republicans were going to work with him. He sacrifices everything he’s willing to sacrifice at the beginning of a negotiation….it’s really pathetic. He’s a horrible president. However, I am still glad I voted for him and I’m glad he won….twice…simply because it makes old white men angry….and the world is a better place when those people feel angry and powerless.
I seriously doubt that Obama ever thought the Republicans were going to work with him in the first place. Compare his (in)action with standard corporate/upper-end academia: Never be the one who forces an issue. Let other people make the decisions. Ride along until retirement.
I suspect an inanimate carbon rod would have been more effective.
I drew logical conclusions about Bush’s personality and psyche from his actions when he was President. His actions were mean, stupid, short-sighted, designed to strengthen his grip on power and very revealing.
I don’t think Obama is PROVING anything. For better or worse, my observation is very similar to those psychological reductions you hear on FOX News about Obama’s ways of thinking: He has a problem with immigrants. Maybe it’s because his dad wasn’t an American. Maybe he’s overcompensating in this particular issue.
All I know is this: His actions speak much louder than his pretty words, and he is guilty as charged. There’s no real reason he has deported all these immigrants, unless he appointed someone to do this bang-up job and promptly forgot about it. That’s pretty doubtful. It’s most likely intentional, and ‘proving’ his bona fides to Republicans is starting to sound like a cliche I just don’t believe in any more. He IS CONSERVATIVE on too many issues. Way too conservative for even a Bush supporter, but not a Teabagger.
I find it particularly interesting that when discussions of the prez are had, race is pretty much never brought up as a context. Everyone goes around pretending that race did not have some sort of formative quality to Obama’s outlook and thinking patterns, which is simply not possible. Your race, and your gender, are the two most-significant formative factors on how you look at life and how successful you are.
Go on, can anyone find any reporter just asking: Why is a black president allowing the prison-industrial complex to continue?
Why is a group that has been on the receiving end of more instances of terrorist behavior and general bullshit–the Klan, voting rights violations, general harassment of the driving-while-black variety–than any other group in America supporting a black president who isn’t doing anything to equalize things?
Perhaps because, unlike white liberals, they have a realistic view of what Obama can accomplish.
This is why Democrats are WORSE than Republicans:
Republicans hate honestly. A genuine opposition to Republican positions is possible because of the consistency of hate in their speech and actions.
Democrats hate dishonestly. A genuine opposition to Democrats is not possible due to their fake verbal agreement in discussion while being actively in opposition to their own words with actions contrary to their own word’s meaning.
Damn those illegal immigrants anyway! We’re overrun with them! Eating up our natural resources, clogging our cities and our highways, voting against our best interests.
We should deport ’em all back to Europe …
😀
I have witnessed first-hand the devastation to Mexican/American families.
A few years ago, Raul (who was the gardener for the house where I live in Mexico) asked if I could help him return to the U.S. His wife and his children were (are) citizens of the U.S. with legal residence in California. His wife was (is) a teacher in the public schools. What sense does it make to deport Daddy if everyone else in the family is a citizen? The story I got from Raul was that he messed up on filling out the paperwork to remain in the U.S. because of an on-the-job injury that confused his mind. (He was a construction worker who suffered a head injury..)
I sent emails to:
the California Teachers Association to enlist their help in reunifying the family;
former President Clinton to ask if he could assist; and
then-Secretary-of-State Hillary Clinton to intervene with the Department of State that chose to keep this family divided (or united in Mexico).
I am led to understand that Raul and his family are now together in California.
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Word seems to have spread here in Tizapan, Jalisco. Another family with similar circumstances recently asked if I could help get Daddy and his family back to the U.S. to reside legally in Arizona, where the wife and children are legal citizens. Daddy alone is the outcast; but the family wants to be with him – preferably north of the border.
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Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!
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We contacted Senator McCain’s office. We advised the family not to hold out much hope (because of his views), but who knows?
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We’re still working on that and hoping that some day the United States will adopt a sensible immigration policy that doesn’t force families of U.S. citizens to live apart or to live as a unit in Mexico simply because they want to be together.
«Stumeanity» is good, Ted – and what is still better is that the same principle extends far beyond immigration (emigration ?) policy, to US foreign policy in general. A recent example in point is the fomenting the putsch in Kiev and the fake outrage at the inevitable Russian reaction….
Henri