For decades, both U.S. political parties have maintained an open or porous U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans supported this due to their big business allies’ preference for cheap labor, which suppressed wages. Democrats assumed, incorrectly, that migrants’ U.S.-born children would reliably vote Democratic. Although illegal immigrants violated the law, enforcement was lax. Now, millions who were implicitly encouraged to enter are abruptly being treated as if they were terrorists who infiltrated the country.
Hey Mexicans!
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is 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 "2024: Revisited."
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Re “millions who were implicitly encouraged to enter”: in which “implicitly encouraged” means continuous, murderous meddling in the affairs of the home countries of those millions of Central and South Americans – from horrendous trade “deals” like NAFTA to the frank, brutal regime change in Chile, engineered by Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Henry “the teflon genocidal monster” Kissinger … (a worse pick for that high honor than even Obumma?!?)
The same people who want to keep both legal and illegal immigration to an absolute minimum also want us to make more babies because our population isn’t growing fast enough.
I’ve noticed that once someone becomes rich, whether they identify as a Republican who doesn’t want to pay taxes or as a democrat who doesn’t want to pay taxes, they frequently become extremely outraged at any attempt to take money from them. “Ten cents extra for a slice of cheese on my burger? That’s what wrong with this country. Here I am, barely getting by on $160,000 a year, and I have to pay for things that cost more. I should actually be given the cheese for free.”
The border “crisis” could be solved in 10 minutes if it was actually politically expedient to do so.
Re: The cheese.
The cheese was a metaphor. (Or perhaps a camembert.) But, seriously, I have lost track of the number of conversations where someone (liberal or conservative) making a very good salary objects bitterly to pittances. The same thing occurs with (usually) women who have been taken care of their whole life by fathers or husbands or their wealth. They aren’t even working for a living, but, oh my, they are cheap. Not when spending on themselves, but whenever reality deviates from their sense that gasoline should be 11 cents a gallon and the lazy clerk at the supermarket is being unreasonable to “demand” $16.50 an hour.
When I used to wait tables, sometimes, one of the customers — I’m sorry, the guests — would ask “Can I get a dollop of whipped cream on that?” I would explain that because the whipped cream was made by hand — not just sprayed out of a can, but actually poured into a bowl and then whipped to a cream — you couldn’t get just a dollop, you had to get a whole side because there’s a minimum amount of cream needed to make whipped cream and that cost $3, they’d practically recoil. I’d then get a lecture about how unreasonable this was. These were the same people who, almost invariably, tipped 15% or less.
“Hot breakfast program so that these kids aren’t starving in class and can pay attention? Look, commie, I already pay through my eyes in property taxes. Maybe these kids could find after-school jobs or deliver newspapers before the start of the day. Yeah. That’s it. Get a paper route. Lots of kids have those now. I paid for college by saving my tips from my paper route and had enough for a starter home. You gotta stop with this welfare state. …”
Are there rich people who stop in, have some pie and a cup of coffee and leave a $20? Sure. But my experience — waiting tables and working in the “real” world where every raise was described by the person/corporation grudgingly giving it as “generous” even though it only occasionally kept up with inflation — is that most people, even those making a lot more than they need to survive, cling to every last single nickel of it, crying poormouth all the day long.
Oh the cheese was a metaphor, thanks there Aristotle I hadn’t picked up on that. Sorry about the whipped cream thing, I bet that was a tough situation
Actually, abducens, the whipped cream thing was also a metaphor in a way. Although it described an actual situation, it also described a general case: greedy people who don’t accept that they can’t have everything they want. And when given an explanation, reacting with hostility.
Kind of like how you reply.
Imagine how much more money you’d have if you’d simply be a little more civil instead of dismissively sarcastic. But you know best. People like you always think they do.
Okay, let me bounce this off you. This one time, at this hole in the wall pizza place, we noticed all the pizzas listed “sauce” as a topping. But then the one we wanted didn’t list sauce.
So we asked our server, is that a typo, does it have sauce? And the server says oh yeah it should have sauce. So we ordered it.
Then it comes out and our Mensa server said hey you know what I don’t think this has sauce after all!
So we said oh okay, well can you bring us a side of sauce and she said yes
When we got the bill we got charged for the side of sauce. We didn’t make a fuss over it and just paid it, but would we have been within rights to under the Alex Code of Civility to push back on it? Or would we have risked activating her as a daily commenter on a failed leftist cartoonists website?
“When we got the bill we got charged for the side of sauce. We didn’t make a fuss over it and just paid it, but would we have been within rights to under the Alex Code of Civility to push back on it? Or would we have risked activating her as a daily commenter on a failed leftist cartoonists website?”
No, abducens, — and I can’t believe I’m writing this — you behaved perfectly well (except for the catty part where you insult the server’s intelligence by sarcastically referencing Mensa). It would have also been possible to “push back” as you put it in a non-escalatory way. I’ll give the right way and the wrong way; you tell me which is which. “Hey, ya dumb bitch! What’s this on the bill? I’m being charged? Christ. That’s what’s wrong with this frickin’ country. The gummint charging for every single thing! Christ, how stupid are you, you cow? Get your manager! Now!” … OR … “Excuse me, miss. Can you walk me through this charge for the sauce? Oh. Because it doesn’t have sauce and because we asked for sauce, and because it costs money to make sauce as you can’t just summon it from thin air, you have to charge for it. Ah. I see now. I do something similar in my own business: I charge for what it costs me money to produce. Thank you for clearing that up.”
The point I was trying to make is that wealthy people have a tendency to demand the best all the time. They want the best seat at the restaurant. They want first-class on the airplane. They want a maximum amount of the server’s attention. They demand and, invariably, when the horizon of perfection (it recedes as you approach it) in not reached, they grouse. I want whipped cream. I just want a dollop. What do you mean you can’t do that? Yes, you explained why, but me want, me want, me want. Did you know I run a business? Yes, and even though you’ve explained the business reason for why my demand cannot be met in the way I want, me want, me want.
And do you know why so many rich people do it, relative to poorer people? A poor person’s just happy to sit down and have someone else do the serving and the clearing away and the waiting for a change. A rich person? It isn’t enough. For some rich people, everything isn’t enough. Why do you think Nancy Pelosi’s (and the other dozen or so members of Congress) are doing al that insider trading? She couldn’t piss through all the wealth she has if she tried. The money itself is no longer the objective. Bitching about how she asked for water at 36 degrees Fahrenheit and got it at 37 degrees Fahrenheit as she grinds the shards of the glass into the server’s hand is the objective. (Sure, there are poor people who behave like this, too, but when you want to play the averages, betting on the rich person to be the dick in the transaction is a pretty safe way to go.)
The top 1% who don’t want to pay for their cheese are barely getting by on about $500,000 per year (or more).
OK, look, we are really too focused on cheese here. Also, I haven’t made 500k in a year, though I did come close for a few years. Close enough to make it useful to say that I was completely unbothered if I had to pay ten cents for a slice of cheese
Happy I can provide this outside perspective to the beatnik regulars here at rall.com. Keep hitting those bongos my dudes
Oh! And for Alex’s benefit, I definitely DO make north of 160k / year .. that’s been the case for years. Still never been bothered by cheese
I get so down about the world reading Ted Rall and these comments. It’s like nothing has ever been good and it can’t ever be good unless the whole of society is torn apart.
Reality can be depressing. But the truth is essential if we really want to escape this reality.
It’s all depressing and hopeless. There isn’t anything good and never can be. Giving up completely is the only solution. If you’re right then someone else is wrong if they’re right you’re wrong. No one is good, everyone good has terrible back secrets and the truth seems to be that unless we spend our days tearing everything down and admitting that nothing is or will ever be good we are worthless.
Now you’re getting it! But seriously, one thing you have to remember is that Ted Rall is a deeply sad misanthrope. Your instincts are correct: his only solution is to burn it all down. I’d recommend reading some other comics to balance it out. Pearls Before Swine is good