The Chris Moeller Archives

Refugees and Nativism

In an interconnected planet like ours, denying that refugees should become the "burden" of your country makes little sense. Western European countries have been major players in the politics of Syria and the Middle East. That crisis does not exist in a vacuum. It's the same thing in the United States where migrants coming over the Mexican border are made unwelcome by Nativists when the predominant economic issue driving the migration is the ruinous effect of NAFTA on Mexico and Central America's agricultural economy.

I get that these European countries, like Hungary, Germany, and Austria, don't want to have the most welcoming posture for fear that they might become the sole owner of the refugee crisis, but isn't that why we have a European Union? Or is it just for empowering a central European bank and promoting austerity programs for its member states?

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For what it's worth, Donald Trump hasn't been pulling a fast one on the American voters so much as he's been pulling one over on the traditional news media. At the center of his professional wrestling-style campaign strategy is the acute understanding that the news media feels the need to treat "both sides" of an argument equally regardless of the individual merits. A bloviating candidate spewing rhetoric endorsed by white identity terrorist groups then morphs into a "serious" presidential contender before our very eyes. Many in the media disown the rhetoric, but they live in fear that they'll be perceived as "advocating an agenda" if they criticize Trump's actual ideas rather than simply the form by which he presents them. Promising to destroy millions of families pales in comparison to inferring that Carly Fiorina is unattractive. When Univision's Jorge Ramos attempted to confront Trump about his WWII/Japanese internment plan-on-steroids to forcibly deport 11 million people of Hispanic descent, the Washington Post called Ramos a "conflict junkie" that had "blurred the line between journalist and activist." According to this popular mindset, unarmed black people being killed by police is also not a problem because not everybody agrees that it is.

posted by CM @ 6:49 PM