2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumA Personal Note About Donald Trump’s Candidacy
The details may change. Mr. Trump and his surrogates may talk about a real or virtual border wall, electronic workplace verification, this or that entry-exit system, an aggressive deportation force or more gradual attrition through enforcement. They may talk about legalization someday, years from now, or never. Those talking points ultimately dont matter a President Trump wouldnt have the resources to deport 11 million people. He has no workable plan to seal the border, build a wall or repair the economy once he destroys it by devastating the immigrant work force. He would, however, be able to make millions of immigrants miserable, and break up their families, and damage the country
Arizona, home of Minutemen vigilantes and a powerful grass-roots immigrant-rights movement, has long been a national bellwether on immigration policy. It was a fitting backdrop to Mr. Trumps hollow proposals, and his relentless lies about the dangers that immigrants pose to the lives of our American citizens. Tornadoes are hollow at the center, too, and they do a lot of damage.
That hit a personal note with me. It made me realize that it was finally time to write about something that has been rolling around in my head for the last couple of weeks. I recently had lunch with a friend and former co-worker who is a child and family therapist for a local HMO. She recounted stories of immigrant children she is currently working with who are American citizens but whose anxiety about the possible deportation of their parents is becoming a mental health issue. She also said that in her 30+ years as a family therapist, shes never experienced so many people needing to talk about what is going on in this election. It has gotten so pronounced that she and a co-worker have decided that they need to bring it up in their group consultation. As professional therapists, they recognize that talking about politics with clients is usually unethical. But this election is different. People need to talk about how is it affecting them.
As the feminists in the 60s and 70s so wisely said the personal is political. That has never been more true than it is right now. The one thing Id add to what the NYT editorial board wrote is that this is not just about the potential damage a Trump presidency would do. It is also about the damage his candidacy is doing to people right now.
Pundits are meant to analyze policy and write about the political horse race. But I need to say that this kind of hate is personal for me. Peoples lives are being damaged by our current political dialogue. Perhaps if we notice and say so, they wont feel so alone.
More: http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/09/01/a-personal-note-about-donald-trumps-candidacy/
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My heart goes out to the children.
border | The Obama Diary
In a protest, Renata Teodoro, right, and her mother, Gorete Borges Teodoro, who was deported in 2007, met at a Mexican border fence.
https://www.google.com/search?q=a+child+reaches+for+her+mother+at+the+mexican+border&biw=781&bih=354&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizhNnI6fHOAhXK4iYKHRTpBc8Q_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=a+child+reaches+for+her+mother+at+the+mexican+border+miss+smartypants&imgrc=jWrdwG_3apJUzM%3A
Wounded Bear
(58,656 posts)sheshe2
(83,770 posts)I hope it is read.
The families are paying the price. The children are in need of therapy. They are legal. Their parents are not. The picture? I did an OP on it a year or so ago. Heartbreaking.
madamesilverspurs
(15,804 posts)My alleged representative is Ken Buck. This bears mention here because he was the county DA who helped to engineer the dubiously legal raid on a local meat packing plant in 2006. Busloads of workers were detained in violation of the terms of the warrant obtained by Buck and his cohorts. Also in violation of that warrant was the removal of detainees from the area, some of whom were summarily deported.
At the primary school in the neighborhood where many immigrant families reside many of the students ended the school day by returning to homes where a father or mother wouldnt be there any more; in a couple of cases, it was both parents who were gone. A friend who teaches at that school reported that every student in her classroom had at least one absent family memberfather, mother, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, cousin, grandmother, grandfather. The school soon became alarmed by a sudden increase in absenteeism; these children were afraid to go to school in case it meant coming home to someone else gone. My friend sat at my kitchen table and cried for her students who spent part of every day in sudden bouts of tears and shaking fear. Ten years later some of those students come back to visit, and far too many are still waiting to be reunited with their family members. School counselors still deal with the aftermath and the continuing fear among our Hispanic students; its not something other kids have to deal with. Its damned horrific.
To absolutely no ones surprise, Ken Buck is supporting Trump.
And I'm working for the candidate who hopes to unseat Buck.
sheshe2
(83,770 posts)Why should they suffer an orange person that hates America. He spews America first while off shoring his companies. Hires illegals to his modeling companies and imports a wife illegally.
What a CRASS act he is.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)With all the hate they can muster up, it must be hard to hate so much every day.
CajunBlazer
(5,648 posts)Let's take a different point of view - that of people in other first world countries.
What must they think of our country when when a sizeable portion of our population have made a narcissistic egotist with an attention deficit problem the Presidential nominee of one of our two major political parties.
What must they think of our country when he still has the support of over 40% of our population.
What would they think of our country if somehow this egomaniac becomes President of the United States.
Well, whatever they would think of us, they would be right.
sheshe2
(83,770 posts)The world is terrified and rightfully so.
I am as well.