AlterNet: Right-Wingers Are Stirring Up Xenophobia to Swiftboat Health Reform

Right-Wingers Are Stirring Up Xenophobia to Swiftboat Health Reform

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted August 4, 2009.

Misleading people is really the only option for those bent on killing the reform movement.




Along with death and taxes, a third thing of which one can be certain is that conservative politicians will exploit Americans’ concerns about illegal immigration to rally opposition to any policy that might help ordinary working people.

The specter of unauthorized migrants sucking hungrily from the public teat is a tried-and-true method of turning people against their own interests.

We heard the narrative used to attack the stimulus package, federal aid to needy families, housing assistance and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).

Forget about how these measures might impact their constituents -- lawmakers told us they had to oppose them to prevent hard-working Americans from being forced to subsidize foreigners who had broken the law. It fits neatly within the larger right-populist memes that fuel much of the immigration debate -- an out-of-control government that doesn’t only fail to uphold the law, but also, unimaginably, offers benefits to "illegal aliens" that are denied to ordinary Americans.

So it was inevitable that the unsettled and emotionally charged issue of immigration would be used as a cudgel against health reform. And it has -- not only by the usual motley crew of factually challenged pundits and radio hate-jocks, but by a number of conservative lawmakers. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/immigration/141739/right-wingers_are_stirring_up_xenophobia_to_swiftboat_health_reform_/

they can find in the American character. It's quite sad to watch...