Sins of The Fathers
by digby
So 89 year old Helen Thomas is excoriated for her comments that the Israeli Jews should go back where their parents came from --- "Poland, Germany, the United States" but the governor of Arizona blithely says that American children should go back where their parents came from and that's considered perfectly normal political discourse, not even worthy of discussion:
“It is illegal to trespass in our country. It has always been illegal. And people have determined that they want to take that chance, that responsibility. It’s not going to tear them apart. They can take their children back with them.”
What a lovely piece of work this woman is. Arizonans must all be so proud.
So, it's ok to say that American born Hispanics should be forced to "go back where they came from" but saying it about Israeli Jews is worthy of a witch burning. Why is that?
I honestly can't get over the fact that people are so unable to see the direct correlation here between Thomas's ramblings and what Brewer and the rest of the "Repeal the 14th amendment" people are saying. The uber-patriots of the wingnut freakshow who fetishize American exceptionalism have once again taken it upon themselves to decide which American babies are worthy of growing up in their own country. And everybody thinks this is just fine.
And by the way, it has not "always" been illegal to cross the Mexican border to work, not by a long shot. The border has been open and closed to varying degrees since there was a border. The history of Mexico and the United States is closely interwoven, both having been colonized by Europeans, native peoples shoved all over the place and a series of wars creating the borders that exist today. There are many, many Americans of Hispanic descent whose ancestors were here long before Jan Brewer's. The definition of who is a truly American is no more her prerogative than it is anyone else. So the only possible way to do this is to say that "American" means someone who was born in the United States or who became a naturalized citizen, period. Anything else is just nasty nativist nonsense, no matter who says it.
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