What the conservative publication
The Nation Review described in an
article two years ago concerning what was seen a certain U.S. senator’s office
suggests someone who is at heart and head a bigot whose view of the world is
extremely narrow. The only people who matter in his world are those like him,
or rather who look like him. Those are the people who need his “protection.” In
pictures behind his desk are indications of what sees in himself: the “Master
of the Universe,” a “he-man” astride his “battle cat,” his sword ready to do
battle in defense of what is obviously “white civilization.” Who is the “enemy”?
For Jeff Sessions, a former federal
attorney, judge, current U.S. Senator and
now apparent future Attorney General in Donald Trump’s administration (it’s
hard to call him “president”), the “enemy” is anyone who isn’t “white,” and in
particular Hispanics, who he believes—as do many extremists on the right—are the direct threat to Anglo supremacy.
Sessions often uses the term “masters of the universe” as a derogatory term to
apply to “politicians, political strategists and special interest groups,” but
in fact it is people like himself are truly deserving of the appellation, in an
even more sinister sense.
Sessions is a scion of the
segregated South, served as a U.S. Attorney and as Attorney General in Alabama.
His views and actions in regard to civil and voting rights is a mixed bag. He
has been accused of “retaliation” against black leaders in Alabama for accusing
him of making racist statements to them, which led the U.S. Senate to turn down his
nomination for a federal court judgeship. On the other hand, he was “praised”
for at least stating an “intent” to bring federal charges against a KKK member
who killed a random black man and left him hanging from a tree, although the
reality was that he never prosecuted the case, leaving it to local authorities.
Sessions, in fact, seems to be loath to give credence to “hate crimes”—in fact,
like most on the right, prefers to speak of the “hate” from the other side.
But Sessions principle obsession
these days are immigrants, legal or illegal, and Hispanics in particular. We
shouldn’t be surprised by this, for this has been the leading “obsession” of the extremists on the right since at
least 2000. He has opposed any form
of immigration reform—comprehensive or otherwise—that allows any increase in the number of legal
immigrants of Hispanic origin in this country. Let’s be honest about this:
there would be far less rhetoric involved here if there were not people who
just don’t like Hispanics, whether it is because of their appearance or their
speech. It is as much a visceral
reaction as it is a “legal” one. There are many other immigrant groups who by
percentage have a large illegal element;
in fact,15 percent of all illegal aliens in this country are of Asian or
Indian origin, and that number is growing at much faster rate than the “Mexicans.”
But like on the issue of trade
and jobs, people here have fixated their hate on Hispanics, and Sessions is a
leading “light” in that movement—if not the
leader—and now he is the prospective Attorney General with all the power to
carry out a policy based on lies, misinformation and his own special brand of
racism. Sessions and his apologists may claim up and down that he is not racist
against blacks, but you only have to be racist against one group to be a
racist. And only a racist can throw out numbers that he should know are false
to excite hate in others.
For example, in a speech at the
Republican National Convention, Sessions proclaimed that “there are about
350,000 who succeed in crossing our borders each year.” His listeners
undoubtedly believe the only “border” that matters is the one to the south. But
like so many “statistics” quoted by extreme nativists and xenophobes (like
Trump, Pat Buchanan, Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin), Sessions quotes “facts”
that either have no foundation in truth, or deliberately “misinterprets” them.
The number he cites is from the Border Patrol’s number of apprehensions on the
Mexican border, some 337,000 in 2015, a number that has been decreasing
steadily since 2000. Since 2009, more immigrants leave the country (Mexico’s
current unemployment rate is less than 5 percent) than enter.
Furthermore, the Border Patrol’s
numbers indicate the number of failed attempts to enter the country, and
include persons who attempted to enter the country more than once—again an
indication of the success rate of the Border Patrol to apprehend illegal
entrants. Yet we have the nation’s top law officer (if he is confirmed in the
post) express his intent to base his actions on deliberately falsified
information, which he will “justify” to himself based on his own prejudices and
hate.
Sessions exposes his personal nativism
and xenophobia by overlapping his illegal immigrant position into an anti-immigrant position generally. In
an op-ed last year he wrote “Each year, the United States adds another million
mostly low-wage permanent legal immigrants who can work, draw benefits and
become voting citizens. Legal immigration is the primary source of low-wage
immigration into the United States. In other words, as a matter of federal
policy — which can be adjusted at any time — millions of low-wage foreign
workers are legally made available to substitute for higher-paid Americans.”
Again, as noted before, the ignorant are leading the blind here; immigrants are
not to blame for low wages in this country, but on actions that date back to
Reagan’s “supply-side” economic policies—policies that continue to be supported
by Republican plantation masters like Sessions, with their fixation on the
“Southern” model of economic “development.”
Jeff Sessions should not be
confirmed as Attorney General if he cannot be the “impartial” judge of the
country and its laws. That means that he has to base his actions on evidence
and facts, not blatant falsehood that his own bigotry justifies. Based on his own rhetoric of blatant
misinformation and racial paranoia, it is doubtful that he is suited for the
position. Sessions nomination makes mock yet again Trump's claim that he wants to work for "all Americans."
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