Turns out the season finale of SVU (an ideologically very lefty show) was all about anti-DREAMer propaganda. The new progressive position, it seems, is that legalizing Dreamers is unfair because they are “privileged.” They are not real victims, so screw them.
This is how public opinion is massaged to justify the rejection of legalizing Dreamers in return for reduced overall immigration.
I wish I were wrong when I said that the public wailing over Dreamers a few months ago was completely fake and nobody really cared about them.
It’s like abortion for Republicans. They don’t want to do anything about it. They want to use it as an eternal passion-stoking issue for their base.
I haven’t come across this particular idea, but I imagine that it goes something like: “Legalizing Dreamers is just one aspect of a whole complex of interacting oppression, to help one groups is to ignore all sorts of other oppression… so better to not to do anything. Perfection is unobtainable so let’s not try to do anything” (sound Sovietically familiar?)
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Turns out the season finale of SVU (an ideologically very lefty show) was all about anti-DREAMer propaganda.
SVU is a leftist show? In comparison to what? 24? Designated Survivor? Blue Bloods? NCIS?
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It’s far to the left of me, for instance. And not on the economy, which would be easy enough, but on social issues. And I’m comfortably left on the social.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
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Okay. What’s your plan? I mean, beyond blogging and waiting for the Democrats to collectively get their shit together?
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From the issues I named, I know exactly what I want to happen on immigration and opioids, and I’m not voting for anybody who doesn’t offer a plan that would go in the direction I believe is right. That’s literally all I want people to do. After saying “what Trump is doing is horrible” to add “what I would like to see happen is XYZ.”
I want people to go to the trouble of figuring out what they want and not stop at what they don’t want. I don’t think it’s too much to ask.
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That’s great! You’re in IL-13, right? Does Betsy Dirksen Londrigan make your cut? Her stance on immigration is a little…platitudinous.
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She is so hopeless that even my union is endorsing the Republican opponent. Which I don’t support, by the way.
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Yeah, my kid is an intern for her now. This is the third political campaign my kid’s been a part of (and the fourth politician she’s worked for) and she’s learning a lot. She’s really impressed by BDL’s drive and organization, but can’t really get behind her lukewarm stances on any key issues. The last congressional candidate she worked for (in a different state) had great positions but no clue how to run a successful political campaign.
BDL does have a shot at winning — and this is a case where I have no problem seeing the “lesser of two evils” as a positive good. “My plan” (part of it anyway) is to participate with local groups that are canvassing and registering voters on her behalf, and then when she is in office join in efforts to lobby her to vote for the legislation I care about (something that there is no chance of doing with the guy currently in office).
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This is good news to me because I really want a reason to vote for her. If you say she’s not hopeless, I trust that.
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I have some idea from reading your blog, but what exactly do you want to happen on those issues? What’s your cutoff between “right direction” and “not even worth it?”
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At this point, I’d take something as minimal as the recognition that there is a big problem at the border and that addressing it is a big part of solving the opioid crisis. I’d like to see prosecutions of the pharma companies that created the crisis, I’d like very strict controls over prescriptions of opioids, and at the end of the road I’d love to see an immigration system that’s similar to Canada’s point system. This is what I want to see on these two issues.
On the economy, I’d like to see strong protectionist measures and if that raises prices on consumer goods, I’ll be happy because that’s the only thing that can reasonably be expected to be done for the environment.
In higher ed, I’d like to see a dramatic reduction of federal and state compliance requirements that force universities to spend like crazy on mushrooming administrative positions and offices of sustainability, diversity, counseling, etc that soak up money and do absolutely nothing useful.
If we are to start small, I’d love to see a recognition that these problems do exist and one doesn’t have to be a fascist evildoer to notice them. That would already be a big step forward.
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I mean, I can easily see Democrats and/or liberal media moving in that direction. But I’m not gonna make any major assumptions based on one episode of SVU.
I think it’s also important to separate out liberal media and actual Democratic politicians. I’ve noticed that actual Democratic politicians are much less useless and annoying than the shrieking, Russia obsessed idiots in the NYTimes, etc. Not that that’s a high bar to clear.
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Unfortunately, the politicians of both parties are terrified of the shrill yet active radical minorities.
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Predictably the Snakesville Woman comes up with the approach that will be sure to be the least effective possible (cementing her queen bee progressive title).
http://www.shakesville.com/2018/06/a-note-about-language-and-protesting.html
She’s a total Trump junkie and will go into mourning should he lose in 2020 and give her one less reason to luxuriate in her misery.
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