During WWII, the United States government incarcerated over one hundred thousand Americans because they were of Japanese descent, two-thirds of them American citizens. Their bank accounts were locked and they were forced to leave behind their homes, pets, businesses and possessions to live in remote, barren camps guarded by armed soldiers. They had to grow their own food and were strong-armed into laboring for the war effort for much lower pay than free civilians earned for the same work. More than 5000 people were pressured into renouncing their citizenship, which took some decades to get back, while others were deported to Japan.
The president-elect claims he will cancel birthright citizenship on his first day in office (video), meaning that children born to immigrants in America will not be American citizens. He wants to denaturalize American citizens. Moreover, he wants to deport minor American citizens along with their parents (video).
Let me say that again: he plans to strip American citizens of their citizenship and deport them and their children.
He does not seem to care that this would violate their constitutionally protected rights. And we’ve done it before.
Corporations are already gearing up to expand for-profit “detention centers” — where, I’m going to hazard a guess, they could exploit unpaid (literally or practically) labor for profit.
It’s not a done deal by any means! It’s blatantly unconstitutional, for one, and repugnantly racist for another. His “Muslim ban” was blocked in his first term. But with a stacked Supreme Court that doesn’t believe in precedent… we need to be fighting this every way we can. If we do not enforce the Constitution, it is worth nothing more than the paper it is printed on. We’ve already weakened it significantly by allowing an insurrectionist to take office against clear prohibitions (I don’t hold any hope that Dems will even try to force a vote, that would be “unseemly”). And without the Constitution, the United States are no longer America.
Our Democratic representatives, who rightly (if belatedly) identified the threat to our democracy during the election, should be fighting Republicans tooth and nail on everything. (Republicans have been obstructionist ghouls for my entire adult life, you don’t have to hold the door for them! Make a fucking nuisance of yourselves! RTFM!) But as far as I’ve seen, they remain spineless as ever 🙄 (Can we cut it out with the “we’ll cooperate with the fascists because compromise is important and they won” shit? No! You don’t *have* to be collaborators guyz.) They’re too preoccupied with performing civility and pretending they can do anything about racism and sexism and poverty without addressing the structural flaws perpetuating them. With their obeisance, they are ceding the president-elect power he certainly did not earn with only 49.9% of the vote.
Watching the South Korean opposition party leap into action to stop the coup attempt made me wish we had an opposition party. The leader literally livestreamed himself climbing a wall to get into the building where they could hold a vote against martial law. When I picture the same events in America, I can see AOC livestreaming herself… and everyone else waiting to give hand-wringing interviews the next day only to discover there is no freedom of the press anymore. Democrats are acting like the election was the final battle in the war of democracy, and we lost. Fuck that! He hasn’t even taken office yet! If Democrats won’t fight for us — won’t fight for America — I want someone who will.*
Did you know the United States used to have a flourishing leftist movement? It was driven underground and suppressed by the red scare, and never really came back. ‘Socialist’ is still a scare word for most Americans… even as they vote for progressive policies.
What if we could have a legitimately progressive political wing again? What if we had politicians who weren’t willing to trade our rights and safety to preserve their own comfort? We’ve done it before…
After the public reaction to the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO, it’s apparent that Americans want Universal Healthcare. We are all sick of greedy leeches engorging themselves on our suffering.
We will have to save ourselves while our representatives placate the president-elect in a futile attempt to save themselves — but at the next election I want to see a wave of progressives primarying cowardly centrist reps. In the meantime, I want our representatives in office to use their power and fight like their lives are on the line — because ours are.
Further reading on Japanese American incarceration:
Further reading on American fascism:
America’s “base alloy of hypocrisy”
An endless battle for the rights of the underclass
See also:
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