Phyllis Schlafly Has Had It With People Thinking Statue Of Liberty Welcomes Immigrants

[phantom power]

Wanker of the Month

Phyllis Schlafly, the Queen Mum of rightwing hate, is getting pretty tired of the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. So yesterday, she tossed a tempest; in a radio commentary, she insisted that the Statue of Liberty actually “has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.” Schlafly also dismissed Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” as some disgraceful graffiti that actually ruined the monument. In her version of the statue’s history,

“people who had nothing to do with this great gift from the French were allowed to paste a plague on the base of the statue with a quotation that has misrepresented the statue as an invitation to open immigration.”

...

No surprise, though. This is, after all, a woman who has argued that the Bible’s injunction to show compassion to strangers in a strange land only applies to visitors, not those scummy immigrants, who Jesus would presumably have deported.
Oh, and compare, please, Schlafly’s pinched, “I got mine, you stay out” meanness with the hopes of FDR, in the middle of the Great Depression:

....

We’re pretty sure of this much: in the 19th century, there were a hell of a lot of peasants who risked pretty much everything to get to America so they could be free from people exactly like Phyllis Schlafly, who is just about as un-American as it’s possible to get.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/532893/phyllis-schlafly-has-had-it-with-people-thinking-statue-of-liberty-welcomes-immigrants#83Mmfz7qycykCvHp.99

[progressoid]

1. She's still alive?

[Orrex]

4. Was she ever?

I thought that she was always a quasi-animate husk powered by cruelty and hatred.

[demwing]

5. Nah...but she still won't shut up /nt

[tavalon]

7. Well, in that zombie way that those crazy ladies have

Like Ann Coultergeist. Same except much older.

[valerief]

19. my first thought, too. nt

[pangaia]

20. Just what I was going to post.

You beat me to it.
I guess great minds run in....

[LiberalElite]

38. That was my reaction too nt

[HappyMe]

2. I think she should be

Wanker of The Year for her consistent block-headed stupidity.

[Skidmore]

3. Wonder how she felt about her father who was an

immigrant.

[phantom power]

6. it always boils down to "I got mine" with conservatives

[Populist_Prole]

16. Yeah really

My right wing father is too much. He is the offspring of two "off the boat" immigrants that sailed right by that statue as they entered the US, grew up but a mile from the outer border of a huge city. Retired and wealthy now in the rural west, he is the biggest uber nationalist flag-waving chickenhawk and he acts like he's John Wayne and Daniel Boone rolled into one. He does NOT see the irony.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

22. Greed or Hate ... tough to decide which is the guiding principle for the Right.

I think it is:

1. Greed
1a. Hate

and the rest are only props to be used when supporting a position of 1 and 1a (you know, props like that Constitution thingy or that Bible thingy or States' Rights or whatever). They are so overshadowed by greed and hate that they don't even make the list.

[Chellee]

34. Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.


Robert Frost

[alp227]

14. Great-grandfather actually

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly#Family

But hey, wasn't he actually the RIGHT kind of immigrant? (wink wink)

[NewJeffCT]

26. He was white

so, those kind of immigrants are okay, of course.

[LeftinOH]

8. She's probably right. After all, she was there when the statute was built. n/t

[JBoy]

9. If the Statue of Liberty was a Republican, she'd be getting primaried from the right.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

10. DUzy!ol

[jon10]

11. the original purpose was acknowledgment of USA inspiring the French revolution

That's why France gave it to us. it was placed on the pedestal, pointed toward France. it was titled 'Liberty Lights the World'

whatever one thinks of her tone and motivations in writing this, she's not necessarily wrong in citing it's orgins

[Whoopdedoo]

30. One quote from

A very detailed investigation by the National Park Service investigation to rumors about the monument:
"The conventional interpretation of the statue as a monument to American immigrants is a twentieth-century phenomenon. In its early years (1871-1886), that view was only rarely and vaguely expressed, while references to the Civil War and abolition of slavery occur repeatedly from its first introduction to the United States in 1871 up to and including the dedication celebrations in 1886. Immigrants did not actually see the Statue of Liberty in large numbers until after its unveiling. In the early twentieth century, the statue became a popular symbol for nativists and white supremacists. Official use of the statue's image to appeal to immigrants only began in earnest with public efforts to Americanize immigrant children and the government’s advertising campaign for World War I bonds. The "immigrant" interpretation gained momentum in the 1930s as Americans prepared for war with Hitler and by the 1950s, it had become the predominant understanding of the statue's original purpose and meaning."
http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/black-statue-of-liberty.htm
Here is an interesting read on the history of the Monument. I include it because it include pictures and obscure or little known tid bits. It does have some errors in fact but still worthy:
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/31/the-true-story-of-the-statue-of-liberty/#!niP4L

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

36. She's just mostly wrong....

"The New Colossus" was written in 1883 (before the statue was erected, as part of a fundraising campaign to finance construction of the pedestal. The poem was written specifically for the State of Liberty and so it would be a stretch to claim that it was added on later.

[kelliekat44]

12. Hmmm... and what are her roots? nt

[cali]

13. time for her fuck off and... well, you know.

[alp227]

15. Native Americans have had it with white people whining about immigrants nt

[pampango]

17. She was ranting about "globalists" and UN treaties last November.

The globalists have been plotting to use the volatility of this lame-duck session to achieve some of their internationalist goals that they couldn't get passed during the last four years. In particular, they would like to lock us into treaties that slice out various parts of our national sovereignty, a concept that they have been trying to promote as obsolete. ... The globalists could make a surprise treaty push for ratification of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (UNATT). This treaty is coming under the radar since gun control advocates know it could never pass the U.S. Senate after debate in broad daylight.

Another plan to ratify an anti-sovereignty treaty and subject us to unwelcome global regulations is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This mischievous document was signed for the U.S. by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice (now famous for giving big TV time to Obama's lies about the Benghazi disaster).

The globalists desperately want us to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which was a bad idea when Ronald Reagan rejected it in 1981, and which has soured rather than ripened in its years of languishing in the Senate. This treaty cedes sovereign control over practically all the riches at the bottom of the world's oceans to an International Seabed Authority.

After ratification, treaties become part of the "supreme law" of the United States on a par with federal statutes, which gives supremacist judges the power to invent their own interpretations. The whole concept of putting the United States in the noose of global organizations, in which the U.S. has only the same one vote as Cuba, is offensive to Americans, and all these UN treaties should be scrapped forthwith.

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2012/11/06/schlafly-beware-of-the-lame-duck-session/

[Xithras]

18. Err, Emma Lazarus wrote the poem to help build it in the first place.

American "fiscal conservatives" refused to allow any taxpayer dollars to be spent to finance the American portion of the statue construction project. American "liberals" like Emma Lazarus stepped up to support fundraising efforts and get it built. "The New Collossus", the sonnet that the quote at the base was sourced from, was originally written by Lazarus specifically so that it could be sold at an auction, with all of the proceeds going to fund its construction. Lazarus did far more to support that statue than Schlafly's ideological forebears did.

Besides, Mrs. Fundynut should ponder the fact that she's worried about "misrepresenting" and defending the intent of a 100 foot tall pagan goddess standing watch over one of the most liberal cities in America (and not a minor one either...Libertas had her own temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome). I wonder what her own angry conservative god would think about that.

[alfredo]

21. BTW, Syphilis Schlafly is not related to Schlafly beer. see below

From their FAQ:

Does Phyllis or Andrew Schlafly have anything to do with the brewery?
Phyllis Schlafly is Tom Schlafly’s aunt by marriage. She is the widow of Fred Schlafly, Tom’s father’s brother. Andrew Schlafly is Phyllis’ son and Tom’s cousin. Neither Phyllis, nor Andrew Schlafly is involved with Schlafly Beer in any way.

[mwooldri]

23. In an alternative universe...

The Statue of Liberty wants to ... eat you?



Maybe Schlafly lives in that universe?

[KatyaR]

33. I wouldn't cry if she got grabbed by a Weeping Angel...

Maybe it would throw her back on one of those immigrant ships and let her see what it was like....



(I ran out of angry smilies....)

[allan01]

24. re:Phyllis Schlafly Has Had It With People Thinking Statue Of Liberty Welcomes Immigrants

New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
line six talks about Immigrants.
lines 10 and 11 talk about Immigrants, wonder what plannet that person is living on?

http://www.howtallisthestatueofliberty.org/what-is-the-quote-on-the-statue-of-liberty/

[SoapBox]

25. Now I figured out where Satan Cheeeeeney got his new heart from.

[AlbertCat]

27. All I have to say is....

ERA NOW!

[bravenak]

28. A plague?

How can one paste a plague?

Maybe a plaque.

But I'm sure she meant plague. A plague of immigrants.

I thought 'that woman' was dead already. Shows how much I know.

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. Years ago, the Miami Herald ran a cartoon on their OP-ED page

This was in the 80's, when the frequency of Haitians trying to reach Miami while risking their lives in crappy boats was at a high point.

The cartoon showed the Statue of Liberty and under it the "Yearning to breath free" quote.

Under that it said "Hold the Haitians"

Schafly just wants that to read "Hold everyone I don't like".

[arthritisR_US]

31. Ya, well people have had it listening to her.

[felix_numinous]

32. How poetic

a woman who headed the STOP ERA movement and advised women instead to focus on being more attractive to men, for example meeting them at the door wearing only Saran Wrap.

Interpreting Lady Liberty as a 'hostess for guests' instead of a symbol of liberty-- that cannot exist without compassion---would actually describe the RW delusion at its core.

[jwirr]

35. At least she is correct about some of us. No one welcomed our Native American side and the

others came over in the 1850s - am I correct that the statue was not here yet?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

37. Schlafly....I'm trying to determine if that surname is Navajo, Apache, or Iroquois.

Does anyone know which non-immigrant tribe she hails from?

[AverageJoe90]

39. Next thing you know, this moronic piece of work will be claiming that....

America was founded as a whites-only nation or that the Founders were actually perfectly okay with the slavery system instead of being rather critical of it and wanting it to be eliminated(especially the Yankees & Paine, but even the Southerners weren't so gung-ho about it either).....hell, it wouldn't surprise me, at least; Teabagger revisionism knows almost no bounds when it comes to pure stupidity & outright bullshittery.