who is the RW marketing genius behind the immigration red herring?

[leftofthedial]

they've gone from zero to 100 miles an hour in nothing flat

so much ado about a relatively minor issue and now everyone is obsessed with it

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. I assume it's Rove. All it took is introducing one bill, and some flags

waving at some demonstrations.

I must say I honestly wonder if some of the earliest demonstrations were organized by Rovebots, and Mexican flags handed out by RNC operatives. I can't help but think like this these days.

They play a tune on their fascist banjos, and all America dances a jig, including much of DU.

[leftofthedial]

3. and we all know what happened after the banjo playing was over

in Deliverance

[cali]

2. If it's right wing manipulation this is a SERIOUS

miscalculation. The whole immigration brouhaha has been, and will continue to be, terrible for the repuke party.

[leftofthedial]

4. it's an orchestrated distraction

a very minor issue when compared to the real problems facing America

and the immigration hardliners are all repukes

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Not a great issue for them, BUT.. they're bailing water out of their

rickety USS Shrub tub right now.

Trying to distract from the issues that could completely boost their boys out of power, including imperial spying, imperial revenge/leaking, failed war of imperial conquest, failure to protect imperial cities.

ANY issue that pushes buttons and gets news coverage, even a kind of crappy one for their party, will do at this moment.

[EstimatedProphet]

6. I think the administration may not even be loyal to the party

Although we think of them as ultra-loyal to the Republican party, and indeed they do things that promote that party over the Democratic party, ultimately they are loyal only to themselves. If they can stay powerful by sowing confusion in the Republican party, they will do it.

[blondeatlast]

11. I've been saying this for some time now--the admin could'nt care

less about getting Republicans in what are currently Democratic seats.

As long as they retain the BushBot army, they couldn't care less about gaining any new seats.

The RNC may care, but the string-pullers in the Heritage Foundation and the administration won't even break a sweat to help the RNC.

[jwirr]

7. Definitely, as is their discussion of nuking iran. They may actually

be thinking of doing it but the timing of the announcement is obviously to divert attention to the traitor in chief's outing of a CIA agent for political purposes. That to will backfire.

[chaumont58]

8. The thing is they have nothing else to talk about

They are between a rock and a hard place. They can't talk about chimpie's excellent Eyeracky experience. They want, as much as possible, for people to forget about the culture of corruption in Congress.
Tom Delay? Can't mention him! Duke Cunningham? Can't mention him. Abramoff? Can't mention him! Conrad Burns? Can't mention him. It goes on.

[rocktivity]

9. Way ahead of you

Yesterday, I posted that "the Rethugs got exactly want they wanted" out of the so-called immigration crisis: "The status quo (businesses can continue to encourage and exploit illegal workers); a weapon of mass distraction (from the Iraqi occupation and Leakgate); and the opportunity to demonize Democrats for "blocking" their "sincere" attempts to solve the problem!"

It was all about creating sound and fury MEANT to culminate in signifying nothing. And now that the immigration reform bill is dying out in the Senate exactly as planned, Iranian nukes are the next "product" to be rolled off the Bush monarchy production line.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Ksec]

10. and so many are willing to play

thats a shame.

[Iris]

12. I believe it's been going on a while. There have been "English only"

campaigns since at least the late 80s/early 90s.

[leftofthedial]

13. they didn't invent it out of whole cloth

but they turned it into international mega news and an issue that is perceived as vital to the national interest

[Iris]

15. Right. Even as I was writing that post, I was thinking about the ways

some people have always used to stir up others against a group of people.

And some folks don't understand why we should all study history.

[happydreams]

14. K&R. I've been wanting to say something on this

It shows how easily the Press is manipulated into these what I call "suddenly serious" issues. The Press loves them because they are new fodder for their talking heads. The Right-Wing loves them because they can, maybe catch the dems off guard. In this case they didn't seem to do that though.

[leftofthedial]

17. sometimes they hit a homerun

like with the abortion issue

wedge issues are gifts that just keep giving to the fascists

[High Plains]

16. This discussion is kind of silly.

The issue blew up not because of Rovian machinations but because the House last year passed a horrible bill--fences and felonies--and the Senate was to begin considering its version. Confronted with a horrible bill, immigrant communities and their supporters put hundreds of thousands of people on the streets. That is a massive mobilization worthy of media attention (like the anti-war marches should have been), and you'll see more tomorrow.

The illegal immigration issue has been festering for years. It is coming to a head now because Congress has finally gotten around to thinking about acting.

And I think this is a loser issue for the Republicans. It splits them right down the middle, with nativist bigots (the base) on one side and business interests (the money) on the other.

[leftofthedial]

18. all the issues covered by our corporate media are silly

[leftstreet]

19. Uh...the interests of workers are hardly "a relatively minor issue."

Immigration reform isn't the red herring. Racism and flag-waving are the shiny bubbles, meant to distract from the interests of all workers; documented or not, citizen or not.

Both sides of the aisle wanted this fight, for wedge-issue election reasons. When Dems objected to Sensenbrenner's "felony" stipulation, he amended and made it a misdemeanor. The Dems voted against it, proving their original objection was just as much bullshit as the introduction of the original bill itself.

No one is representing workers.

How does La Raza or the Catholic church respond to an undocumented worker when s/he asks, "um.....so like once we've got amnesty, what prevents millions more undocumented workers coming here to compete for OUR jobs?"

It's all bullshit.

[leftofthedial]

22. there are far bigger issues affecting workers

this is a classic RW wedge issue, intended to divide and distract

[kittenpants]

20. There was an MSNBC poll yesterday asking what issue concerned you most..

and it gave the three choices of Iraq, the economy, and immigration.

Today, a reporter segued into an immigration story by citing the results of the poll and said dramatically that viewers had "listed immigration as their third biggest concern, only behind Iraq and the economy!" Of course they didn't mention that their poll had only given three options!

[cassiepriam]

21. Has Rove's fingerprints on it. Pure Bubba bait. nt

[leftofthedial]

23. yup

"bubba bait" :rofl:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. 350,000 demonstrators in Dallas. The "plan" backfired.

And, that's the police estimate. The "genius" apparantly thought that the immigrants were going to bend over and take it.


They must have forgot about guys like Emiliano Zapata.