The Government Shut Down Boils Down To One Factor – Racism

By Felicia J. Persaud

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Jan. 26, 2018: A lot has been said of the government shutdown that happened at midnight on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018.  Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the rest of the rightwing bunch are trying to blame Democrats for holding firm on legalization for young Dreamers while Democrats are blaming Republicans for being unwilling to cut a deal.

But the entire shutdown from where I sit as an immigrant can be blamed squarely on one issue – R-A-C-I-S-M.

Racism led squarely by Trump and his band of Trumpeteers – Stephen Miller, Tom Cotton, David Perdue and John Kelly along with many on the right running around under the banner of “conservatives,” a code name today for nothing more than “Make America White Again.”

Let’s face it – before Trump even became President, his agenda was clear – to rid the country of the growing bloc of brown and black foreigners and ensure a shoring up of the mainly White Republican voting bloc.

Coming after a black President shocked many racist Whites by winning two-terms, the “base” had to come up with a plan to take back and retain their “power.” After all, this was “their” country and the real power had to be reined in, taken back and controlled.

From the right’s calculation, brown and black immigrants were growing too fast, with many becoming citizens and growing the Democratic voting bloc and helping to outnumber the slowly aging White Republican voter still hung up on life pre-civil rights.

To those 30 percent of Trump’s base, “these damn immigrants were taking over their country” and had to be stopped by any means necessary. And so the agenda to stop that frightening growth of black and brown power came down to executing a plan to deport most and stop others from legally entering – ensuring a stemming of the tide that had swept Obama into office and which gave Democrats a base that was outgrowing Republicans.

And so to try to rationalize why many in the GOP are willing to risk shutting down that government over DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is to try to understand the rationale for racism, hatred and xenophobia.

Trump and his Trumpeteers will not yield because from their count, if they deport 800,000 young immigrants, 80,000 or so Haitians, and another million or so immgirants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), plus of course the growing number of undocumented immigrants while ending family migration and the green card lottery, then they would have helped to lower significantly the brown and black population and inched their way back to White control in “their country.”

That is the agenda El Trumpeto was elected to push; it is one McConnell and company know well but of course cannot verbalize beyond claiming hypocritically they “don’t know what the President really wants.”

They all know what 45 really wants – To Make America White Again! Democrats and the few fair minded Republicans who voted to stop this debased agenda are on the right side of history and should be applauded for taking a stand for immigrants and the working poor in these diverse United States.

The writer is CMO at Hard Beat Communications, Inc. which owns the brands: NewsAmericasNow, CaribPRWire and InvestCaribbeanNow.