Anti-Obama Paranoia Rages
Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 4 May 2010
by Jean Sébastien Stehli (link to original)
(France) on 4 May 2010
by Jean Sébastien Stehli (link to original)
Translated from
by Claire Lauterbach.
Edited by Amy Wong.
Last week, the governor of Arizona signed an anti-immigrant bill, the direct or indirect consequences of which are still heard loud and clear. From now on, any person can find him- or herself getting his or her identity checked, based on a simple reasonable suspicion (read: brown skin). But this law, which doesn’t flatter John McCain’s state much, is actually hiding something serious.
Something is not right in America. This law, which is contrary to all the principles of the United States and was prepared hastily while Barack Obama and Congress were working on a new immigration law, is part of a wider movement. This movement is called “Take Back America.” Question: Take back whose America? Which enemy has nicked the country? To ask this question is also to answer it. For the entire extreme right wing, all those who aren’t of WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) origin are infidels who have no legitimate right to live in the United States. To further dot the i’s, the usurper, according to these “bigots,” is Barack Obama, who has allegedly had an accelerating effect on the demographic evolution of the United States. In California, the “whites” are currently no longer a majority. And that’s only the beginning of this trend.
The “Take Back America” movement has, as if by chance, started to pop up during the election of Barack Obama, the first black president. These same people asked that Latinos produce their papers and demand that the president prove that he was indeed born in the United States because if he were born abroad, he cannot occupy the White House. Rush Limbaugh, the uniquely bizarre host of a talk show with millions of faithful listeners in the United States, has also revealed his clique’s spirit: “I can understand Obama being touchy on the subject of producing your papers. Maybe he's afraid someone is going to ask him for his.”
Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others — those who believe that the end of the world is set for 2020 or that the government is inserting electronic chips under the skin of its citizens in order to better monitor them — affirm that Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan and who lived in Indonesia, was not born on American soil. Even though the president produced his birth certificate, some among them explained that this was a fake. The hatred for the president is so strong that the Arizona State Senate voted, in the aftermath of the immigration law, for a law obliging all 2012 presidential candidates to produce their birth certificates. The idea was so grotesque that just after it was voted on by 31 of the 35 senators who approved the anti-immigration law, it was withdrawn.
The effect of Arizona’s actions is spreading like an oil spill. Ten other states, some of them far from the border with Mexico (like Nebraska, Ohio or Maryland), are also preparing anti-immigration laws. This time, John McCain, who in the past took courageous decisions on immigration, has approved the law, hoping not to lose his seat. It is true that he is threatened by a novice, a partisan to the thesis that Obama was not born in the United States, a theory that the Tea Party supports. For J.D. Hayworth, the campaign for the Arizona senator’s seat is an opportunity to “defend our culture.” No need for translation.
The saddest thing, once again, is that no Republican has raised his or her voice to condemn such a proposal. Without a doubt, the Tea Party would drag the GOP along in its downfall when it assuredly happens. This anti-immigrant attitude is political suicide: Latinos are set to become one of the main groups of voters. They assured the victory of George W. Bush in 2000. They could well assure the re-election of the 44th president in two years.
Something is not right in America. This law, which is contrary to all the principles of the United States and was prepared hastily while Barack Obama and Congress were working on a new immigration law, is part of a wider movement. This movement is called “Take Back America.” Question: Take back whose America? Which enemy has nicked the country? To ask this question is also to answer it. For the entire extreme right wing, all those who aren’t of WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) origin are infidels who have no legitimate right to live in the United States. To further dot the i’s, the usurper, according to these “bigots,” is Barack Obama, who has allegedly had an accelerating effect on the demographic evolution of the United States. In California, the “whites” are currently no longer a majority. And that’s only the beginning of this trend.
The “Take Back America” movement has, as if by chance, started to pop up during the election of Barack Obama, the first black president. These same people asked that Latinos produce their papers and demand that the president prove that he was indeed born in the United States because if he were born abroad, he cannot occupy the White House. Rush Limbaugh, the uniquely bizarre host of a talk show with millions of faithful listeners in the United States, has also revealed his clique’s spirit: “I can understand Obama being touchy on the subject of producing your papers. Maybe he's afraid someone is going to ask him for his.”
Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others — those who believe that the end of the world is set for 2020 or that the government is inserting electronic chips under the skin of its citizens in order to better monitor them — affirm that Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan and who lived in Indonesia, was not born on American soil. Even though the president produced his birth certificate, some among them explained that this was a fake. The hatred for the president is so strong that the Arizona State Senate voted, in the aftermath of the immigration law, for a law obliging all 2012 presidential candidates to produce their birth certificates. The idea was so grotesque that just after it was voted on by 31 of the 35 senators who approved the anti-immigration law, it was withdrawn.
The effect of Arizona’s actions is spreading like an oil spill. Ten other states, some of them far from the border with Mexico (like Nebraska, Ohio or Maryland), are also preparing anti-immigration laws. This time, John McCain, who in the past took courageous decisions on immigration, has approved the law, hoping not to lose his seat. It is true that he is threatened by a novice, a partisan to the thesis that Obama was not born in the United States, a theory that the Tea Party supports. For J.D. Hayworth, the campaign for the Arizona senator’s seat is an opportunity to “defend our culture.” No need for translation.
The saddest thing, once again, is that no Republican has raised his or her voice to condemn such a proposal. Without a doubt, the Tea Party would drag the GOP along in its downfall when it assuredly happens. This anti-immigrant attitude is political suicide: Latinos are set to become one of the main groups of voters. They assured the victory of George W. Bush in 2000. They could well assure the re-election of the 44th president in two years.