The man oozes hate and anger out of every pore. He doesn’t like brown people, and he wants to make sure everybody knows it. Yeah, we know he doesn’t like Mexicans, and is desperately concerned that the filthy wetbacks will destroy good, white, Southern Amurkin culture with their rampant Catholicism and funny language. Or something.
But I’m pitting him for being such a blatantly manipulative right wing shill that he’s willing to outright pander to the worst xenophobic, racist common denominator to get elected, even if it means that he actually hurts the state of Alabama.
In essence, his campaign promise is that if he’s elected governor, he’s gonna make sure that the driver’s license exam is given only in English. His attitude is the typical rightie swagger. He exudes “wronged white man syndrome”, and damn it, he’s mad and not going to take it any more.
Never mind that the state of Alabama would actually lose federal funds if he did this, since we get money for having multilingual programs in place. No doubt he would characterize it as weaning the state off the teat of the federal gubmint. This, of course, makes him doubly a scumbag politician because he’s perfectly aware that despite his God-n-Guns protestations, the state would be in deep, deep shit without federal funds.
Some scrotum-cupper I grew up with posted this on Facebook and gave the typical righty party-line and about a billion people “liked” it and posted supporting comments. Xenophobia will be one of the last major prejudices to die in this country. It’s powerful.
I hear ya: my Alamance county sheriff ran on a “They’re takin’ our Joooobbbbss” meme, concerning NC’s considerable new Hispanic immigrants. OK, well, then, you just take that job. In reality, Mexican immigrants take the jobs that most people here don’t want, now that the Black Folk got educated and all :rolleyes:, and work hard at it. If the La Migra bus were to pull up to take everyone brown-backed to Mexico, all restaurants, landscapers, cleaning services, probably child care: it would all grind to a halt.
It’s just stupid blame of someone used to entitlement, when the slave labor of yore has disappeared. I’m not blaming the South, either. I’d say a greater portion of Southerners now have got beyond race, and, have, in fact been exemplary in understanding and being an inclusive society because of proximity understanding. But, the old turds are really mired in their mud, and, I don’t know that any manner of slap would dislodge it.
Your argument makes sense: as long as Alabama gets federal funding, cutting the multilingual test program is not a smart idea. With you all the way.
But I get the sense that your feelings run deeper; that you believe the program itself has value.
So suppose his campaign slogan, or better yet, suppose you had a senate candidate whose slogan was: send me to Washington, and I’ll end this federal subsidy requirement for multilingual tests. I take it you’d be opposed to that?
