# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 4) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 22, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678 "2025-02-22T21:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 134
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2661 "2025-12-28T17:03:25Z")
There’s no way that they’re going to stick their necks out for a nobody in Colorado. It’s not like this is helping Trump directly. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2662 "2025-12-28T18:16:50Z")
Depends on how much they’re on board with the whole “untrammeled dictatorship” gig. The institution that was SCOTUS is not onboard. A decent fraction of the current nine incumbents seem fully bought & paid for, whether directly via secret cash or by congruent personal ideology. We’ll see. But I am increasingly skeptical that SCOTUS has any constructive role to play is slowing the freight train to authoritarianism. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2663 "2025-12-28T22:55:05Z")
More “derr immigrants bad” from a guy whose ideal immigration policies would have resulted in his grandparents being murdered in a pogrom. > ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2664 "2025-12-28T22:59:11Z")
And of those achievements, _at least_ two (“harness the atom” and “land on the moon”) relied on part on the work of immigrants, some of whom were asylum seekers (from Europe, but still . . .). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2665 "2025-12-28T23:00:35Z")
Which tribe did the others? There are two things that Made America Great: Democracy, and immigration. Trump wants to end both. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2666 "2025-12-29T00:09:45Z")
So you’re saying that with no Trump, we can make America great again? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2667 "2025-12-29T00:17:11Z")
Certainly improve it. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2668 "2025-12-29T01:23:59Z")
“Make America Okayish Again.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2669 "2025-12-29T01:45:31Z")
MAALLS Make America A Little Less Shitty ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2670 "2025-12-29T01:49:06Z")
The Gestapo says it’s unfair that Kilmar Abrego is allowed to make TikToks of himself lip-syncing to a hymn and they’re not even allowed to call him a criminal mastermind who belongs in a torture gulag. > **[Kilmar Abrego Garcia's viral video of biblical song angers DHS](https://www.newsweek.com/kilmar-abrego-garcias-viral-video-of-biblical-song-angers-dhs-11276396)** > > DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin voiced her anger over Kilmar Abrego Garcia "making TikToks" while DHS remains under "gag order." ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2671 "2025-12-29T14:43:26Z")
It’s not hypocrisy, it’s just straight up racism. He’s not against immigration, he’s against immigration from places other than Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2672 "2025-12-29T16:17:50Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > It’s not hypocrisy, it’s just straight up racism. I think it’s hypocrisy that comes from racism. Not only are the two not mutually exclusive, the one is often the cause of the other. In this case, it’s hypocritical to demonize immigration when he is himself a child of immigrants. If he actually came out and said that he wants to stop immigration solely from non-European countries, then he’s being openly racist and no longer hypocritical. We aren’t _quite_ at the stage where politicians are comfortable to do that yet. I don’t think it’s far off, but they’re still trying to wear fig leaves and they’re pretending that they’re trying to stop drug smuggling, and protect jobs, and keep out criminals, etc. They’re not blatantly saying they want to make the country whiter, even though their actions are showing it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2673 "2025-12-29T16:34:10Z")
I mean, he does say “third-world countries”, which isn’t far from saying “non-white”. The concept of first, second, and third world, as they’re actually defined, didn’t make sense until the Cold War. But at the time of the major wave of Irish immigration, for instance, Ireland had most of the same connotations as we’d now assign to the “Third World”. Actually, that’s probably true of most of the waves of immigration we’ve had. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2674 "2025-12-29T16:41:26Z")
People who are prosperous (financially comfortable) are unlikely to _want_ to emigrate, so the majority of those who are coming here are among the poor (whether they’re coming from first world, second world or third worl countries). But given the motivation to upend their lives to come here, many immigrants are motivated to improve their situation through hard work and saving. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2675 "2025-12-29T17:25:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > for instance, Ireland had most of the same connotations as we’d now assign to the “Third World”. More recently, and extending into the Cold War, that was also true of Italian immigrants and their descendants, as Sinatra and Martin were, much less Stephen Miller’s own family of Jewish immigrants ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2676 "2025-12-29T20:23:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But at the time of the major wave of Irish immigration, for instance, Ireland had most of the same connotations as we’d now assign to the “Third World”. At that time, in fact, the Irish were despised, described, and treated with the same bigoted contempt and hostility as the current immigrants from “shithole countries.” ---
**Author:** ![Nightaudit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightaudit/32/17181_2.png) [@Nightaudit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightaudit)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2677 "2025-12-29T21:25:16Z")
Epically if they were of the Catholic kind… Protestant Ulster Irish not so much. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2678 "2025-12-29T21:37:48Z")
See, for example: [Ursuline Convent riots - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursuline_Convent_riots#:~:text=The%20Ursuline%20Convent%20riots%20occurred%20on%20August,extreme%20anti%2DCatholic%20sentiment%20in%20antebellum%20New%20England). ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2679 "2025-12-29T22:19:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The concept of first, second, and third world, as they’re actually defined, didn’t make sense until the Cold War. Originally, Europe was the old world and America, specifically, the US was the new world. Once the perspective widened a bit, we had a third world to account for. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/2680 "2025-12-29T23:02:05Z")
No connection. The First/Second/Third Worlds are the sides in the Cold War. The First World is the West (which is, of course, not all geographically western): The US, western Europe, Australia, Japan, and the rest of the US’s sphere of influence. The Second World was the countries that called themselves Communist: The USSR, China, and their spheres of influence. The Third World was everywhere else, the places where the US and USSR were competing to exert their influence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=133) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=135)