Taking one from Tucker who fears his vote will be diluted every time we "import a new voter."
Take into account that this fear that the demographics in this country would one day flip was a common conversation among older white Americans back when I was young. They always feared that one day they would no longer be in the majority. From there, this fear went from the older generation to present day with the replacement theory, which I gather claims that dark skinned people and Jews, are going to replace Anglo-Americans, and particularly, white conservatives.
So, let's break it down further.
Tucker pointed out that he feared that his vote would get diluted every time we "import a new voter." So what he fears is people coming from other countries who know a different way of life, a different value system. Well, we all know that immigrants to this country were once white. And they brought with them a different way of life, a different value system. Somehow, we all made room for those differences and even thrived.
Those earlier immigrants, their grandparents, made the trek across the sea because they were told the streets were lined in gold. How many people know that? But the present day immigrants are coming here because of America's promise of equality and a better way of life. Which seems reasonable. But the reason why conservative white Americans fear them is because they're bringing with them a different way of life, a different value system and most importantly, one that doesn't see White People as a superior race.
This is one of the ironies in America. White conservatives have been battling against the concept of equality for nearly two and a half centuries. It is one of the most fundamental concepts in America. The one that makes America different from all the others. What do you say about that, textualist? Oh, I know what they would say. Equality is only for white people, since the founding fathers were white. You know, if you want to expose textualism as the con-job it is, why don't you start there? If we can convince them that argument doesn't hold true, then everything about the textualist process falls apart like a jenga tower without a foundation.
Anyway, these new arrivals to America do not, or will not comply with the Anglo concept of superiority. Thus, "imported votes" means conservative white Americans are going to have to deal with "uppity" new Americans. That's where we are today.
I think it comes down to the saturation problem they have with assimilation. I am a prime example. I grew up in a very diverse American enclave. The Canal Zone. We all got along. We were all Americans in a foreign land so we were daily reminded of what made us all the same. It was a bonding experience. When I was young, I was everything American. Country girl, hippie, Twyla Tharp dancer, even a hobo on Halloween (easy costume), Emma Peel...(Okay, I admit that sometimes I mixed the British with the American). But the point is, that when you were overseas, there were no lines that divided one kind of American from another.
It was a time when America was truly great. You could just say the words, "I am an American," and it was a passport to better treatment overseas. But back then, America was a kinder, gentler nation to the countries that hosted them. Not so much today, so no one should be surprised that the only thing they see is the ugly American. You know, those kind of American tourists who are so insular in their rural lives (metaphorically speaking) that they don't have the common courtesy or common sense to be civil in a foreign land.
Well, as these things go, they raised children who double-downed, and their kids are following through with the example by not being civil to other Americans in their own land. That's where we are today.
Anyway, I don't know if you can sort out from what I revealed about myself how I formed my first identity. So I guess I'll get to it. When I was living abroad, I knew that I was different from my Panamanian relatives. Unlike them, I related to all things American, including this shameful admission that I grew up thinking that I was white. It almost made sense. I didn't have to check off a box marked "Hispanic" until I applied to go to college in the U.S. In fact, it wasn't until my Senior year in college when I realized I wasn't white, at least not in the sense that America was sorting us out. I wasn't Anglo, which was the difference that kept escaping me, because, let's face it, everything we saw and breathed during the time that I was raised, was Anglo-oriented. You know it's true. It was the time of the white savior, where only the white character had the answers or the brute force and will to change anything. It was a time when Hollywood was casting goodness in a white light as was every other form of media. And, sad to say, they were just reflecting what white American society wanted at that time.
So, maybe I can be forgiven for my early identify confusion. I put it together in my Senior year of college when I volunteered to work in the school counselor's office. I was asked to compile the stats for the student body based on race. That's when I saw on paper, what was very apparent to the eye. My college's composition of white to minority student was 98 to 2 percent. But that's not the part where the light went on. The light went on when I found that I had to put myself down in the Hispanic section. The counselor may have even said, "Don't forget to include yourself."
It was a strange swing of emotions, because that was the moment I saw myself through someone else's eyes. And it wasn't the being an Hispanic part that was the problem. After only a few years away from home, I was already discovering the gift that comes with being bi-cultured. There is a hidden strength that comes from good memories from people who loved you and expressed their kindness and goodness in a different language than English. So, no, it wasn't that. It was that I realized in that moment, that I was being viewed and judged in a way that made me feel less than what I was.
I don't think that anyone who knew me back then, could have pictured how I would turn out after my years of fumbling to find my place in America. Bottom line, I never did find that place. I know that I probably won't be alive by the time America finally meets its promise of equality. But, what's important to know now is that I began to stop assimilating to the fraudulent version of America at some point in the nineties. That's when I stopped viewing the conservative white culture as an ideal that I aspired to be a part of. I couldn't see it before because the Hispanic culture is basically conservative. And some basic conservative choices in life are cross-cultural. But, then in the nineties, the hate talk began. That's when I found myself the lone voice in the room speaking up for minorities and heard comments like, "Why do you keep defending them. You're not Hispanic!"
And that should catch in your throat, given everything we're seeing about the Right's next move. Going back to Tucker's comment, about having his vote diluted, isn't it interesting that the conservative Supreme Court provided a fix for it? Now they're going to force women to breed voters for them, to fill in the shortfall. They will have a chance to indoctrinate them into their conservative Anglo-culture. The one that I rejected. And, guys, it isn't going to matter to them if they adopt Hispanic or black babies. They are going to get the first run to indoctrinate them into respecting their white dominance. What happened to me occurred by chance. Though it was a painful education, I don't regret what I went through because I have always valued truth and I prefer living in America with my eyes wide open, than feeling like I have to whittle away at my principles in order to be accepted by people who are too afraid to make waves against a toxic environment that is taking over this country.
But, it was a transition that I could make because my basic core was established in another time, with parents and aunts and uncles who gave me a strong foundation to work from. These babies that are going to be chatteled off to conservatives who long to protect a racist way of life they've grown accustom to; and their twisted perspective of good and evil, using religion to remove the power and rights from people they don't like...those chattled babies don't stand a chance.
What the conservatives plan to do to the next generation is social engineering. It's almost in Mengele territory, without the scalpel.
So, Tucker. I hear you. But, you see, I protest this move to chattel the next generation before they're even born, because the intention to indoctrinate them into a way of life adverse to my own, well, that will dilute MY vote.
Man, it's like the South really did rise again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
