The new MAGA Republican mantra goes something like this:
Joe Biden betrayed the glorious courageous brave democratic Afghans…who might come here in a brown-people caravan by the millions to lay siege to our cherished gated communities!!
Am I exaggerating? Just check out the evidence.
On Fox News (natch), Tucker Carlson darkly warns: “We’ll see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in coming months, probably in your neighborhood. And over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions…We’re invaded.”
Yes, folks, “probably in your neighborhood,” maybe even at your very own supermarket, snatching up the last ripe bananas.
Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham poses the question, “Is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially unvetted refugees from Afghanistan? All day we’ve heard phrases like, ‘We’ve promised them.’ Well, who did? Did you?” (Just for the record, refugees are not “unvetted.” Under federal law, they undergo rigorous security screens and background checks.)
One would think that right-wingers would feel some moral responsibility to help the Afghans who stood with and worked with Americans, the Afghans who bought the democratic dream and proudly displayed their purple fingers after casting ballots. Nah. They’re done with the Afghans. In fact, Stephen Miller (who you may remember) now says that Republicans should oppose any expansion of the special visa program that would allow Afghan refugees to live in the United States.
There’s a move afoot by 46 senators to set up a humanitarian program that would bring Afghan women leaders and human rights activists into this country. Care to guess how many of those 46 senators are Republicans? Three.
Meanwhile, on the House side, a Wisconsin Republican congressman is warning that we might suffer “tens of thousands of Afghans into our communities,” and a Montana colleague says we cannot allow them “to flood our country.” Darn right, says Newsmax host Steve Cortes, who tweets: “Not one Afghan should be coming to America.”
Just in case that isn’t sufficiently unsubtle, a Wisconsin Republican group tweets: “NOT IN MY BACKYARD! Hundreds of thousands of unverified refugees! into OUR Wisconsin backyard? We must not let this happen! It’s time to take back our country!!”
There was actually a brief moment, on Monday, when Donald Trump thought that saving friendly Afghans was good policy (he said we should evacuate those “who have been good to our country and who should be allowed to seek refuge”), but after sampling the MAGA base’s hostile sentiment, he speedily fell in line. Yesterday, after seeing a photo of an Air Force plane packed with fleeing Afghans, he tweeted: “This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!”
Granted, some Republicans say they’re willing to do the decent thing. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says he’ll accept Afghan refugees, mindful that that his state was founded by the Mormons: “Our state was settled by refugees fleeing religious persecution 170 years ago. Their descendants have a deep understanding of the danger and pain caused by forced migration and an appreciation for the wonderful contributions of refugees in our communities.”
But for many cranks in MAGA-world, the top priority is to stem the importation of any more brown people. For instance, radio host and Trump pal Charlie Kirk subscribes to the white nationalist “replacement theory” that liberals are plotting to gain power by diluting the white electorate. Kirk said the other day (referring to a Muslim-American member of Congress) that “Biden wants a couple hundred thousand more Ilhan Omars to come into America to change the body politic permanently.”
Of course, what’s particularly hilarious (in the sickest possible way), is that these people are working themselves up about yet another purported foreign threat to America…when, in truth, the biggest threat to America is already here – the call is coming from inside the house! – as evidenced by the Jan. 6 white goon assault on our own citadel of democracy. The dark warnings of yet another non-white horde is just more pap for the saps.
If only we could all agree that helping the people who risked their lives to help us is the right thing to do. Because I heard there’s an inscription somewhere about homeless huddled masses yearning to breathe free.