There are always sheep in every party. And Ken Calvert is a perfect example.
Now, I don’t have anything against sheep, but applied to humans, the meaning is clear: If a group cannot or will not act independently, they might be considered sheep. In this case, the fears of associated with immigration continues to poorly inform our electorate and used by the media and the Republican Party to fix a broken immigration system.
First, some background — US immigration has been a highly problematic policy since the Chinese Exclusion Act. In too many cases, the immigration policies have been designed to maintain specific (always white?) privileges, but it has also been seen as a way to keep wages down. Capitalizing on fears of being displaced economically or politically or both, a wide range actors have been using immigration for their own means. In fact, we find that Donny Trump is not all that new in generating irrational fears about about immigration, but he has been more overt. Combined with some inflammatory media, explicit xenophobia as become more than acceptable.
Second, enter Ken Calvert, one of the longest tenured and most forgettable congress member. Calvert’s notions of immigration are about as sophisticated as a parrot, merely re-capitulating the talking point of the day. California needs a representative that does more than reciting tired old sayings whose sole purpose is to scare people.
Third, what do we need to fix a terribly broken immigration system and to that end we need to elect effective representatives from CA.
- Candidates that are not afraid to confront this terribly complicated problem.
- Candidates need to refrain from using fear tactics. It’s tiresome and suggests that Americans are and should be frightened. Not my experience of most Americans.
- Candidates that have a sophisticated understanding of the history and causes of migration and misuse of immigration policy.
- Candidates that propose concrete policy changes to create a fair and socially responsible immigration policy.
Let’s find a candidate that is ready to vote for concrete changes to improve immigration policy, not just recapitulate the same talking points and push for divisive, ineffective, and wasteful activities.