Guest Post by Morbo
I continue to have a strange fascination with the Minutemen, the self-appointed border patrol vigilantes whom I’m convinced are just plain, old-fashioned racists who don’t like Hispanics.
A short, but amusing piece in the Dec. 12 “New Yorker” by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan only reinforced my beliefs. Kurtz-Phelan attended a Minutemen recruiting drive on Long Island recently. Reading his witty report, one gets the sense that many of the 40 or so attendees were just cranks and racists.
My favorite was a woman named Margaret who told Kurtz-Phelan that her town of Farmingville had been overrun by illegal aliens.
“We’ve got Portuguese restaurant owners,” she said. “They have Mexican chefs who do these little chickens that people like to eat. There was an overnight explosion — I’m not exaggerating — of illegal aliens standing on our corners. Literally hundreds on one street, affecting our quality of life, not letting us get into our stores, accosting our daughters for sex.”
Unfortunately, Margaret offered no evidence that any of these folks were in fact illegal. One suspects that she just doesn’t like it that people with light brown skin are living in her community.
Kurtz-Phelan’s story also contained this fascinating nugget: The organizer, Chris Simcox, who had traveled to Long Island from Arizona, said, “I see the Minutemen movement turning into a viable third party.”
Oh please, please let it be so. That’s just what we need right now — an avowedly racist, far-right third party that’s even more bigoted and right wing than the Republicans. Let’s face it, this is the one issue where the Republicans really are vulnerable. Hispanic immigration is growing and affecting the culture across the board. You might have noticed the political fallout. Republicans want the Hispanic vote, but if they push for it too hard, they risk alienating their xenophobic, anti-immigrant wing. The Minutemen party has the potential to split the GOP vote and put the Democrats back in power.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever happen. These clowns are usually unable to even find the border let alone form a coherent political unit. Sigh.
As for Margaret, I have a suggestion: I’ll bet those little chickens are very tasty. Loosen up. Expand your horizons. Try a bite. C’mon, everyone’s doing it.