Friday, July 18, 2008

Immigrant-Bashing Republicans


How embarrassing. According to this post over at Pith In The Wind, the Davidson County Republican Party has a bigot problem:
Jon Crisp, “chairman emeritus” of the Davidson County Republican Party, seems to be working from an aged playbook. In a recent mass email, he warned that Nashville is nefariously close to becoming a “Sanctuary City for illegal immigrants… such as San Francisco.” This, apparently, is bad. Very bad. Writes our crusader:

“Sadly in general, today’s immigrants are not the same as those of our past and seem to want to reap America’s bounty while not committing to our culture. Will we become a patchwork quilt of third world nations that have set up shop in Nashville?"

Wow. And then they turn around and complain about “anchor babies.” I guess by “committing to our culture” Crisp means, completely abandoning their own culture and assimilating into American life by eating native dishes like pizza and sushi and taking part in American traditions like St. Patrick's Day and decorating Christmas trees.

And what's this reference to San Francisco? Everyone knows that San Francisco is a sanctuary city for teh gai, not immigrants. Are we overrun with gay immigrants here in Nashville? Or is Crisp making a statement about the Chinese? Is he saying Nashville will have a Latinotown like San Francisco's Chinatown? That would be way cool. We need a tourist attraction here, it just hasn't been the same since Opryland theme park closed.

Don't be scared, Mr. Crisp. Every immigrant group has brought something new to our culture, not taken anything away. If it weren't for our immigrants from south of the border, I wouldn't have burrito-and-margarita night every Friday.

Republicans need to quit being scared of everything all the time. It makes them look, and act, silly.