It is certainly a challenging problem for progressives on how to address the gap between themselves and conservatives.  The difficulty is not just due to the immense ideological differences.  Progressives have to confront the considerable deception employed by many conservatives.

Apparently conservatives have persuaded a substantial number of Americans that illegal immigration is bad for Americans. According to the polls not only Republicans accept this rhetoric, so do a majority of independent and Democratic Party voters. In fact about two-thirds of the public believes that the U.S. military should defend the southern border from the “invasion” of immigrants.  Not only Caucasians but also a majority of Blacks and non-white Hispanics share the same perspective. Generally speaking a CBS poll found that 72 percent of those who watched President Trump’s State of the Union address agrees with his ideas on immigration.

President Trump’s interest in building a wall on the southern border of the U.S. is wrong. It is a deceptive effort to convince working people that he wants to protect their interests.

Yet according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least 60 percent of the country’s farm workers are undocumented. The Trump administration has not made any serious effort to crack down on the Agricultural industry’s employment of illegal immigrants. In California there are about 2 1/2 million undocumented immigrants, man work on the fields as well as construction and manufacturing.  

The Trump administration has engaged in raids of enterprises that employ undocumented workers – always touted in his tweets and Fox News – to convey the impression that the government is seriously attempting to curtail the employment of undocumented workers.  However the real intent is not to discourage use of undocumented workers, these raids are intended to discourage efforts to engage in labor action that workers might use to improve their conditions and protect their rights.

In reality while Trump urged that a wall be built to discourage illegal immigration he has employed undocumented workers at his golf course and his private clubs.

What elected officials in both the Democratic and Republican parties have failed to acknowledge is the important role government has played in encouraging illegal immigration.  For example, soon after the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was adopted, the federal government subsidized American corn growers so they could sell corn in Mexico at an artificially low price. As a result, Mexican corn growers could not compete and went out of business.  So not as a matter of choice but to survive, they attempted to cross the border to find jobs.  In the case people from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to migrate to the U.S., it is in large part a result of their dictatorial regimes that were installed or supported by the United States. Yet the Trump administration claims that their decision to flee from many of these countries has been entirely voluntary.

Progressives must continue to find opportunities to reach out to the public. The country deserves nothing less.

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