Among the myriad sins conservatives are accused of — fascism, misogyny, racism, et al — another to add to the list is the memory capacity of goldfish.
When the public and elected officials began questioning the latest administration’s complete lack of attention to the border (unless you count photo-ops of staged crying at chain link fences as attention), the racism epithet was lobbed heavily and continuously, mostly because anyone who felt the border needed to be closed were heartless people who hated anyone with a skin tone darker than theirs.
Tens of millions of illegal border crossings later, and with the current administration endeavoring to reverse that trend, the fascist/racist signs and claims were renewed with vigor at every deportation and arrest.
Enter a small group of around 8,000 Afrikaners, who are citizens of South Africa and possessed of white skin, who are seeking asylum because of racial discrimination, and those self-same hyper-compassionate people want the brakes applied.
Democrats even in government are decrying Trump’s decision to allow this, saying — unbelievably — that it’s moving too fast, that there needs to be a vetting process to find out who these people are and what they are coming here for, and that the UN needs to be involved in the process.
Hardly similar to the mobs of people that were crashing the southern border like disenfranchised hippies at a welfare and job-rich national Woodstock.
There were even Democrat apparatchiks who said that since the refugees were white, they needed to go back to Germany (or Holland, more appropriately) or wherever they were from, as if having generations of family living and dying in South Africa was simply a temporary situation. Of course, when those topics were brought up over the last four years, the racism label was hung with gusto.
So why not now? Is it because racism is a white-only condition?
Over the 2 ½ centuries that the U.S. has existed, there have been numerous populations that have come to this country seeking relief from heinous and vicious prosecution, as anyone who has a memory or has studied history can attest to. That is how we got our start as a nation — by escaping oppression in favor of liberty.
Those seeking the benefits of a free country came with the specific intent to assimilate into this society, as can be seen across the country. Sure, we all can say something about our heritage — I’m Hungarian, you’re Italian, or Czech, or Romanian, or Japanese — but at the beginning of every meeting I attend, we salute the American flag and are proud to do so.
It also has been posited that what is happening in South Africa is the end result of a woke society, where racial quotas and redistribution of property of all types become normal. Anyone with eyes can see, though, that one group is being punished for the sins of their ancestors, and that doesn’t work in this country.
Hate directed at any group creates rifts that are never filled even after decades — look at the Middle East and the hate directed at Jews even in this country — and keeps the globe on a tipping point toward war and oppression.
Instead of saving compassion for some, it’s best to spread that to all. Maybe let’s give that a try.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
