VA-05: Virgil Goode Is a Disgrace to the U.S.A.
By: kyledeb
Published On: 9/5/2008 7:22:28 PM
This is my first diary posted to Raising Kaine. I hope it's okay. This was originally posted on Citizen Orange.
I've come to expect figures like William Gheen of ALIPAC to completely strip an entire subset of people from their humanity with their words. It becomes grating to my ears when an elected official does so. Even more so when they dehumanize the very people they were elected to represent.
Watch the video above to see Republican incumbent Virgil Goode (VA-5th District) debate Democrat challenger Tom Perriello on the "anchor baby situation". I've transcribed a great deal of the video below.
There is so much wrong with what Goode says, but I'm going to try and cut to the heart of it.
Five times he uses the term "anchor baby" with dehumanizing phrases
like "say no to the anchor baby". An "anchor baby", for those of you
that don't know, is a child born of migrants in the U.S. who, through
the 14 amendment of the U.S. constitution, is automatically a U.S. citizen.
Nativists try to make this seem like an abomination, but challenging
this is an afront to the very concept of U.S. citizenship. To oppose
it, is the difference between the philosophical concepts of "jus soli" and "jus sanguinis", or the "the right of soil" vs. "the right of blood".
Virgil Goode is essentially arguing for "the right of blood" an
antiquated concept whereby nationality is not determined by place of
birth, but by ancestry. It's the equivalent of a feudal philosophy
whereby your privileges are passed onto you by your parents. Not only
does it undercut a central tenet of U.S. citizenship, but it also
undercuts the idea that everyone should be born equal.
I go into this explanation, because I don't think people realize what a
radical affront to the United States people like Virgil Goode are.
These are not people on the lunatic fringe. H.R. 1940 or the "Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007" claims 104 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives (that's out of 435 for those that are counting).
Congressman like Virgil Goode like to claim that they are for enforcing
the laws that are on the books, but in reality they are in favor of a
radical re-ordering of judicial philosophy of the United States as we
know it. This nativist movement, led by members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, is on par, perhaps even surpassing, the Know Nothing movement of mid 19th-century.
People don't see the extent to which this movement has polluted the
U.S. government because these politicians still have D's or R's next to
their name. If decent people don't rise-up against this movement the
United States will be gone as they know it.
What is most disgraceful about congresmman like Virgil Goode is that
when they rail against anchor babies, they are dehumanizing the very
people that they were elected to represent. Even if they succeed in
the radical reordoring of the concept of U.S. citizenship and the U.S.
constitution, they cannot very well retroactively deny citizenship to
the "anchor babies" that were already born in the U.S. Like it or not
they are here to stay. Like it or not, congressman is elected to
represent those "anchor babies".
He uses the term "anchor baby" because he doesn't want his constituents to know that when he says things like:
They cost us money...They cost taxpayers. They cost our
government. The cost local government. They cost the state...A huge
cost. I laid out the cost on food stamps. I laid out the cost on
[Supplemental Security Income]. I laid out how they get free Medicaid.
Congressman Virgil Goode doesn't want you to know that he's talking
about U.S. citizens here. He's complaining about how much it costs to
feed, clothe, treat, house, and educate U.S. citizens. You see
unauthorized migrants are inelligible for much of these public programs
so nativists need another scapegoat to make it seem like this is a
bigger economic problem than it really is. So they pick on the
children of unauthorized migrants, which are U.S. citizens.
Even worse, the audience gave him thunderous applaus upon hearing
this. When we have gotten to a point in the U.S. where people applaud
eliminating the cost of giving U.S. citizens the opportunity at a
decent life, or life even, it should be enough to get you to rise up
and stand against this. Nativists can pretend these people aren't U.S.
citizens all they want, but their here to stay. And if the U.S.
doesn't educate, feed, clothe, and house them, you can bet that they'll
be a greater burden on the U.S. and the world than they ever were
before.
This affront to the U.S. has inspired me to create my very first ActBlue page for Tom Periello in opposition to Virgil Goode.
Below is the transcript of the video above:
Virgil Goode : Only those who want to coddle and cater to
the illegals say that they are beneficial to the workforce. They cost
us money, as I outlined in the previous questions. They cost
taxpayers. They cost our government. They cost local government.
They cost the state.
And I gave you one very specific: the anchor baby. Which means you
come over in this country, have a kid, and the kid's an automatic
citizen. A huge cost. I laid out the cost on food stamps. I laid out
the cost on SSI. I laid out how they get free Medicaid. There's
legislation right now in Congress which I have co-sponsored repeatedly
over my entire tenure in the house to fix this.
There's not going to be a consensus in congress to fix the anchor baby
situation until you get more persons like me who are willing to say no
to the anchor baby. And no to the Nancy Pelosi's of this Congress, who
depends on the Hispanic Caucus, telling it exactly like it is. The
Hispanic Caucus is a key ingredient in her claim to power. She's not
going to buckle. They want to give the illegals a glide path to
citizenship. That's what amnesty is.
The American public -- and my opponent won't endorse me on this bill.
I would like to hear him come out and say, "Virgil Goode is exactly
right about ending anchor babies." That's one way, a small way, to
help the existing problem. He and the Democratic leadership in the
House need to get on board with the American people and say no to
anchor babies.
[...]
But you don't have blanket anchor babies occuring day in and day out
and having the taxpayers continue to foot the bill. They come in from
Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, and have them in this country. It's a
huge impact on California hospitals, Arizona hospitals, New Mexico
hospitals, and Texas hospitals.
[...]
Tom Pereillo: Well first of all let's talk about the bill. This was
not a Nancy Pelosi problem, and as much as you may think otherwise I'm
actuall not Nancy Pelosi up here. The fact is. Under a Republican led
Congress, your bill generated no more than 47 supporters. You couldn't
even get it out of committee when the Republicans controlled Congress.
So let's not get up here and talk about things that are going to happen
if McCain wins or Obama wins. You're own Presidential man who you've
stood by several times tonight doesn't support this bill. So anyone
who wants to vote on this issue should be well aware that there is
exactly zero chance of motion on any sort of bill of this effect.
[...]
Virgil Goode: And I'm going to go back to that. That was a smooth
answer by him. And in fact he was saying, "I'm not with ya." He's
against ending the anchor baby situation because he wants you to buy
into the notion that it can't be stopped.
What we need is not people who are going to cave in and surrender under
a notion: it can't happen. In my view, those who support ending the
anchor baby situation are right. George Bush is wrong. Nancy Pelosi
is wrong. And Barack Obama is wrong. Virgil Goode and the 40 who
signed the bill are right, and we are standing up for the United States
of America and proud to do so. (thunderous applaus)
Comments
SMACKDOWN! (faithfull - 9/5/2008 7:54:36 PM)
Tom Periello is awesome. I am continually impressed by his faceted, well-informed, and reasoned answers. He is also such a down to earth guy.
And Virgil sounds PISSED!
Thanks faithful (kyledeb - 9/6/2008 4:57:24 AM)
I'm glad you liked it. Tom Periello does seem like a voice of reason next to Goode.
Certainly! (faithfull - 9/6/2008 7:17:34 PM)
Glad to see you posting about this race, and I hope you'll keep it up.
It seemed like (Jim White - 9/5/2008 8:53:42 PM)
Virgil was having a mental meltdown as the debate continued. Tom most definitely carried the night! Excellent post!
He seemed crazy to me too (kyledeb - 9/6/2008 4:58:03 AM)
but then people started clapping. I couldn't believe it.
Yeah (Doug in Mount Vernon - 9/6/2008 1:44:13 PM)
That was my reaction too....people cheering at that is repulsive and disgusting....this is not the America I used to know. These are actual nativists and racists. Deplorable ideas and an equally deplorable reaction. I hope some of those people in that audience were jeering, not cheering. It is a crass display of blatant hatred from a US Congressman. For shame.
Costs? How about the billions and billions that illegal workers are paying into Soc Sec that they will never see back? Imagine if they were working and paying into it legally, how much more solvent the system would be.
These people don't want to know the truth, because the truth about immigrants' contributions to this nation and her economy does not fit there hate-filled story, and it might even soften their rancid decaying old hearts.
Great Post (aznew - 9/5/2008 10:32:43 PM)
But let me share my opinion as to why people applaud this kind of disgusting rhetoric.
When folks are down and out, when their jobs have been lost despite their hard work and dedication, when their downtowns are all "whitewashed windows and vacant stores," when they can't afford health care and when they can't see a path to better times ahead, they will lash out.
Demagogues like Virgil Goode both understand this on a gut level, and have the intelligence, combined with a skewed moral compass, to exploit these fears.
Tom Perriello is twice the person Virgil Goode is. He is 100% right on this issue. But he (and we) need to figure out a way to connect with folks on this issue on a visceral level.
How about a heart-breaking picture of one of these kids, captioned, "Why does Virgil Goode hate me? Do you hate me?"
These policies will have consequences. Forget anchor babies -- Tom is right that Virgil's bill will never go anywhere -- but we also need to communicate that cruel approaches to the issue of illegal immigration like this injure both the immigrant and the people pursuing and advocating the immoral policy.
You're Right Aznew (kyledeb - 9/6/2008 4:56:37 AM)
There needs to be understanding, but unfortunately a picture like the one you have above just doesn't do the work. Polling has shown that human interest stories about migrants just don't get to people.
Despite the fact that every time there is a raid, hundreds of U.S. citizen children are left without parents, emotionally traumatized, and economically in huge trouble, people don't see U.S. citizens, they see migrants.
The only way to truly combat this is to make it so that discriminating against foreigners is on par with discriminating by race, as I see it.
Thanks For Putting It On The Front Page (kyledeb - 9/6/2008 4:58:25 AM)
I really appreciate it.
Thank YOU for the excellent diary! (Lowell - 9/6/2008 6:00:23 AM)
Please keep 'em coming. :)
Anchor Babies: Word Magic (Teddy - 9/6/2008 2:54:31 PM)
Once again the Republicans have come up with a clever, I dare say brilliant, catch phrase in "anchor babies," that encapsulates the situation in a vicious way to their advantage. So, we should not use the phrase---- perhaps to rephrase it as "little newborn Americans?" (Too bad Mrs. Palin's illegitimate little grandchild is not the product of a liaison with a "foreigner"). Snark.
I do acknowledge that California and Texas are especially hard hit by the huge expense in their hospitals for not only the babies of non-citizens, but also for the victims of drug wars in sister cities across the border, like Nuevo Laredo, so it is not just the infants draining tax- payer dollars. But the fact is, despite the sense of vic timhood shown by Mr. Goode, Virginia's taxpayers are in no way suffering like those in California. Now, if we had universal health care, or taxed employers of migrant workers or immigrant non-citizen labor in order to provide their employees with health care (sort of like unisured driver fees) we might have a different reaction.
The clapping is a natural consequence of Republican framing of the issue: laid-off workers resent the ones who replaced them, instead of resenting the employer who engineered the layoffs. The "free market" economic theories which have become almost a religion in the US have been accepted and internalized by the employees, and they have no standard of reference which tells them they have been subject to class warfare. We must change that. (See my article earlier on "Kill the Free Market Religion"
http://www.raisingkaine.com/us...
I think the key to framing this issue (aznew - 9/6/2008 6:03:13 PM)
Is a moral one. I mean, he is picking a fight with babies here.
Virgil Goode is so blind to the consequences of his own blind hatred that he has now declared war on innocent babies.
How about showing some tape of this rant, then some photographs of some of these babies, with a voice asking, "Congressman Goode, what did we ever do to you?"
Good one level (Teddy - 9/6/2008 7:32:54 PM)
and it might reach some of the thoughtful and sincere evangelicals, but a multi-pronged approach might be better. I dislike the confrontation but let's not forget it is the employers who hire the immigrants who essentially are the ones taking away the jobs. The rational approach is to help the native lands of the immigrants to provide jobs back home, but that means changing our trade policy and following up by forcing employers to improve wages and work conditions, so the interim solution is to divert some of the paranoia toward the employer, tell them help is on the way in the form of Obama, and to blame the real jerks, the Republicans. Once the nativism and nastuness begins it takes hold and a kind of Grtesham's law follows, creating immature irrational behavior like a bad "B" movie.
My proposal (Roland the HTG - 9/7/2008 3:10:25 AM)
Could someone please get a copy of the Constitution, preferably in book format, hardcover if possible, and just hit Virgil in the face with it, as hard as they can? Maybe that will make the 14th Amendment sink in. If someone can get me close enough, I volunteer my services.