Sure, it's not a big surprise when the Washington Post slams hard-right conservatives like Jerry Kilgore. Not exactly a "man bites dog story!" Still, today's Post editorial on the Herndon day laborer controversy is extremely powerful, echoing many of the criticisms of Jerry Kilgore that have been expressed here and across the Virginia political blogosphere. The Post's harshest criticism of Kilgore's "gratuitous blast at illegal immigrants" is that, in doing so, "the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia has injected a nativist note into the campaign." According to online encyclopedia Wikipedia:
Nativism is a hostile and defensive reaction to the flux of immigration. Though it surfaced first, gained a name and affected politics in mid-19th century United States, recognizably nativist movements have since arisen among the Boers of South Africa, and in the 20th century among Australians and white Britons.[...]
American nativist sentiment experienced a resurgence in the late 20th century, this time directed at 'illegal aliens,' largely Asian and Mexican resulting in the passage of rather harsh penalties against illegal immigration in 1996. After terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2001, nativist feeling and islamophobia were amplified and directed increasingly toward individuals perceived to be either Arab and/or Muslim; these found themselves the target of hate and hate-related crime as well as the passage of tighter border controls. The early 21st-century American movement that is self-characterized as "Immigration reduction" attempts to distance itself from any suggestion of Nativist motivations.
South Africa? The mid-19th Century America? Is the Washington Post implying that this is where Jerry Kilgore hopes to take us? Interesting.
Anyway, here are extended excerpts from the Post's blistering, dripping-with-sarcasm editorial denouncing Jerry Kilgore. This should be required reading for all Virginians trying to make up their minds in this year's gubernatorial contest. Tim Kaine, a man who spent time as a Catholic missionary helping people in Central America? Or Jerry Kilgore, a man who spends his time with Scott "Black Hands Ad" Howell, thinking up ways to appeal to peoples' worst instincts (as Howell has done in oh-so-many other campaigns across America), just so he can be elected.
Struggling in the latest statewide poll and evidently grasping for an issue to excite his conservative base and make inroads in Northern Virginia, Mr. Kilgore injected himself into a local dispute in the town of Herndon...In Mr. Kilgore's view, providing such a site for Hispanic laborers, who currently await work in the parking lot of a convenience store, would "undercut our laws and our stability by rewarding those who . . . are in this country illegally."Well, we certainly wouldn't want to see Herndon's day laborers subvert Virginia's stability. But it's hard to see how the commonwealth is safer or how its laws are more secure, with the workers clamoring for construction jobs and disrupting traffic in front of a 7-Eleven, as they do now.
[...]
Mr. Kilgore seems to care little that police officers, who lack the training, time and resources to act as immigration agents, are opposed to the idea [of giving "all undocumented immigrants...the boot"]; they're actually busy with local crime. Nor does he explain how Northern Virginia, which has virtually no unemployment, would furnish itself with construction crews, landscapers, janitors, child-care workers and short-order cooks and fill dozens of other positions in the absence of the very immigrants he so badly wants to deport.
...Mr. Kilgore is not adding a constructive voice to the debate. He is simply on the prowl for a wedge issue, and hopes he's found one in immigrant-bashing. Uninvited, he stepped into the dispute in Herndon several days after a conservative radio talk show host, broadcasting from Sacramento, urged listeners to deluge Herndon Town Hall with so many phone calls protesting the proposed day-laborer site that they would "melt the switchboard." In an ugly response, listeners did just that, peppering their calls and e-mails with expletives denouncing the immigrants and the town officials who would help them. Herndon officials were forced to unplug the phones.
Given the passions unleashed in this dispute, perhaps the temptation to fan the flames with a naked appeal for votes was simply too strong for Mr. Kilgore. But he should have summoned the strength to resist it. Virginia's most pressing problems -- including transportation, education and health care -- will require all of the next governor's energies. It would be nice if candidates for governor showed they could focus on the big issues rather than play politics with bitter and emotional local disputes.
As someone who frequently disagrees with the Washington Post's editorials -- usually because they're too bland, corporate, and wimpy -- on this one I have to say they've absolutely nailed it right on the head. I certainly couldn't have said it any better myself. Jerry Kilgore. Nativist. Will say and do anything to get elected. Remember that.