Immigration, Communism Pull From Real Issues In America

By Dustin Mendus

This just in: Dead things are still scary.

With Halloween still fresh in mind there is still an air of fear lingering in the air at home. Not fear of hockey-mask wearing serial killers, but of the usual Republican boogymen. The old favorite, Communism (ooh, scary!), has somehow managed to crawl out of it’s grave. As if fears of immigrants aren’t enough to scare the base of xenophobic, homophobic — everything-phobic — voters.

First up, Communism. It died in the 1980s, if you read the Republican canon, at the hands of Ronald Reagan. We all remember Reagan single-handedly marching from Berlin to Moscow and forcing Godless, evil Mikhail Gorbachev into giving the Russian people freedom and democracy, right? I was born in 1990, but even I remember that the Gipper did that.

Nevermind, he didn’t. I’m not going to provide a lecture on Soviet history, but he didn’t. However, Communism is a convenient boogyman. A dramatic interaction with Fidel Castro and Marco Rubio at some point in his life (This is as much as can be discerned. What kind of interaction and to what extent the balding, dying dictator and the Republican senator had is difficult to gauge. Stories are constantly changing, as you know.) to try to win the Latino vote, and, recently, House Speaker John Boehner’s complaints last week about Obama attempting to reset policy with Russia are simply serving as distractions for voters from real issues.

Immigration, as well, has become a huge distraction. Immigrants have been turned into scary monsters to show the voters. We’ve all heard fears that immigrants are coming to take work from Americans and bring in a society of moochers and freeloaders. They’re living off of the benefits of our great American society, right? Well, not exactly. They aren’t taking our jobs, they aren’t gaining a free education, and they aren’t freeloading.

I recently held, and lost, a job at a mass market coffee chain. Tedious, repetitive work that became muscle memory for minimum wage pay. To get this job, I had to fill out a 20+ page application that included things like my social security information, tax form information, as well as a list of previous employers. Now, as an illegal immigrant, they usually don’t have these documents. Where do you think the term “undocumented worker” comes from? Sure, illegal documents can be bought, but the cost is astronomical. I’m legally an adult, but from what I hear from my underage friends, a fake ID can range from double to triple digits.

Do you think an English-illiterate immigrant is going to have the money to get a fake SSN? A good one, at that? I highly doubt that.

Lets keep in mind you need a social security number to file taxes, get insurance, or pretty much do anything that would give you or your family aid. This is a person who won’t be able to get access to many of America’s need-based resources. Maybe soup kitchens or church food drives, but actual federal aid? Not happening. Sending your kid to school might be doable, but, what’s the point? You’re losing a hand to help you with work, and you don’t need an education to earn a minimum wage job which might require some documents… that you wouldn’t have. Why send the kid away to school?

These people can’t get jobs without a SSN. They can’t file taxes without working legally. They can’t use services that otherwise require these documents that legal Americans have. These services are not being mooched off of, and if they are, it’s likely a very minute percentage using these resources. (Feel free to burn your birth certificate, social security card, and state ID or driver’s license to test this out in action. I’m not responsible if it ends badly).

But, if it’s a 10-second video clip and it’s parroted constantly to the right audience, it grabs ahold of people. It can be made to be the truth. And the “truth that illegals are using our country for gain” or that “Communism is a serious threat” can become belief. These fears can then be manipulated into scaring voters, and drawing people away from the real issues of society.

These fears may also produce massive growth in alligator farm income if Herman Cain wins. It might not be a bad time to start up a gator farm.

Dustin Mendus is an undergraduate student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He focuses on cultural geography.