‘Losing culture.’ ‘Demographic replacement.’ Idaho legislators reveal themselves | Opinion
Last week’s rollout of a series of anti-immigration bills in the Idaho Legislature revealed more than just policy.
It revealed blatant racism and the full embrace of the “Great Replacement theory,” the far-right, white nationalist conspiracy theory that there is a deliberate, orchestrated plot to replace white populations in Western countries with non-white immigrants.
Idaho lawmakers such as Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, and Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, unveiled legislation that included such things as counting the number of undocumented people in Idaho jails, finding out how many immigrant children are in the school system and auditing the Idaho refugee resettlement program.
On their face, each proposal may sound benign, but the legislators, joined by virulent immigration opponent and former Idaho solicitor general Theo Wold, showed their true colors when they talked about the reasons behind their proposed legislation.
“We’re losing our culture as Americans,” Hawkins said. “It’s damaging our way of life.”
Whose culture? Whose way of life is being damaged?
With our long history of immigration, American culture is constantly evolving and growing. Immigration has always added to our culture, not damaged it.
Does the Japanese Obon Festival in Ontario, Oregon, destroy our culture? Does the Greek Festival in Boise and Pocatello damage our way of life? Does Chinatown harm the city of San Francisco? Little Italy in New York? What about Ammon’s Scottish Festival or Malad’s Welsh Festival? Everything from Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine to Latin music have contributed to the cultural mosaic that we know as the Great Melting Pot of the United States.
In making the claim that “we’re losing our culture,” this group reveals its racist mentality.
They also reveal their protectionist, limited worldview.
“Is it loving to shove your neighbor’s kids out of the way and give their share of the American dream to foreign nationals and illegal invaders who hate us?” Lenney said.
To scare you and make you hate immigrants, they suggest the American pie is limited and that by allowing refugees and immigrants into the United States, that takes away from a “deserving” American.
That has never been the case in American history. Immigration has always made us a stronger, better nation, enriching all of us, proven time and again throughout our history.
But “they’re taking what’s yours” has always been the basis for ethnic purity fearmongerers like Lenney, Wold and Hawkins, whether it was sentiment against the Irish, Italians, Catholics, Chinese or, today, Hispanics.
Yes, it’s reasonable for a nation to control immigration. But the crackdown on illegal immigration must be placed within the context of the fact that legal immigration is virtually impossible today, and these folks know it.
The waiting list for some countries is more than 20 years. It’s the reason we have illegal immigration to begin with.
So in effect, the argument is for zero immigration. And by their words, we shall know them. Their own words reveal the reasons behind their positions.
“You know what’s great about these type of (events)? We can say whatever we want,” Lenney said. “This is about demographic replacement, and they’re doing that via refugee resettlement programs, human trafficking and cheap slave labor. … I think it’s time to reclaim that moral high ground.”
Lenney had better be careful, because that moral high ground he thinks he’s on is pretty shaky.
Statesman editorials are the opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, assistant editor Jim Keyser and community members John Hess, Debbie McCormick and Julie Yamamoto.