Republican governors are feigning compassion at the southern border

Remember when "compassionate conservatism" was a thing?

Today's Republicans: cops on horseback whipping refugees are heroes. 

Also Republicans: cops who defended the Capitol during Donald Trump's attempted autogolpe are traitors.

"The prevalence of poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech" reads a lot like Texas, innit? 

After being brutalized by riders on horseback in Texas some fifty Haitian and Brazilian asylum seekers were subjected to dire circumstances and denied access to legal counsel while detained at a private prison complex contracted in Estancia, New Mexico by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Marshals Service. 

When Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte traveled 1,742 miles from the Helena Capitol to the made-for-television event at the border of Texas, the publicity stunt was a rat’s nest of ginned up outrage, insurrection and an unserious analysis of complex problems that have been evolving for decades. What Gianforte is telling us is that he’s willing to support the law so long as it conforms to his beliefs, after that it’s razor wire. And in this same nation, with these same politicians who speak with tears about the role of Jesus and the Christian church, these immigrants — strangers — are met with accusations of being criminal monsters. [Standing with Texas while leaving Montana to fend for itself]

Probably not coincidental to Kristi Noem's political grandstanding is the flight of talent from South Dakota amid calls by its entire congressional delegation to ease immigration rules. Noem’s christianic religionists are apparently void of any compassion and choose to blame Democrats for inflation as full employment and labor shortages drive wage increases.

The U.S. construction industry lost nearly 30% of its workforce during the Great Recession of 2008, and had barely recovered before the COVID-19 pandemic hit it again, as outlined by a study shared last spring by economists at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The authors attributed much of the shortage, however, to the federal Secure Communities immigration crackdown of the Obama administration. “If a shortage of lower-skilled labor makes it more difficult to find workers to finish framing a house, this will also reduce demand for electricians and plumbers required at the subsequent stage of construction,” the authors wrote. [The US needs homes. But first, it needs the workers to build them.]

There may be no amount of money some employers can pay workers who already know the risks of working for The Man. Talent is fleeing South Dakota and Montana as Republicans tout dystopianism as the best feature of their offerings to employees. But, it’s not about laziness, it's about equity or Maria shrugged, if you will. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion: Trump state economies are in the toilet according to Creighton University's Ernie Goss so Republican governors are clearly suffering hypocritheocracy on meth.

Learn more at POLITICO. 

Kristi Noem says we would “have a war on our hands” if Biden were to federalize National Guard troops being deployed to the border https://t.co/g8o1GPRBjb

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 4, 2024