By Michael Schwarz September 10, 2024 at 12:57pm
In the years preceding the American Revolution, angry colonists sometimes tarred and feathered local officials suspected of conspiring against liberty.
Whether those officials had engaged in a conspiracy per se made little difference. After all, the colonists recognized in those officials and their British overlords a pattern of behavior that threatened Americans’ freedom.
Speaking of feathers, in recent days the social media platform X has exploded with claims that Haitian migrants in the small town of Springfield, Ohio, have stolen and eaten both geese in the wild and, incredibly, family pets — claims that, according to Peter J. Hasson of the Washington Free Beacon, have distracted attention from “real, provable problems” caused by Springfield’s influx of Haitians.
“People fixating on an unproven rumor about Haitian migrants in Springfield eating geese are completely blowing past real, provable problems that come with putting 20,000 Haitian migrants in a town of 60,000 — e.g. the city’s health clinics and schools are taking a beating and low-income Americans are losing housing,” Hasson tweeted on Tuesday.
People fixating on an unproven rumor about Haitian migrants in Springfield eating geese are completely blowing past real, provable problems that come with putting 20,000 Haitian migrants in a town of 60,000 — e.g. the city’s health clinics and schools are taking a beating and… pic.twitter.com/COOP4LC2F1
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) September 10, 2024
Hasson cited a truly disgusting article published last week by the establishment shills at The New York Times.
In short, national immigration correspondent Miriam Johnson went to Springfield to craft a story that would make the Times’s liberal readers feel good about themselves and the immigration policies President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have imposed on small-town Americans without their consent.
“By most accounts,” Johnson wrote, “the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield.”
Do we need a stricter immigration system in the United States?
In a passage that oozed the sort of elitist condescension one might have found on an antebellum plantation — or in modern establishment newsrooms and faculty lounges — Johnson then described members of Springfield’s newest community as gathering at churches “for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.”
Later, Johnson added an obligatory reference to “Nazi sympathizers” when describing native Springfield residents’ outrage over an immigrant who killed an 11-year-old boy in an Aug. 2023 driving accident.
Nonetheless, amid the condescension, Johnson conceded that the arrival of approximately 20,000 Haitians since 2020 has taxed the town’s resources and done little to help the actual American citizens who already live there.
Dr. Yamini Teegala, who has served as CEO of Rocking Horse Community Health Center since January, described the center’s tenfold increase in Haitian translation-related expenditures alone as “not sustainable.”
Meanwhile, schools have become overcrowded, and affordable low-income housing has nearly evaporated.
No one, of course, blames the Haitians — at least not the ones who have refrained from any wild allegations about eating wildlife and pets.
Instead, the blame rests squarely with the Biden administration and its inept policy making.
Johnson referred to a “federal program that offered [Haitians] temporary protection in the United States.”
By that she meant the Biden administration’s Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) program.
Under CHNV, the Biden administration has admitted up to 30,000 migrants per month from those four countries directly into the U.S..
Employers, of course, love the program. So do landlords.
Jamie McGregor, chief executive at McGregor Metal in Springfield, praised the Haitian immigrants who filled jobs at his company.
Gary Durst, a landlord who owns rental properties in Springfield, “acknowledged that some Americans have been displaced,” as Johnson put it. But that did not stop the landlord from waxing rhapsodic about his role in the town’s alleged revitalization.
“I probably have $25 million invested in this town,” Durst said. “I believe in this town.”
In other words, the story has never changed. Mass immigration — in this case illegal immigration, for the federal court that refused to halt the CHNV program did not rule on its legality — benefits the affluent at the expense of ordinary citizens.
Wednesday on X, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — former President Donald Trump’s running mate — blasted liberals who have expressed more concern over a potentially unfounded rumor about geese and pets than they have about displaced Americans.
WARNING: The following post contains language that some readers may find offensive.
“If you’re a reporter, or an activist, who didn’t give a s*** about these suffering Americans until yesterday, I have some advice: Spare your outrage for your fellow citizens suffering under Kamala Harris’s policies. Be outraged at yourself for letting this happen,” Vance tweeted in part.
In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.
Do you know…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 10, 2024
In the end, perhaps Sean Davis of The Federalist succeeded at best encapsulating how many Americans feel about illegal immigration.
“The regime is airdropping violent, third-world illegals into peaceful rural towns in red states because the regime hates Americans who live in peaceful rural towns in red states. It’s really not more complicated than that. The regime hates you and wants you to be miserable,” Davis tweeted.
The regime is airdropping violent, third-world illegals into peaceful rural towns in red states because the regime hates Americans who live in peaceful rural towns in red states.
It’s really not more complicated than that. The regime hates you and wants you to be miserable.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 10, 2024
Again, few supporters of Trump and Vance would blame the Haitians.
In fact, we much prefer the Haitians to the corrupt establishment politicians who capitalized on their desperation while deepening ours.
We also prefer the Haitians to establishment liberals, who do a rotten job even posing as our moral superiors.
In other words, we see a pattern of behavior, and we do not like it.
Whether that leads to a fresh and much-needed round of tarring and feathering remains anyone’s guess.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
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