Episode 40: Immigration & the Meaning of America: From the Muslim Ban to Family Separation & the Rhetoric of Hatred

On this special episode, I offer an extended commentary on the extraordinary events of the past two weeks with regard to the issue of immigration policy, including the Administration’s cruel and inhumane policy of family separation at the border, as well as the ban on migration from several Muslim nations, which was just upheld by the Supreme Court. What do these policies and rulings mean in terms of how we see the nation and the very concept of an “American?” What are the real motivations for these policies, and how does the president’s regularly dehumanizing rhetoric towards migrants of color prime the public for ever greater levels of cruelty? What does it really mean to speak of people as “legal” or “illegal,” given the arbitrary nature of those concepts? And what should people of conscience do now in response: from lawmakers to church parishioners to average everyday folks? Is public shaming of Administration officials a legitimate response to their policies, and why are so many people calling for “civility” from the left, while the president and folks on the right have made a pastime of issuing cruel and demeaning invective towards virtually anyone who opposes of even questions them?