Speaking truth to power is in woefully short supply these days. That's why it is always such a relief to listen to the panelists Joy Reid assembles to analyze and expound on what is happening in our country right now as it spirals downward into the abyss.
Jason Johnson names exactly what our government has become: a White Nationalist terrorist organization. This has been happening slowly for years, but it is so explicit now with this administration - who heads it, and who advises him, who supports him in Congress with legislation, who refuses to stand up to him with actions (not just platitudes...)
How else to define people who take the lives of innocent children hostage in whatever form they can to get what they want? When it becomes more and more clear that what they want is for this country to be more white? This ain't new, kids. Our Constitution has White Supremacy written into it. No one gets to say "This is not who America is." This is ALWAYS who America has been. It is not who America SHOULD BE, though. And we can do something about it by listening to people who speak the truth without mincing words.
And voting.
Transcript below.
MICHELLE BARNARD: Joy, I think it bears pointing out that if we go back to candidate Trump, I do believe that candidate Trump told the entire world that Mexico was going to pay for the wall, not the American taxpayer.
JOY ANN REID: Right. Now they're saying these children will remain hostage until Americans pay for the wall. Jason, it's interesting that Steve Bannon is very explicit about saying reducing lawful immigration, particularly from countries south of the border, is a top priority of this administration. They want to change the census in order to reduce the immigrant population numerically. They want to take away people's nationality, if people have already been naturalized. They want to say we're going to de-Americanize you and send you back, anyway. It is all going together -- it is going together in a very interesting way.
JASON JOHNSON Yes. It's a White Nationalist policy. You and I have talked about this, Jonathan just mentioned it. What people need to understand is White Nationalism is not like, "I don't want you in this neighborhood, and I don't want you in this Starbucks." You cannot accomplish White Nationalism without basically turning the government into a terrorist organization. Without terrorizing people and forcing them to leave, without encouraging violence, either from state-sponsored actors or not investigating White Nationalists. You have to literally terrorize people into leaving this country. Here's the other thing, and I think it's important to understand not just about these children at the border. This whole administration, it's like a Liam Neeson "Taken" movie. These guys are terrorists, right? They're constantly taking hostages. Whether it's CHIP, whether it's DACA, whether it's the asylum. They have no problems taking kids, putting guns to their heads and then demanding that the rest of the country do what we want them to do. Until we recognize that we are operating with a White Nationalist government that takes children hostage to get what they want, even if it's just a tax cut, the Democrats and anyone else resisting doesn't know what they're fighting.
JOY REID: It used to be "self-deportation" when Mitt Romney was basically saying the same thing. Make conditions so bad for people that they will self-deport.
