Oh, what now? Every day I am assaulted with the latest news about whatever lame-brained remark or crazy-ass proclamation that has escaped the mouth of Michele Bachmann. At this point, I'm inclined to just ignore them, until I'm reminded that there is a significant number of actual human beings who think she should be the next President of the United States.
This latest one's a doozy: Michele Bachmann: U.S. Immigration 'Worked Very, Very Well' Under The Asian Exclusion Act.
At last night's CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential candidates' debate, Bachmann made statements effectively giving the thumbs up to the racist immigration policies of America's past, saying they worked "very, very well":
The immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s when liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws. What works is to have people come into the United States with a little bit of money in their pocket, legally, with sponsors so that if anything happens to them they don’t fall back on the taxpayers to take care of them.I assume Rep. Bachmann is talking about the awesome system that passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which included the Asian Exclusion Act that established quotas and barred immigration from the Asia-Pacific Triangle. Meaning hey you Asians, stay the hell out.
Where America went wrong, according to the Congresswoman from Minnesota, was in the mid-1960s when the evil liberal members of Congress lifted those good ol' laws of yesteryear -- sigh -- tearing open the gates to let all those pesky foreigners into our great nation.
Oh wait. By pesky foreigners, do you mean me and my family? My parents -- and a lot of yours too -- immigrated to the United States during the wave that came after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Is Michele Bachmann saying America would be better off if they never immigrated here? Is she saying America would be better off if I was never born?
I take offense to that.
