Michael Pollak posted:
http://www.thenation.com/article/155209/lou-dobbs-american-hypocrite
Me sez:
I really don't see get political value of a story like this. Forget for a minute that it appeared in The Nation, whose readership doesn't need any more convincing that Lou Dobbs is a bad guy. (That is, for the Nation to "expose" an obvious jerk like Lou Dobbs to its liberal readership, and for its liberal readership to enjoy such an exposure, reeks of smug self-satisfaction.) Instead, imagine for a second that the article is seen by a right-wing populist opponent of "illegal immigration." What is the likely impact? Is he/she going to rethink or repudiate his/her stance on "illegal immigration"? No, more likely he/she is simply going to write off Lou Dobbs as yet another hypocritical elite, but retain his/her existing position on "illegal immigration." In fact, the story's emphasis on Dobbs as a hypocritical elite may in fact only reinforce a right-wing populist's commitment to his/her right-wing populism. And from a certain angle, the story rests on a very patronizing, or at least terribly mistaken, premise: that someone's anti-"illegal immigrant" viewpoint rests on a foundation no sturdier than Lou Dobbs' demagoguing of the issue.