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i should have put this together before, but i didn't.
what this is about is conservative fear of "illegal aliens."
it's about the fact that some of this year's census is being taken in spanish.
so this is playing on anxiety about the conservative "real americans" being "overwhelmed" by a whole lot of Other-types.
the constitutional arguments don't make sense empirically, but they do as a way of channelling this anxiety into an illusion of stability--of course this stability presupposes that one also buy into a strict construction line, which is surreal as a position if you know anything at all about the problems of imputing intent to historical actors (on this, you can trust me...my academic training is as a historian, and i can tell you that the anchoring move of strict construction is entirely untenable. can't do it. so what it amounts to is that conservatives want to be in the position of making up intent for the framers to suit their own political ends.)
so the response is to mount this silly campaign to fuck up the counting. as if that changes anything. as if that would magically transform contemporary america back into some imaginary place where Real American Conservatives weren't being Persecuted from All Sides by the Forces of Evil.
which in this case is the census bureau of all things.
as an extension of the Evil State.
within this, there are obviously libertarians who may tag along for the ride on what they imagine to be other grounds--"constitutional" ones---but as you see here, the arguments hold no water. but they're worked regardless.
so i wonder how different the motives really are.
if this is the case, not only is the action goofy, but it's also a bit repellent.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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