From the Daily-Herald of Central Utah via Reason:
Utah County Republicans ended their convention on Saturday by debating Satan’s influence on illegal immigrants….
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.
In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”
Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said.
At the end of his speech, Larsen began to cry, saying illegal immigrants were trying to bring about the destruction of the U.S. “by self invasion.”
Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as “Joe,” said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil.
Man, where do I even go with this? Well, even granting them that Satan is a literal entity with influence on the world, there’s at least half a dozen problems:
(1) Where does this whole “Satan wants a world state” thing come from? Is there something in Revelation to this effect? I mean, I’ve heard of the whole “world gets divided into ten nations by the Antichrist” thing before … but somehow it keeps turning into the UN (or some similar entity) being evil incarnate. It amazes me how political talking points and religious belief get so easily fused. Er, wait. No it doesn’t.
(2) Illegal immigrants hate our country? Well, they keep coming here. And quite contrary to destroying it, they contribute perhaps as much as $1 trillion to our national economy and probably bought us a few years before social security implodes. There’s 12 million of them … if they really hated us, they could destroy us right now. Nineteen terrorists killed 3000 people. It’s not hard.
(3) Illegal immigrants control the media? Um, they’re poor. I haven’t seen a 23-year old Honduran migrant farmer named Jose running the Washington Post lately.
(4) If illegal immigrants are working with Democrats, someone should probably tell Heath Shuler, a Democratic Congressman from North Carolina (and a very poor NFL quarterback in the 1990s), who happens to be a Southern Baptist and takes an almost Tancredo-like line on illegal immigration. I’m sure he’s not the only one.
(5) Most illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Central America. Most of them are, um, Catholic. They go to church more than the average American. Then again, you have Falwell/Robertson types occasionally saying that Catholicism is a cult, right? Lovely. I mean, sectarian conflict has been so productive lately.
(6) Marxist? Seriously? There aren’t Marxists any more … except maybe some college professors. The 1950s called, Utah … it wants its communist paranoia back.
And finally: If you think a few millions Mexicans can destroy the United States, then you really don’t have much confidence in the strength of your country, do you?
Oh, and the Reason commenters make a few good points, among them this: Illegal immigrants are evil, not legal ones aren’t? A green card determines whether you’re controlled by Satan or not? If that’s the case, then damn, give everyone on earth a green card. Problem solved.
