The United States general election is November 5th this year, one month from today. I for one am ready for it to be over. Racism keeps rearing its ugly head, shaded in a fear of a loss of culture or society, people fear the "other" and overlook that the United States has long been the great melting pot. Every aspect of your culture and society are shaped by the remarkably diverse people who came here seeking a better life, and in doing so creoled into a country that people still see as a beacon of hope for a good life.
Our legal immigration system is overwhelmed and out of date. At best it is incapable of handling the volume of people who wish to move here. There are systemic flaws in the system that need to be changed. Decades of neglect has resulting in millions of people in the country, without a legal right to be here. Many of them have been here for decades.
The system needs a major overhaul. The most recent efforts to do so, were stopped at the request of HeWhoShallNotBeNamed, demonizing immigrants and baseless insults are the key points of his campaign.
What no one talks about is that the United States is better off with immigrants. Many industries including agriculture, construction, and hospitality can not operate without immigrants and foreign workers.
This is nothing new, it has been this way for over a century. I wouldn't be here, if persons born in the United States were willing and able to dig tunnels under rivers and lakes. My great grandfather, my father's mother's father was ready, willing, and able to do so and moved here to do a job no one wanted, and for a safer life for his family. They moved to New York on the eve of World War I.
If Bubba thinks that an immigrant has taken his good job, I urge him to go sign on to hang and finish drywall. It is back breaking work, that pays well, and the vast majority of the people who do it today, are immigrants. Or go learn to finish concrete, it takes a year or so to master the trade, again most of the people doing this work today were not born here. At least half of the hotel housekeepers are immigrants, hard work for modest pay, but it is an honest living. Thirty years ago Tony Bourdain wrote about the immigrants who are the backbone of restaurant kitchens in the United States, they still are.
Farmers in Florida are complaining about crops left unpicked because of the state making it harder - even impossible for foreign workers, and an unwillingness of the locals to do the work.
The country is in desperate need of electricians. The last time I needed one, it took me two months to get an appointment. I talked with someone recently who is selling electric car charging systems, in most areas of the country they are waiting weeks or months for qualified electricians to install the hardware. It takes several years to qualify as an electrician, but the jobs pay really well.
The economy is booming. Employment is near full, with shortages in some industries. The investment markets are at all time highs.
Make the decision, cast the vote.
Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
