Well-known conservative radio host wants Uncle Sam to own illegal immigrants
Listen to conservative radio these days and you might think the line isn’t being redrawn further to right, you would just think there is no more line. It wasn’t too long ago that birthright citizenship and the fourteenth amendment were sacred to the American Constitution. Sacred even to Republicans.
In less than a week, Donald Trump has changed all that by calling birthright citizenship “unconstitutional,” even though it’s as clear as day in section 1 of the 14th amendment. Not wanting to be the rational men left out, other Republican presidential candidates quickly followed suit.
Although it happened quicker than I imagined, it isn’t all that surprising to see a conservative go even further off the rails. Jan Mickelson, a well-known conservative radio host from Iowa was recently quite adamant and serious about enslaving undocumented immigrants.
Jan Mickelson said that any undocumented immigrant that does not self-deport by a certain time-frame should become “an asset of the state:”
“So if you are here without our permission, and we have given you two months to leave, and you’re still here, and we find that you’re still here after we we’ve given you the deadline to leave, then you become property of the State of Iowa. And we have a job for you. And we start using compelled labor, the people who are here illegally would therefore be owned by the state and become an asset of the state rather than a liability and we start inventing jobs for them to do.”
A concerned caller tried to challenge Mickelson’s ridiculous argument by saying “Well, I think everybody would believe it sounds like slavery?” to which Mickelson then replied “Well, what’s wrong with slavery?”
Mickelson went on, “We will compel your labor, you would belong to these United States. You show up without an invitation, you get to be an asset. You get to be a construction worker.” He then added “You think I’m just pulling your leg. I am not.”
While speaking to Media Matters yesterday, Mickelson described his plan as “constitutionally defensible, legally defensible, morally defensible, biblically defensible and historically defensible.”
Given Iowa’s importance in the Republican primary, Mickelson frequently speaks to high ranking Republicans, especially the presidential nominees. When Trump was mentioned by a caller, Mickelson suggested these new slaves of his should build Trump’s wall along the U.S./Mexican border.
Yes, this man is on the radio and influencing our fellow Americans. What’s worse is that he’s also influencing our politicians. You have to wonder if any of the Republican presidential candidates would be willing to go this far. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
For the record, section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Birthright citizenship is as constitutional as owning a gun (if not more so.)
Scary days indeed, I’m waiting for Trump’s promise to get the trains running on time. The dramatic return of jingoistic scapegoating is exciting. I wonder who will be the first to suggest our good Mexicans wear red, white and green badges on their lapels? Just for their own good of course, don’t persecute every Mexican. Yet. Has anyone else read Animal Farm? Which pig will be the most equal? Who will be the next Big Brother? Will we add the word NEVER to Lady liberty’s pedestal and sculpt the torch into an up raised middle finger? I don’t want to find out how far things might go.
Constitutionally defensible? Legally defensible? Morally defensible? Biblically defensible? Historically defensible?
No. No. No. No. No.
And my guess is that he didn’t and wouldn’t detail his reasoning as to how his proposal is defensible in each of those ways. I’d like to hear him take a shot at it. But we all know it was about sound bites.
The biggest problem is that those who listen to him don’t understand that he was going for the sound bites and they don’t ask for his reasoning. They just buy that it’s defensible because he says it is. And anyone who disagrees is, of course, just wrong. They won’t tell you why or how you’re wrong. You’re just wrong. And they’re just right. Because.
wow. this is a sad time in america. i thought this was the country of FREEDOM! JAN mickelson is disgusting. he not even a republican this is FASCISM.i hope he runs into the wrong person
Let’s feed him to the Lions ..
A caller called into his show and told him that what he advocates sound like slavery. Jan then asked, “what’s do wrong with slavery?” Yes, he really said that on live radio, in the year 2015.
The comparison to Hitler its no longer a stretch.