"Has Indiana gone back to the nativism of its past?"

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110522/OPINION03/105220335/Michael-P-Murphy-Indiana-has-turned-back-nativism?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s

Since 2006, "conservatives" have cried out for state mobilization against an invasion by "illegal" immigrants. "Rule of Law," the mantra goes, should be enforced by state and local government because the federal government has failed to act.

Sadly, many of our public policymakers have confused conservatism with nativism. Our Hoosier history is scarred by episodes of intolerance so extreme as to call into question our cultural moral underpinning. Hoosiers voted overwhelmingly in 1851 for a constitution that denied state entry to even "free" blacks. Our state was for years a hotbed of "Know Nothing" anti-immigrant activity. There was the reign of the Ku Klux Klan in state government, the Marion lynching in 1930, and less than 30 years ago, the Riviera Club of Indianapolis had to be sued before it would admit black and Hispanic members.

In most cases, Hoosiers could rightly say it was a small minority acting ignorantly, who shamed our state. But our collective innocence has been shattered by a law (SB590) that has passed overwhelmingly. To paraphrase the cartoon character, Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

What criteria could an officer reasonably use to determine illegal presence? The bill's author, in public testimony, said "if they don't speak English as well as we do." That standard would indict a former aide to the governor, a former Fortune 500 executive living in Zionsville, even a former CEO of Eli Lilly and Co. All U.S. citizens. Denying tax credits to businesses that employ illegal immigrants may be well-intended, but once again, ignores federal law that prohibits states from "fining" businesses for this offense. That is why the business community did not object to this provision. It is unenforceable, and will be overturned.

That is the exact quote.

By that standard there are a LOT of native Hoosiers whose "papers" I should be demanding to see. Since I moved to Indiana I've been pretty shocked by how bad the routine butchering of the English language is here.

Of course, I suspect speaking "standard English" would, to some of the bill's supporters, be just as suspect as having an accent...

...illegal immigration is such an enormous problem the solution is rather simple, a few months in prison for anyone who hires an illegal for any sort of work. Combine it with an automatic greencard for any illegal who informs on their employer and you will kill the market that attracts illegal immigration - as well as a few sectors of the economy...

We joke that while we turn the clock ahead one hour when we cross the border and then turn the calendar back a century. The state has had troubled racist past (look at its involvement with the KKK a century ago) and, even though voted for President Obama in '08 I see it a hard nut to crack in '12.

Once again, it has to be pointed out that these right wing zealots didn't sneak it, they were elected. Is there any "buyers remorse"? I don't see it there...

:rofl:

It never left. I grew up in Indiana, in a very conservative rethuglican family - conservative racist on my mother's side. Even as a child I knew their bigotry was wrong. I visit infrequently. Every time I am back there I am struck at how very little the attitudes have changed in the last 40 years.

I must concede that there is A lot of truth here, but not all of us Hoosiers (and yes, "us" is correct grammar here) are slack-jawed, racist morons, not even here in Terre Haute. Unrec for stereotyping.

are midwest ex-pats like myself who left, or whose parents left in the Reagan migrations. At this point I am just happy that I grew up in the bastion of liberalism that is Illinois(!?)...