Kids are Still in Cages

We beat fascism, but the concentration camps remain?

I’d sure hate to offend anyone or kill anyone’s buzz right now, but when am I allowed to ask when our new Democratic President and his Democratic Congress are going to end our ethnic border concentration camps? I’m asking for a caged friend whose last name, complexion, and surname are similar to mine, and whose children have been kidnapped by the federal government.

Ok, so, I may be overstepping my bounds in asking when Joe Biden and his Democratic majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are going to end the ethnic concentration camps along our borders that they blasted Donald Trump for running. Even though they have complete control over the federal government at present, it might seem a bit too radical and hasty to…*checks notes* end the illegal concentration camps where women are being forced into sterilization through White supremacist, government facilitated eugenics programs and children are dying that they have funded for the past four years, is it ok for me to ask when Democrats will at least start criticizing all this, the way they did when Donald Trump and Republicans were in charge?

Fine, you’re right. It might be a bit too extreme to suggest that Democrats maintain philosophical consistency and actually come out and continue to criticize the concentration camps the way they did when they could blame Trump for them.

But is it ok to ask when they might consider, you know, bringing up the debate of whether or not it might, possibly, perhaps, be time to at least discuss the subject of the fact that the U.S. government helps operate for-profit concentration camps that are killing refugee families who have committed no crimes? Biden has only just now taken office, that’s true.

Perhaps I should let him and Democratic leaders sleep on it a bit, enjoy their parties and fundraising a bit. What’s a few more nights on cement floors in the dead of winter to a Brown child?

Surely they’ll understand that they should be happy that Donald Trump is now out of office and everything is different and better, and Democracy has been saved ™. You know what, to be fair, before I go rocking the boat and spoiling the celebrations, let me double check that the United States government is actually still operating concentration camps. After all, Joe Biden is President now and Democrats control both houses of the legislature…

Ok, I’m back you guys. Just checked, and Brown children are still sleeping in concentration camps tonight. No, Joe Biden hasn’t committed even rhetorically to closing the concentration camps.

No, neither has Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Neither has Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Bernie “Che” Sanders hasn’t either, nor Representative Alexandria “Revolutionary” Ocasio-Cortez. To be fair, it might take Democrats some time to break the habit of dutifully funding our racist concentration camps the way they did for Donald Trump for years.

And, they did just save America from fascism, so we should probably give them some time before they turn their attention to dismantling our concentration camps. American concentration camps remain, but Donald Trump is gone, so that means fascism is gone!

I’m sure the Brown infants sleeping on the ground without their parents, surrounded by wire wouldn’t mind sacrificing a bit more in the name of American Democracy. After all, while he campaigned Joe Biden did express concern for those families.

He’s really compassionate.

“Their kids were ripped from their arms and separated,” he said, blaming Trump for the concentration camps and violations of asylum law that Republicans and Democrats both funded.

Things look different after campaigns, however. Since being elected, Biden has said that “the situation at the border (it’s really nice of him to call our illegal kidnapping of child asylum seekers “the situation” isn’t it? We’ve been subjected to so many potty-mouth cuss words the past four years, after all, so this is comforting) isn’t going to be transformed overnight.”

Showing true, sober restraint and practical perspective, he also said that changing Trump’s border policies right away is “the last thing we need.” Again, things look different before and after elections.

Well, not for the kidnapped Brown children in cages. Things look exactly the same for them tonight as they did before the election and inauguration, but you know what I mean…things are hard for Joe Biden now and Democrats in Congress, what with the mess that Donald Trump created and that they funded the past four years.

Come to think of it, I should probably commend Joe Biden for his consistency between his campaign promises and his stated plans now that he’s president. Joe Biden never committed to ending the concentration camps or private prisons that house refugees during the campaign, and he’s giving no indication that he intends to attempt to do so now as President.

That’s steady, consistent leadership that I’ve been missing for the past four years, I’ll tell you what. Radicals, party-poopers and Russian agents might disagree with me.

They might ask annoying questions at a time like this. For example, some purity-tester might observe that tonight it is Democrats who are keeping kids in cages.

They might ask why Democrats, with the White House and both houses of Congress in their control, won’t commit to ending this racist crime of American concentration camps. They might ask why Democrats are silent on the issue, suddenly, the way they were before 2016.

They might point out that we asked Republican brothers and sisters why they supported politicians who ran concentration camps and that now we must ask ourselves why it is that we do. I won’t do that, however.

There may be kidnapped children in American concentration camp cages tonight, but at least we’re no longer a fascist country.