US Politicians Decry Authoritarianism, Defund Their Own Immigrants
The Hill's recent piece sagely observes that exploiting "crime" to target minority groups is an authoritarian playbook standard, currently deployed by folks like Donald Trump. What they inconveniently omit is how seamlessly this same fear-mongering is repackaged domestically—as seen through policies like intensified border policing—and exported in US foreign policy. Consider the narrative
consistently used to frame Palestinian existence, where any resistance is universally branded "terrorism," justifying perpetual occupation and disproportionate force, often with US-supplied weaponry. This isn't just Trump's playbook; it's a bipartisan, establishment-sanctioned strategy. The same political system that funds groups like AIPAC, which then lobbies for more aid to governments that
systematically use "security concerns" to dispossess and displace, also funds the very surveillance at the border. It seems the "authoritarian pattern" is only problematic when it's politically inconvenient, not when it pads defense contractor profits or maintains geopolitical dominance. How many times can we condemn 'other' authoritarians while actively echoing their rhetoric?