Thread by @HMAesq

Thank you to the President for the #TrumpAddress tonight. I'm quite serious. Unlike him, I can see the writing on the wall.

I've been knee deep in the racist origins of our immigration policy for quite some time and seen how they clothe bigotry with easier to swallow terms.

Terms like "border security," "criminal alien," "illegal alien" and coopted terms like "migrant," "chain migration" and "national security."

So why would I thank him?

Because - simply - it's nothing new. It's the same old tired alarm, played on the world's most annoying siren. "We must stop the invasion!"

The anti-immigrant movement may be very inventive in coming up with new ways to keep people they don't like downtrodden. But they don't have anything new to offer for our generation.

They have deliberately sabotaged our immigration system, devolving it into a lumbering dinosaur, then whine about the system being broken. They've forced spending billions of our tax dollars detaining and deporting for decades, then whine about the cost of "illegal" immigration.

They *made* it expensive. If there's an immigration crisis, it's their fault. Who's "they?" The anti-immigrant movement, and those who've drunk their Kool-Aid.

Trump said the shutdown could end with a 45 minute meeting. It could end in 45 seconds if he'd listen to reason and abandon the silly wall. History lesson, Donald: All walls fall.

I could say a lot more: how asylum seeking is legal immigration (see 8 USC 1158); how obnoxious it is that Trump tried to drive a wedge between immigrants and black people, how he cherry picks data, employs dehumanizing slurs orders of magnitude worse than motherf****er...

...ignores the plight of the forcibly displaced, mischaracterizes the law as a "loophole," laughably posits the wall will either pay for itself or be indirectly paid for by Mexico, or (and this was my favorite) how he actually admits that he can't deport everyone.

But nothing he said tonight - nothing - is new. They've had 2 years to make America great again, and here he is, begging for our money.

They've had 40+ years to hone these deportation policies, and here he is, admitting he can't do it.

Move over. It's a new day. Your house of cards is falling. You might not see the writing on the wall, but I do. Millions do. Do you think we're foolish enough to buy into your scam crisis? We didn't graduate from Trump University.

Here's my answer: No. You can fool some people some time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

I decided to run for office in my own backyard because I know that blowing down that house of cards is going to take effort at all levels. Immigration policy may originate in Washington, but they affect people through state law.

Progressive Democrats have been establishing a vision of a compassionate, cooperative America where everyone has a chance to make it, where laws empower and protect, instead of beat down and banish.

hassan4va.com

That's what we're offering. It's real. It tastes really good.

More importantly, Mr. President, it is what lies ahead. You've got nothing.

#OneLove