Spare me the make believe indignation from Republicans about the Afghanistan evacuation.
1/ Here's the story of the relentless Republican effort (led by President Trump) to undermine and destroy the programs that help bring Afghan refugees to the U.S.
2/ Over the last decade, Republicans have pushed to intentionally create a massive backlog in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program - the one we use to bring Afghan partners to America, by putting onerous conditions on the applications.
3/ In 2016, Obama asked to increase the cap for the SIV program. Senate Republicans objected.
Then, the Trump Admin started slowing down SIV processing. When Biden took over, there were 10,000 unfilled visas, despite 17,000 applications in the pipeline.
4/ This dovetailed with the assault by Trump and Republicans to destroy other refugee programs that bring Afghans to the U.S..
Obama admitted over 2,700 Afghan refugees. Trump admitted 400, bc he had dismantled the refugee system. Biden had to rebuild it.
5/ And today Trump Republicans are making it clear they will oppose bringing more Afghan refugees to the U.S..
Steven Miller: "Resettling [Afghans] in America is not about solving a humanitarian crisis; it’s about accomplishing an ideological objective to change America,”
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1/ Let me explain why the total destruction of USAID - happening as we speak - matters so much.
China - where Musk makes his money - wants USAID destroyed. So does Russia. Trump and Musk are doing the bidding of Beijing and Moscow. Why? apnews.com/article/trump-…
2/ Over the last week, 50% of the Global Health Bureau and 60% of the Humanitarian Assistance Bureau have been fired. Aid programs everywhere have been closed. The U.S. is in full retreat from the world.
Dystopian. No good reason for it.
3/ The immediate consequences of this are cataclysmic. Malnourished babies who depend on U.S. aid will die. Anti-terrorism programs will shut down and our most deadly enemies will get stronger. Diseases that threaten the U.S. will go unabated and reach our shores faster.
2/ First, this isn't a funding pause. It's a STOP WORK ORDER to almost all aid. Unprecedented.
So today we just stopped feeding babies and housing refugees and mediating conflicts all around the world. Aid orgs are laying off staff and many programs will not restart.
3/ Tons of kids are just going to die needlessly. Famine has struck in Sudan, but because of the freeze, our most important life savings programs shut down. Within weeks or maybe days, malnourished babies who rely on our food and care will die. news.un.org/en/story/2024/…
2/ First, let's not sugar coat the extent of RFK Jr.'s evangelism. The anti school vaccine organization he chaired is the nation's leading spreader of vaccine conspiracies and has filed dozens of lawsuits challenging vaccine mandates. npr.org/2024/12/03/nx-…
3/ And there is simply no question vaccines save lives. The WHO says the measles vaccine alone saved the lives of 20 million (20 MILLION!) kids over just 15 years. Many of those lives saved are right here in America. unicef.org/eca/press-rele…
That was a cataclysm. Electoral map wipeout. Senate D practical ceiling is now 52 seats. R's is 62.
Time to rebuild the left.
We are out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA. We refuse to pick big fights. Our tent is too small.
1/ Some early thoughts:
2/ The left has never fully grappled with the wreckage of fifty years of neoliberalism, which has left legions of Americans adrift as local places are hollowed out, rapacious profit seeking cannibalizes the common good, and unchecked new technology separates and isolates us.
3/ The things that mattered are disappearing. We spend half as much time with friends as a generation ago. Hard work no longer guarantees economic mobility. Institutions (like churches) are delegitimized. Place based identity evaporates as we all become "global citizens."