We would all like to blame someone. We prefer that it be somebody else. It relieves pressure when things are going bad. They need fixing, not us. Perhaps it is part of our wiring as human beings because it is everywhere. Even petty arguments often start and end by trying to assign blame. In politics, it is poison.

This attitude allows us to avoid change, which is always difficult. It’s uncomfortable and requires a whole new set of habits. When group-think comes into play, it’s pretty safe to say that resistance to change is pretty thick. So we shift the blame to someone else: immigrants (legal and otherwise), African-Americans, Hispanics, Gays, or Jews. This has been a rallying cry for wild-eyed fanatics and cold, calculating despots alike. So many ascents to power were fueled by the pogroms and the corpses left behind. Hutu/Tutsi, Nazi/Jew, Serb/Bosniak, and so on. And when the dust settled, the winning populations were never better off. Nothing changed. They never solved the systemic problems. But the tyrant got power, and that was all that mattered to that “administration.”

Unless you are a Native American, you and your lineage were once “them.” They’ve all taken a turn in the barrel getting shot. Quakers, Irish, African Americans, Poles, the list is long. They were called out as the reason for hard times. The logic is structurally flawed. These people were almost always at the low end of the totem pole. They didn’t influence the decisions by leaders which brought about the crises. But at least the strident had someone to blame.

Now it’s Hispanics’ turn. As I listen to the leading Republican contender, he might make me believe that these people caused the great recession of 2008, the low wages that cripple hard-working people, and maybe even global warming. It’s quite convenient. But it allows the policies of the oligarchs, strong-arm lobbyers, billionaire election buyers and sycophants to continue unchecked. They can continue doing the same things to this country. It’s not their fault. It’s Them who caused it.

I love the diversity of this country. I’ve been to places in the world where ethnic purity was paramount, and even a trace of “others’” blood in your family tree was a source of shame. We are different, even if some of us can’t accept it. I’m not so sure about American exceptionalism, but if it exists, it’s because of how well we have (eventually) assimilated other cultures. My children are Irish-Italian-German-Nordic-Americans, and they are great.

We have problems in this country. Deporting millions will not change that, because they are not the problem. This policy will set us back by depriving us of the opportunity to embrace new cultures and weave their best into our fabric. Build your wall, if you will. Maybe it won’t be so awful. It might discourage people from making a trek through a desert that kills so many. But none of these will fix the problems caused by a privileged class that insulates themselves from reality and deflects blame so they can continue to exploit the rest of Us.