Cross Their Hearts And Hope To Die October 29, 2018October 29, 2018 Correction: I was wrong to say there are six churches in Paris, Texas, each of which would have to help accommodate a desperate Honduran family once every 24 years. (“Do the math.”) According to a friend from Paris, “There are WAY more than six. That link is incredibly wrong. It doesn’t even include my family’s church! I’d say there are probably 30 or 40 at least, no joke. If you go to Google Maps of Paris, and type in Church, at least 20 pop up.” So each church would have to help one desperate Honduran family more like once every hundred years. And this is the scare tactic — 7,200 desperate Hondurans with 1,000 more miles to walk before they turn themselves in at our border seeking asylum to harvest our tomatoes and clean our motel toilets — that Republicans are using to distract you from their having voted more than 50 times to kill or weaken Obamacare rather than improve it or offer anything to replace it. Flashback: Republican politicians have been saying they’re for covering pre-existing conditions and maintaining the social safety net — all those things Democrats have long been voting for and enacting — for a great long time. “Cross their hearts and hope to die.” Yet they always seem to vote “no.” I imagine you’ve seen this Roosevelt clip, but it’s always worth another look. As is this affirmation that, yes, now that Republicans have slashed taxes for corporations’ wealthiest shareholders, they’re coming after your Social Security. Reminder: The Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform 68-32. The House would have passed it, too, if the Republicans had allowed a vote. Question: Who should be allowed into this country? Not the Irish, certainly. (Who needed people like Ronald Reagan or John Kennedy in this country?) Not Syrians. (Who needed Steve Jobs?) People of good will can surely differ on the trade-offs involved in crafting comprehensive immigration reform. What they should not do — can’t we agree on this much? — is demonize refugees for political gain. It’s immoral, it’s unChristian, it’s unAmerican — and it’s the heart of the Republican strategy to maintain a stranglehold on all three branches of government. Oh — and by the way?