Why Rob Astorino Should Stop Acting Outraged At Nazi Comparisons
It is entertaining to see Rob Astorino and his radical right-wing cohorts try to demonize Westchester legislator Catherine Borgia for accurately stating that Astorino’s approach to the county’s immigrants was what “clever Nazis” do. In essence, he is taking actions, such as vetoing the Immigration Protection Act in the name of public safety, that further isolate an already vulnerable population, while putting out press statements that make it appear that he’s doing it for the public good. In fact, he is simply mimicking the actions of the most publicly anti-immigrant official in our country, our president, Donald Trump, whom Astorino has supported and defended from day one. His anti-immigrant actions are further propelled by his obligation to Robert Mercer, the racist billionaire behind Breitbart and the rise of Steve Bannon and his AltRight. Mercer thinks the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a big mistake, and never met an immigrant he didn’t hate. And Mercer’s foundation has been funding Astorino ever since Astorino’s failed gubernatorial run in 2014.
But you can also tell a lot about a politician by the people he hires. Other than losing a congressional race to Sean Patrick Maloney, Phil Oliva had no particular government expertise. Yet Astorino chose Oliva, of all people, to be his Chief Assistant. Why? Because Oliva aligns with the radical right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-choice, anti-LGBT policies of his chief source of funding, Robert Mercer, and Mercer’s other beneficiaries — Trump and Bannon, and White Nationalism in the U.S.A.
Take a quick look at what Oliva has done and said in furtherance of his raw hatred of anything foreign.
1. Phil on tape.
Here is a videotape that lays bare Oliva’s fear mongering, and xenophobia, specifically toward the Syrian refugees being resettled in Poughkeepsie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9ku_LWZjuE
He starts off with some Tea Party classics, suggesting that the refugees were snuck in as part of a secret arrangement, and calling it “another example of the federal government deciding what’s best for local governments,” at about 16:50.
He quickly moves to blatant falsehood, telling the crowd, just after 16:50, that the “FBI Director says it’s impossible to vet the Syrian refugees.” Of course, neither the FBI Director, nor anyone else in a position to know, said anything close to this. The truth is that the vetting system is extremely thorough, takes years, and is successful in general. In fact, Syrian refugees are scrutinized more than other groups. All FBI Director Comey said was that he wished it could be 100% foolproof, and is not yet at that level. http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2016/oct/20/rob-portman/portman-refugees-safely-back-grounded/
Oliva builds the level of fear by making another misrepresentation — that James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence (at the time) has “huge concerns” that ISIS fighters will slip in among those refugees. This is at about 16:59. But that is not quite what Clapper said or meant, as news reports at the time show. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/9/james-clapper-islamic-state-could-infiltrate-us-we/
First, there had only been about 2000 such refugees let into the U.S. at the time, with no untoward events. But more disturbing is that Clapper was talking about refugees in Europe, much more so than in the U.S., where the vetting has done its work. Oliva neglected to mention that to the crowd, though, because it would not have served his goals of inciting fear and hatred of the refugees.
At about 18:15, he says there are still “unanswered questions” — something he repeats numerous times throughout his speech. And in talking about the proposed 80 refugees, he asks the crowd, “Once you start here, when does it end? And it may not end!” This happens at about 18:28.
Phil then goes big picture, likening Europe’s problems to our own. “Look what happened in Germany!” he warns at 19:20. “That country is not what it was a dozen years ago,” thanks, of course, to those refugees.
Because no anti-immigrant, fear mongering rally would be complete without telling the hometown crowd that the dirty foreigners will take your jobs, Phil moves to that area next. At about 20:40, he says “There’s 80 of them. They’re looking for jobs. There’s a lot of people out of work.”
But things get much more emotional. Phil actually ties the suicides of army veterans looking for jobs to refugees grabbing opportunities out of their hands, at about 21:30, and reminds his listeners that we must “take care of our own first,” at about 21:45. And that serves as the set up for warning the crowd about people bringing Sharia law into our country, at about 23:01, and questioning the values of people who won’t let their women drive or attend school, and stone to death those women who are raped, at about 23:05. The audience needs to think about these people we’re being asked to let in. “Do they love the United States, and what we stand for?” at about 23:23.
I’m certain these are all things the refugees gave considerable thought to as they grabbed a couple of cherished belongings and ran for their lives before being bombed, gassed, imprisoned, tortured, or all of the above.
2. Phil on Facebook
Phil is apparently a huge fan of the Holocaust revisionist, radical right-wing French politician, Marine Le Pen. Just go to his public Facebook page for April 23, 2017 for proof. Marine Le Pen’s father denies the Holocaust completely. Marine says that France’s participation was incidental, and Vichy was overblown. http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/europe/france-marine-le-pen-holocaust/
And she wants to clamp down hard on everything in site. Needless to say, you can tell a great deal about someone by who they admire. Phil is supporting someone who at best could be described as a radical, conservative, immigrant-bashing nationalist.
3. Phil on Westchester’s gun show
Nobody in Westchester wanted Rob Astorino’s gun show to take up space at our County Center. That was clear from the votes. But Rob likes to have his way, so he vetoed the opposition, and it took place. But was it really necessary to display pro-Nazi and Confederacy-related memorabilia and books?
Astorino variously responded to complaints about it by using false equivalency sophistry, telling a town hall crowd that you can find Mein Kampf in the public library, so why not have it at a gun show in a public venue? Then he called news reports about it “fake news.”
But nothing was creepier than Phil Oliva’s denial that the items ever existed. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/01/24/westchester-gun-show-nazi-literature/
For Phil, anyone who said differently was engaging in a politically-motivated smear campaign.
In the end, Astorino is funded by AltRight money, has a White Nationalist assistant encouraging hatred of refugees in the next office, forced through a gun show nobody wanted, and adorned it with pro-Nazi items. When people complained, he called it fake news, or tried to explain it way with false equivalencies. “Clever Nazi”? It would seem so.
