Latinos probably do clean some of Donald Trump’s toilets, especially at the Trump Towers in Rio, or at the Punta Del Este resort in Uruguay. But all things considered, it’s fair to say that Kelly Osbourne’s Latino comment wasn’t actually wrong – even though the Left are pretending she was, and she’s now having to pretend she was too – when she told The View that the Left’s views on immigration is hinged upon the idea of cheap labour.
Actually, Ms. Osbourne – whose Latino-toilet-cleaners remark was probably more of an insight into her upbringing than Donald Trump’s living situation – has probably been more honest about the political and cultural Left’s view on immigration than anyone else has in a long time.
All of the “love immigrants” rhetoric that comes from the Left is so wrapped up, intentionally, in layers of deceit and public relations speak that we rarely ever hear about why they really want more immigrants in the United States, and indeed the United Kingdom.
You see the Left, where I’m from, used to be actually Left wing. And by that I mean protectionist, kinda nationalist, and more concerned with trades unions and their members than migrants and global warming.
That’s all changed. The cultural liberals took over the cultural Left, just as they’re doing to the right, now. Then the corporatists took over the political Left, forcing Left-wing political leaders to abandon previously held socialist views.
This is what was behind Tony Blair’s Clause 4 moment. It was the driving force behind the Third Way politics of Clinton.
Even “hard-line socialists” like Labour’s leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn are products of the cultural Left eating the socialists during the 60s and 70s. Corbyn, however beneficial for him and his party it may be, seems unwilling to the challenge idea of mass immigration.
And while journalists act like they’re shocked and surprised when someone like Bernie Sanders questions immigration on the basis of wage compression and jobs, this is actually the authentically Left-wing position on the matter. It’s actually an authentically Right-wing position too, but we’ll save the dissection of how the corporatists have devoured conservatism too for another time.
So Kelly Osbourne’s comments, which are a great joy to watch on repeat, were not so much her not understanding the debate, but her obviously having totally absorbed all the things that she hears at her Los Angeles slam poetry festivals, or on the rooftop of the Hotel California, or at the base of the letter ‘Y’ in the Hollywood sign, or wherever these people hang out.
“If you kick… aha… every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?”
The response was epic: “Oh, that’s not…”
To which Ms. Osbourne attempted to interject: “In a sense that… you know what I mean…?”
But it was too late. The cat was out of the bag. And it just pissed all over the table. Ms. Osbourne has now confirmed what a lot of us have long believed to be true. And the argument, sadly, is made by people who identify on the Right as well as the Left.
“They’re doing the jobs that British/American people won’t do,” I’ve heard so many times.
No… they’re doing the jobs that the indigenous labour market is discouraged to do by the rhetoric of people like Kelly Osbourne, and others who use racist, degrading language. Do you think before mass migration, no one’s toilets were getting cleaned?
You see the labels “racist” and “colonialist” are often hurled against the protectionist Right, because the corporatist argument doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. Wage compression happens. Jobs are limited. Those are facts.
No one’s arguing that immigrants can’t contribute towards GDP, or don’t have good qualities. But those, like Donald Trump, who want to control immigration are doing a cost-benefit analysis, whereas the corporate Left and Right are buying into the short-termist argument: cheap labour, and fast, equals more profits, and Western guilt alleviation. Something for everyone. Third Way indeed.
But the real racists and colonialists are these people – who want Latinos in the United States, and Eastern and Southern Europeans in the United Kingdom – so that they don’t have to clean the toilets. It’s racial, ethnic, and nationalistic short-term opportunism. And it’s about to bite some countries right in the arsch.