Yesterday or was it the day before, it is so hard to know living on the other side of the International Dateline and watching MSNBC online 18 hours after the fact and only when the VPN can penetrate the Great Firewall of China, that tempest-tossed wretch of a racist, misogynist, classist motherfucker, Ken Cuccinelli recited a portion of “The New Colossus.” You know, the poem by Emma Lazarus that adorns the Statue of Liberty that welcomes immigrants to our country that many believe articulates the importance of diversity in the development of America in, dare I say, what makes America great? You know that poem.

Ken “I’m not from Irish and Italian immigrants” Cuccinelli would have you believe that the key lines read Give me you tired and you poor that can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.

The Tempest-Tossed Teapot

I know whose Piss Aid he’s been drinking, and it done turned him against his own great-grandparents or grandparents. Can you imagine the sliocht of poor struggling Irish and Italian immigrants now trying to gaslight the nation by convincing us that our Statue of Liberty poem really only welcomed well-off, clean, prosperous white people?

Don’t let the motherfuckers gaslight you so they can enrich themselves at our expense and gaslight us even if it means that they are last generation. They give zero fucks about anything but transferring as much wealth as quickly as possible up to the 1% from the rest of us. If the means to that end is gaslighting us, they will gladly take the mind right out of every last one us.

The New Colossus is actually the exact opposite of Ken “I’d turn my own grandparents away from immigrating into the country if it means we can get another needless, unwanted, and destructive tax-cut through for the rich and famous” Cuccinelli says it is.

The Poem

The New Colossus is actually the exact opposite of Ken “I’d turn my own grandparents away from immigrating into the country if it means we can get another needless, unwanted, and destructive tax-cut through for the rich and famous” Cuccinelli says it is.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus from The Poetry Foundation

What is she actually saying?

Interpreting “The New Colossus”

The Colossus, of course, isthe Colossus of Rhodes one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. But don’t go booking you a tour or anything just yet cuz that one fell down. You can’t see it no more.

In the first lines she contrasts America with the Colossus which was made to stand astride the entrance to the port of Rhodes and intimidate all who approached with its giant phallus and possibility of being shat upon as you passed beneath. I guess it is no coincident that the Colossus was 33 meters tall or about the same height as the Statue of Liberty, hunh.

I love her contrast of Lady Liberty with the Rhodes Colossus, a mighty woman whose name is the Mother of Exiles — how’s that for a piece of trivia next time you’re out picking up chicks, Did you know the Statue of Liberty had a name? She is known as the Mother of Exiles to all of her statuary friends.

Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! In other words we don’t want any of your sniveling stinking rich successful Ken Cuccinelli-types here! All they want to do is sit around all day suppressing votes, oppressing PoC’s, and transferring all of our wealth up to the 1%! That’s not what we’re building America on — okay, it is what we’ve built America on — but it’s what we want to stop building America on so we can become a more perfect union of a diverse population recognizing that America has given us all — except for the Native Americans — a second chance to remake ourselves.

Tired, poor, huddled masses, wretched refuse, homeless, temptest-tossed describes the Mother of Exiles perfect immigrant. Does it sound like the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s or Ken “No green card for anyone using gov’t benefits — how do you like me now, grandma?” Cuccinelli’s idea of the perfect immigrant? I don’t think so. The Mother of Exiles is begging the world to send us their refugees and cast-offs.

Background of “The New Colossus”

Emma Lazarus wrote the poem in 1883 — four years before she died (1849 – 1887) as part of an auction to raise money to build the base of the statue. While born to a wealthy family, she came to champion Jewish immigration due to the various persecutions of Jews in Europe, but especially Russia.

Is it just me or do we seem to be stuck in some kind of weird ironic time-warp. Is any of this weirding anyone else out? I mean, it’s not like the world is about to end or anything, right?

As such, she wrote the poem to be a criticism of the US and Europe in the 1880’s.

Okay, Baby and Toddler Jesus stop the presses, the Repubes are regressivists who want to take us BACK to the 1880’s monopolistic boom-and-bust days of roaring capitalism. Now, that is just spooky.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in 1882 — the year before she wrote the poem — and who are we “fighting” now? The Chinese! Okay, it’s less fighting and more like using the tariffs as a tool to bankrupt small American farms so they can be bought dirt cheap by the corporate farms. But, still it looks like a fight to the stooges that still vote Repube!

In 1884, the Europeans divvied up Africa into colonies! Reconstruction had ended the decade before and the backlash against the freed black slave was cranking into overdrive. Lynchings were all the rage. Everyone was hoping for a front seat at a lynching back then as much as they were in 2017!

To try and deny this poem’s representation of American ideals and aspirations and to try and use it against a liberal and open immigration policy and to deny the contributions of immigrants to our society and the white population’s deep roots in immigration so that we are denying our ancestors, parents, grandparent, great-grandparents, and beyond is the height of gaslighting.

The only way to fight that kind of radical indoctrination is with truth! Don’t let the motherfuckers gaslight you! Know the poem!