It's one of those things that must be seen to be entirely believed, but Lou Dobbs's sleazy, Dennis Hopper in 'Blue Velvet'-style freakout on Laura Flanders is one of those television moments that may be destined to go down in history.  Earlier this week, the estimable Ms. Flanders found herself a lone voice of reason, guesting on 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' with a panel composed entirely, it seems, of hair-trigger demagogues.

The discussion was flowing along the usual blustery channels, with the other panelists displaying a numbingly typical mix of condescension, arrogance, and wounded sanctimony until Flanders made the following point:

LAURA FLANDERS, AIR AMERICA: I wanted to come back for a minute to the L.A. story, the last two stories. I think if Dr. King were alive today, he would be talking about what happened on L.A. on May 1st. When you talk about abuse, 240 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas.

We've gone from legal punishment of illegal aliens to physical punishment, and it's not helped by language like yours, Lou, talking about these [marchers] as being illegal aliens…

Uh-oh.  In the words of Parket Posey's character in 'The House of Yes', "Oh, please.  If everyone around here's going to start telling the truth, then I'm going to bed."

There is an audible groan from the rest of the panel, as if to say, "Oh, who will rid us of this meddlesome woman?" 

The entire show screeches to a halt as Dobbs goes into damage control mode and starts acting like a child molester uncle in danger of exposure to the other grownups:

DOBBS: Laura, Laura, Laura, that's ridiculous.

That's right, Uncle Lou, tell the little lady it's all in her head.

Flanders isn't having any of it.

FLANDERS: They're not aliens, they're people. And the vast majority of people at these marches are utterly legal. They're not aliens, Lou. They're people, and you're dehumanizing them with that language.

DOBBS: And you're absurd to suggest such a thing.

FLANDERS: I don't think so.

DOBBS: You're being absolutely absurd.

How, Lou?  How on earth is Flanders being absurd?  By suggesting that a bunch of unarmed demostrators might have civil rights?  That immigrants, legal or no, are human beings?  Why is that absurd?

It's "absurd" in Lou Dobbs's universe because it cuts directly against the grain of his serial dehumanization of Latin American immigrants.  Nativists like Dobbs can only maintain their under-siege fantasism if their audience is on board with the notion that the people they're against are not real human beings like themselves.  It worked on the streets of Birmingham in the 1960's when white police turned dogs and firehoses on black protestors and it's working for Dobbs, Malkin, O'Reilly and all the rest of them today.

Dave Niewart is who called my attention to this clip and he has some very interesting things to say about it.

Probably the central example of this is the nativists' insistence on calling undocumented workers "illegal aliens", a phrase clearly intended to cast these immigrants both as The Other and, most especially, as lawbreakers. The phrase becomes a way of negating any recognition that perhaps the nation's dysfunctional immigration laws, which render millions of hardworking contributors to the national economy noncitizens, might actually be the problem.

The nativists are intent, of course, on the emphasis on the legal status of these immigrants because it becomes a club with which to bash them — and moreover to justify all kinds of measures against them, most especially rounding them up, incarcerating and deporting them. So, for example, when someone points out the demonization and scapegoating inherent in this sort of approach to immigration — a facet of their behavior that decidedly casts them as the ethical and moral reprobates they are — they leap into full-fledged reflexive authoritarianism: intimidating, bullying, smearing, and generally shoving their opponents rhetorically to the ground.

(snip)

What brings that to mind is watching the video of this exchange; the transcript doesn't really give you the full sense of what Dobbs does to Flanders here — the finger jabbing, the scowling intimidation, the furious impugning of her argument (equating it with "condoning illegal immigration").

But apparently, it all escalated when the cameras went off.

Laura was our guest for today's early Book Salon and filled us in on what happened when she refused to back down to Uncle Lou.

Mr. Niewert:

UPDATE: Flanders, commenting at FDL, relates this:

I meant to say: he flipped. It was as if no one had ever challenged him on the use of the word "alien" before. He followed me into the make up room berating me, "How dare you …" then down the hall and to the elevator. His point: it's a government term. My point. It's dehumanizing no matter what. Being a government term doesn't make it better. It was dehumanizing vs. Germans and Italians too and he has a megaphone he's using to beat immigrants with. He wouldn't give way, but neither would I. In the end to his credit, when I said "i guess i won't be back any time soon" he invited me right back, which he did.

One point of historical detail: The term "illegal aliens" was introduced as a "government term" in the 1920s, when it referred primarily to Asian immigrants, during the nakedly racist campaign to excluse immigrants from Asia, culminating in the Immigration Act of 1924.

Well, at least now we know exactly what it takes to reduce Lou Dobbs to a sputtering, back-pedaling, defensive wreck.  Call him on his dehumanizing, racist language.

Brava, Ms. Flanders.  You're going into my Personal Pantheon of Righteous, Ass-Kickin' Liberal Heroes.  It's nice to see someone go right upside the head of a knuckle-dragger like Dobbs and then refuse to back down when the rock-thrower in question goes ballistic.  I hope we'll be seeing more of these kinds of no-nonsense, progressive smackdowns in the months ahead.  Lots more.

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