Reconquista, huh?

A post by David Neiwert from a few weeks ago on the "Reconquista" myth - the rightwing fantasy that Mexicans are engaging in a subtle invasion of the US Southwest - continues Neiwert's important documentation of the racist-nativist roots in the right's immigration theology. One Glenn Spencer apparently drives the ideology upon which commentators such as big-blogger Michelle Malkin and others rest their own screeds about "what if whites did that?" There's more to learn on this - click Neiwert's links - but here's a sample of Reconquista / Minuteman thinking:

The so-called reconquista, an alleged plot to turn several American states into a Mexican state or some kind of puppet government controlled by Mexico, has been a top concern for Spencer for years. Back in 1999, he put it like this: "The consul general says Mexico is reconquering California. A Mexican intellectual suggests that anyone who doesn't like Mexicans should leave California. What else do you need to hear? RECONQUISTA IS REAL... . EVERY ILLEGAL ALIEN IN OUR NATION MUST BE DEPORTED IMMEDIATELY. ... IF WE CAN BOMB THE TV STATION IN BELGRADE [in the former Yugoslavia] WE CAN SHUT DOWN [U.S. Spanish-language stations] TELEMUNDO AND UNIVISION."

It's generally a good thing to be able to attempt to place oneself in another's position in order to better understand it - this is the core of the moral life, the internalized basis for respect and obligation. Liberal pluralistic nations are based upon this understanding in that they attempt to design institutions that are fair to differing belief systems and moral and cultural perspectives. Some individual people have fairly expansive moral and cultural imaginations; others don't, but might try anyway; and yet others simply don't.

To turn this in a different direction, I admit that I don't understand American nativism of the sort embodied by the Reconquista / Minutemen agitators. I don't know what is defended nor what nativist claims exist apart from the legalistic idea of citizenship. But even in the latter case, unless Minutemen really do want those jobs that many immigrants accept, isn't mere citizenship an empty value? When that emptiness is filled in with nationalism or patriotism, isn't it the case that the object of nationalism and patriotism for the US context is a multivalent, morally and culturally pluralistic society?

It seems from most angles difficult to avoid falling into racist justifications on the question. This may be why Reconquista mythologizers and Minutemen resort to accusing latinos of racism when they express latino identity and solidarity: a classic move of projecting one's shortcomings or deepest fears onto one's enemy (see Karl Rove for the political version of this move).

The problem for me is that if I try to understand the R/M people, this requires me to put myself in their place in order to attempt a self-explanation of their claims. When I try to put myself in their place, I find no place there.