American patriots: Stand with Alabama!

Transitioning from a pre-Civil War economy supported by slave labor to a truly free-market economy must have been challenging. Consider the Southern plantation owner. With his workforce suddenly gone, how would he get the cotton out of the fields? It is easy to imagine the cries from the Democrats who fought Republican-led abolition: "How dare they take my slaves away! The crops will rot in the fields!"

With the recent passing of Alabama's strictest-in-the-country illegal immigration law, illegals are fleeing the state in droves. Although the law has yet to go into effect, Alabama's economy has already reaped significant benefits. Like the days following emancipation and other crucial reforms, a tough transition is inevitable. But how tough?

Leftist groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU wasted no time scaring Alabama farmers into believing they will no longer be able to find qualified people to work their fields. While it may be true that illegal aliens will work for paltry wages, plenty of legal American citizens need work right now. Those abusing the system might be inconvenienced, as they will no longer be able to rely on a workforce that remains silent when mistreated. The heydays are over for farmers and other business owners who took advantage of the federal government's lack of enforcement of immigration law. The state has stepped up and done what the feds have failed to do: stand up for the rule of law.

The moment the bill passed, the left opened up the tattered, old, yet trusty playbook and began punishing Alabama by assigning it their dreaded black sheep status. They then warned Alabama farmers that no citizen would stoop to harvest their crops. With their cheap workforce slipping away, what would they do? The cries of the left echo those heard almost 150 years ago. One can imagine the melodramatic old scare tactic: "Our slaves are gone … our crops will rot in the fields!"

Opponents are trying to brand those who support the rule of law as racists. Logic does not allow that charge to stick. The leftists spew the rhetoric that farmers can't find Americans who will do the jobs that illegals do; that somehow Hispanic people are different in that they will do dirtier, more labor-intensive work. But it isn't the color of their skin that makes them better suited for those jobs, it is the fact that those are the only jobs they can get. Few illegals will ever become white-collar workers or start a small business. They would run into many obstacles, including an inability to start a bank account or get a loan without identification. That is, unless they steal an identity. When opponents of the immigration law tell us that brown people are just better suited for this type of work than whites, they reveal themselves as the true racists.

The Democratic Party playbook spans over two centuries; they turn to the bookmarked pages utilized since the Civil War. The South, they claim, will be ruined by evil Republicans (a redundancy in their playbook) and their crazy central idea that because all humans are equal in the eyes of God, all deserve liberty. But the leftists today who strive for greater numbers of illegals in the fields carry the same tainted baton as those who just a few generations ago believed black people belonged in those fields. And they call the tea party racist?

What is the solution to the problem the left claims the farmers face? The liberal solution: Expose the borders, neglect or outright refuse to enforce federal immigration law and cripple Alabama's sovereignty by overturning her laws. The conservative solution: Allow markets the free rein to dictate wages for field and other farm workers. The guest worker program will be helpful, but the economy will work itself out for the farmers, if allowed the freedom to do so.

America has a way of righting wrongs like this one, when confronted. While the left aims its peashooters at the Alabama economy, attempting to frighten the state into submission, her defenders must protect and counterattack with means more potent and wise. I, along with the support of several groups of Alabama patriots, have launched a "BUYcott" of the State of Alabama.

America is a "buy-lingual" nation; her citizens often speak most clearly with their pocketbooks. This marks one of the ways she asserts her belief in free-market principles. We invite Americans who support the United States Constitution, the rule of law and the end of illegal immigration to support the courage of Alabama's lawmakers and patriots by purchasing her products and vacationing on her sugary white beaches with shimmering, turquoise waters. There are many fun ways to make your political statement in the BUYcott for Alabama. Speak up for Alabama and for liberty!

Note: Jason Browning contributed to this column.

Gina Loudon, Ph.D., is the PM drive talk-show host of "The Dr. Gina Show" heard in eight states across the South and the Midwest. She appears regularly on Fox Business and Fox News, is a founding member of the National Tea Party and the founder of the BUYcott movement. She writes for WND, Big Government and Fox News Opinion, among others.