Republicans are in full scapegoat mode right now, and they are taking this country into uglier and uglier territory.

Their scapegoat is the immigrant who is here illegally.

They want to make life absolutely as miserable as possible for these immigrants. Witness Arizona.

But not only that. They want the sins of the parents to be visited on the children.

They want to amend the very Constitution itself to deny citizenship to children born here in the United States to parents who were here illegally.

That’s right. They want to repeal the 14th amendment.

This isn’t just a fringe effort. 94 Republicans in the House are behind it, as are Senators Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Jon Kyl.

This is outrageous. The 14th Amendment has been on the books since the end of the Civil War, and seven generations of Americans have benefited from the guaranteed right of citizenship by birth here—regardless of who their parents were.

Now, we’re going to take that away?

Republicans are stabbing at the myth of America as a land of freedom and opportunity.

And instead of solving the economic crisis, they want white Americans to single out brown-skinned immigrants and their children for an extra helping of scorn.

It’s hard to conceive of a more reprehensible strategy.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his article “The FBI’s File on Howard Zinn.”

Follow Matthew Rothschild @mattrothschild on Twitter