I wrote about Latino LA 35 years ago because of politics its changing rapidly. My cousin, tall and light-skinned, sells baseball cards at the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet. Recently, he got caught in an ICE raid. Like thugs, they entered the market, stopped him, and began questioning him.
He had his driver’s license on his phone, but they didn’t want to see it. Instead, one agent started grilling him: Where were you born? Where did you grow up? What school did you go to? while the other just stood there, staring him down.
They were ready to take him “to clear him,” but at the last moment, one of them changed his mind and let him go.
Certianly the solution isn't to demonoze any large group of people or place. But support for actually enforcing immigration law isn't necessarelly based on demonization, though it can be. I concur with much of the writing of the Substack "The Liberal Patriot" (Evan though I wouldn't discribe myself that way) that the majority of progressive Democrats remain rather clueless on average on not only immigration but on many other cultural issues IMHO. And one example of that is that immigration is not just a cultural issue, but also very much a soceoeconomic one as well, something that many Democrats are loath to face.
While some of ICE's actions are clearly unlawfull (this is true with other policing as well to an extent), and racism is law enforcement remains an issue, most of what is being protested is actual enforcement of US immigration law. But many US progessives today are appaled by that barring a huge increase in legal immigration which has not been forthcoming. Nor does most of the public as a whole want such an increase either. Let that part sink in. I think this devide is in part because so many proffesional class Dems now have so little to do with either Trump supporters of any sort or with working class whites in general, because of where they live. And they have increasimgly used immigration as a buffer to push those groups they feel most uncomfortable with away.
What I believe most Trump supporters (I have personally not voted for a major party candidate for US president since Bill Clinton, whom I would not support today, in 1996) actually want is simply to stop the US as a whole from turning into something like Southern California and to preserve their own way of life, which they feel continued mass immigration (among other things) has already damaged and displaced, and threatans to ultimately destroy. There is good indication that such support is actually based on more soceoeconomic and not just cultural or racial fears. And it is also anger that president Biden let in an unprecidented number of people with temporary (if any) legal status in such a short time, and seemed to be outright vindictive to his political apponnants in his aproach, as well as sanctuary city's and other percieved lawlessness and lack of concern for ordenary evoters.
This situation now creates a huge problem for Trump who has (the oppocite of Biden) largely suceeded already in closing the US border to illegal entry but not in actually deporting people in large numbers. It also pads Democratic voting Congressional districts that would otherwise be loosing population (some are anyway).
So far this is frankly a battle that supporters of less immigration have NOT yet lost at the national level, but many are willing to fight for it even at a very high cost, as it is seen as an existencial matter. Most actually are not obsessed about when the US will cease to have a white majority but do want to preserve their own (less diverse and more traditional) way of life to some significant extent. Trump is a corrupt Bilionare who is now old, so I sure wouldn't count on him for much of anything, but he is still seen as at least better by his supporters then the main alternatives. Unfortionately not just for them but for us all, the further developement of A.I (not to mention potential nuclear conflict!) potentially threatens the entire future of human civilization, even while promisimg to elivate it... but that is another (rather scary!) issue of it's own.
However, the race obsession was not only yester-years battle, but one that most of the younger (conservative) generation frankly wishes had never been fought in those terms in the first place. Ultimatally, immigration is a policy choice and there is nothing enevitable about it's nature. Pretending that this consern can just be brushed aside as mere racism or somehow crushed is I believe an enormous mistake for Democrats or anyone to be making, though one that at this point I'm not sure that they can easily get out of. So is relying so heavely on not only overseas but also immigrant labor in the first place. It is not close to being sustainable.
The above is just one reason why, while I am broadly liberal and even somewhat left leaning on many issues including on various aspects of immigration policy, I am decidedly not a progressive and also no longer a member of either major US political party. End rant.
I wrote about Latino LA 35 years ago because of politics its changing rapidly. My cousin, tall and light-skinned, sells baseball cards at the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet. Recently, he got caught in an ICE raid. Like thugs, they entered the market, stopped him, and began questioning him.
He had his driver’s license on his phone, but they didn’t want to see it. Instead, one agent started grilling him: Where were you born? Where did you grow up? What school did you go to? while the other just stood there, staring him down.
They were ready to take him “to clear him,” but at the last moment, one of them changed his mind and let him go.
Certianly the solution isn't to demonoze any large group of people or place. But support for actually enforcing immigration law isn't necessarelly based on demonization, though it can be. I concur with much of the writing of the Substack "The Liberal Patriot" (Evan though I wouldn't discribe myself that way) that the majority of progressive Democrats remain rather clueless on average on not only immigration but on many other cultural issues IMHO. And one example of that is that immigration is not just a cultural issue, but also very much a soceoeconomic one as well, something that many Democrats are loath to face.
While some of ICE's actions are clearly unlawfull (this is true with other policing as well to an extent), and racism is law enforcement remains an issue, most of what is being protested is actual enforcement of US immigration law. But many US progessives today are appaled by that barring a huge increase in legal immigration which has not been forthcoming. Nor does most of the public as a whole want such an increase either. Let that part sink in. I think this devide is in part because so many proffesional class Dems now have so little to do with either Trump supporters of any sort or with working class whites in general, because of where they live. And they have increasimgly used immigration as a buffer to push those groups they feel most uncomfortable with away.
What I believe most Trump supporters (I have personally not voted for a major party candidate for US president since Bill Clinton, whom I would not support today, in 1996) actually want is simply to stop the US as a whole from turning into something like Southern California and to preserve their own way of life, which they feel continued mass immigration (among other things) has already damaged and displaced, and threatans to ultimately destroy. There is good indication that such support is actually based on more soceoeconomic and not just cultural or racial fears. And it is also anger that president Biden let in an unprecidented number of people with temporary (if any) legal status in such a short time, and seemed to be outright vindictive to his political apponnants in his aproach, as well as sanctuary city's and other percieved lawlessness and lack of concern for ordenary evoters.
This situation now creates a huge problem for Trump who has (the oppocite of Biden) largely suceeded already in closing the US border to illegal entry but not in actually deporting people in large numbers. It also pads Democratic voting Congressional districts that would otherwise be loosing population (some are anyway).
So far this is frankly a battle that supporters of less immigration have NOT yet lost at the national level, but many are willing to fight for it even at a very high cost, as it is seen as an existencial matter. Most actually are not obsessed about when the US will cease to have a white majority but do want to preserve their own (less diverse and more traditional) way of life to some significant extent. Trump is a corrupt Bilionare who is now old, so I sure wouldn't count on him for much of anything, but he is still seen as at least better by his supporters then the main alternatives. Unfortionately not just for them but for us all, the further developement of A.I (not to mention potential nuclear conflict!) potentially threatens the entire future of human civilization, even while promisimg to elivate it... but that is another (rather scary!) issue of it's own.
However, the race obsession was not only yester-years battle, but one that most of the younger (conservative) generation frankly wishes had never been fought in those terms in the first place. Ultimatally, immigration is a policy choice and there is nothing enevitable about it's nature. Pretending that this consern can just be brushed aside as mere racism or somehow crushed is I believe an enormous mistake for Democrats or anyone to be making, though one that at this point I'm not sure that they can easily get out of. So is relying so heavely on not only overseas but also immigrant labor in the first place. It is not close to being sustainable.
The above is just one reason why, while I am broadly liberal and even somewhat left leaning on many issues including on various aspects of immigration policy, I am decidedly not a progressive and also no longer a member of either major US political party. End rant.