How to Beat Trump on Immigration

by Guest Fri Nov 08, 2019 2:09 pm

A generous vision of a multicultural world.

A wave of anxiety swept through Democratic ranks this week when a Times/Siena College poll suggested that Donald Trump is leading key Democrats in a bunch of swing states. How the heck is this guy still doing so well out there, after all that has happened?

The short answer is: immigration. Trump, like global populists everywhere, understands that we’re in the middle of a vast social experiment. Waves of migration are transforming societies across the globe. The U.S. will have no majority group in three decades. Sweden could be between 20 and 30 percent Muslim by 2050, according to Pew Research projections.

As the saying goes, everybody is now everywhere. We’re entering into states of interdependence with all sorts of people unlike ourselves. In the course of this, millions of people perceive that they are losing their country, losing their place, losing their culture.

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Trump, like global populists everywhere, tells them: I’ll help you regain control.

By contrast, highly educated white progressives tell them: If you want to restrict immigration you’re probably a racist. As Eric Kaufmann notes in his book “Whiteshift,” 91.3 percent of white Hillary Clinton voters with graduate degrees said it’s racist to want less immigration for ethnic and cultural reasons.

Trump then turns around and says: See? These liberal elites want to silence you! They think you’re bigots! Game over.

If Trump opponents want to reach these voters, they need a better answer to one of the central challenges of our age: how to create a mass multicultural democracy where people feel at home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/trump-immigration.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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