Trump has three basic groups of people that he thinks he can use as scary bogeymen to stir up fear among voters: 1. Central American immigrants 2. Black people 3. Muslims He basically cycles back and forth between these three bogeymen, as circumstances allow.
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Of course this could also extend to include Asian-Americans and the kids of recent African immigrants too - and someday it might. But the right has been cultivating the term "illegal" as an anti-Hispanic ethnic slur for a while now.https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1053375495234961408 …
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So this is the long-term backup plan for if and when there's no more ISIS attacks, riots, or caravans to get people scared about. Hispanics as a permanent occupying army - illegitimate Americans, invaders living in the house nextdoor, etc. etc.
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The question is: Will it work?? There are reasons to think it will, and reasons to think it won't.
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Reasons to think it might work: 1. Latinos are still fairly highly clustered in the Southwest, meaning voters in the Midwest and Northeast haven't had time to get acclimated to them yet. 2. Republicans are very scared of the Latino vote.
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Reasons to think it won't work: 1. Hispanic-white intermarriage is very high: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/05/18/1-trends-and-patterns-in-intermarriage/#the-largest-share-of-intermarried-couples-include-one-hispanic-and-one-white-spouse … As Tomas Jimenez documents, this means tons of white people have Hispanic people in their family now.https://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Assimilation-Immigrants-Changing/dp/0520295706 …
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Other reasons to think it won't work: 2. Latinos have adopted English very rapidly, so don't seem as "foreign": https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/28/hispanic-immigrants-are-assimilating-just-as-quickly-as-earlier-groups/?noredirect=on … 3. Latinos have made good economic progress: https://www.amazon.com/Barrios-Burbs-Making-Mexican-American/dp/0804788669 …
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Painting Hispanic Americans in general as an occupying army calls on Americans to turn against their neighbors, their friends, their coworkers, their girlfriends and boyfriends, their wives and husbands and nieces and nephews. It's a nightmarish thing to ask.
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So while I expect this to be Trump's strategy - and the strategy of the Stephen Millers and Steve Kings etc. who come after Trump and build on his movement - I kind of think this strategy will ultimately fail. But if it succeeds...God help us all. (end)
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End of conversation
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anyone who uses that language is really telling on themselves, megan mcardle for example, they think it's just 'I sound like a cool MBA person' but it's dehumanizing on first blush and then extremely racist, as you say, on further reflection
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That's how they talk? Ugh.
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Once we go down this path, though, we're opening up the opportunity to challenge the citizenship of anyone who can't prove their ancestors were naturalized.
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We’ve had this discussion before, but “nativists” is such a horrible name for these people who would talk about “stock.” Your ancestors were unauthorised immigrants, dipshits. Ask the real natives, Native Americans.
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Good god, could this be more genocidal (aside from actual killing)?
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Also, it’s clear that Senator Howard and some of his senatorial colleagues didn’t agree with universal birthright citizenship. See the committe minutes:pic.twitter.com/4nJz1zwZNZ
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How do you know this? It’s not like every illegal is known.
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Sir you are a smart man, you make smart well informed arguments, but most voters require a simple clear easily provable message, repeated over and over again, I hope the powers that be in the Democratic Party understand that, this is about winning!!! Healthcare & Truth!!!!
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