This post makes me sort of sad. So many Democratic ideas are good, but the not-so-subtle-anymore anti-Americanism is disconcerting and a turn-off.
The last paragraph says it all...
"America isn’t a perfect land of opportunity by any means, but to immigrants and their children and grandchildren, it remains a beacon of hope. That’s the whole reason we take in immigrants in the first place. Liberals must not forget that."
Even in an essay set out to persuade liberals to abandon the disparaging remarks, its leads with the negative.
American is a beacon of hope to immigrants and their children and grandchildren. Liberals need to remember and celebrate this, because that's the whole reason we take in immigrants in the first place.
On a side note, the other day I was reading an article about whether America is good or bad (CRT in education), and it occurred to me that the good and bad is irrelavent for some discussions. Obviously, America like all countries, and like all people has its share of good and bad. Whats missing from the discussion is how America is exceptional. And the United States is exceptional.
No other country could have mobilized like we did in World War II.
Our economy, though not perfect is unparalleled in human history.
Our music and media dominate the world.
Despite the challenges, no other country matches our combination of diversity, immigration and success.
Even our original sin of slavery, which was inherited from Europe, was eventually cast aside.
It's easy to flagellate ourselves, but I think we unjustly fetishize other countries.
My bother is Asian and my Sister are black. Both adopted as babies in New Zealand. My American parents (emigrated to New Zealand in 1970 when I was 6-months old) were able to adopt two babies within a few months of getting on the waiting list (which was years long) because they were the only ones willing to adopt non-white babies. In fact they weren't even on the list for my youngest sister, the adoption agency just called them out of the blue, because no one else in the country wanted my sister, and they remembered my parents from my bother.
I lived in Europe for 12-years. My children are dual UK citizens. My son lives in Scotland. I love Europe. I work in South America regularly, and also love it, and I can tell you without a doubt that America is exceptional.
Anyway, enough preaching. Anyone who grew up in Los Angeles or who was in the Military is not at all surprised that the Hispanic-Americans have a heavy patriotic streak.
Also... home downpayment plan good. Free community college good. Things that will further our exceptionalism.
I live in Laredo; there's no shortage of Trump signs here (even now). David Shor is absolutely right that Hispanic Americans (at least here, I can't speak for places I haven't spent time) are, and often consider themselves, more conservative than a lot of Twitter seems to have assumed them to be.
Law-and-order and concerns about immigration definitely come up here but I think a lot of people are missing something really blunt and ugly.
An under-discussed factor (not the only one, obviously) is regular, garden-variety racism. Wealthier Mexicans and Mexican-Americans tend (*tend*) to have lighter skin, have more Spanish and less indigenous heritage, and are (sometimes) casually (or not) racist towards darker skinned, more indigenous, poorer Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. You get no points for guessing which group is more commonly crossing north-bound for manual labor jobs, sometimes illegally.
When better-off (and lighter skinned) Mexican-Americans hear someone talk about illegal immigration, migrant workers, or even just Mexican immigrants, they don't (at least not all of them) automatically think it's them or someone like them under discussion. Purposefully or not, when the Trump campaign started trash-talking Mexicans, a significant minority here read that not as "He's saying I'm terrible" but as "He's saying people I already think I'm better than are terrible" and they agreed with him.
I know this is not at all the same in multiple ways, but as an American who has lived in Tokyo for the past 3 years, there is some of the dynamic you describe at play in my personal experience here. In Tokyo, the majority of the foreign media and foreign online commentary is anti-Japan (the pandemic has been handled poorly, Japanese culture is misogynistic and racist, business is old fashioned and uses fax machines and hanko stamps, etc. etc.) What I see in my daily life doesn't match in anyway the fear mongering and whining I hear on Twitter - in reality, the pandemic has been handled decently well here, I see as many dads as moms picking up their kids from our local daycare, the people I meet at other companies, multi-national and Japanese, seem normal and business is conducted more or less like what I was used to in America. It all has the effect of driving me into a "pro-Japan" narrative to pushback on what I see as annoying Japan bashing, when in reality, I probably wouldn't be an LDP voter if I was from here. Like Hispanic immigrants to America, I chose to come here and part of me likely has rose-colored glasses or at least a glass half full mentality as a result.
I'm Hispanic. Doesn't make me an expert naturally but I think it is relevant.
In my opinion the economy was a big factor as to why Trump did well among Hispanics. The economy has been good for people in the lower end of the income scale. Also the measures signed into law by Trump (but proposed by Democrats) also helped in 2020.
Had Hillary been elected in 2016 and had she signed similar measures in 2020 Dems would have been the ones to benefit.
"It's the economy stupid" as Carville once said.
Trump is a quasi-fascist but Democrats can't count on that being the deciding factor, unfortunately.
Anecdotally speaking after living in the DC area most of my life, Latino American 1st-generation immigrants within my family often felt a loyalty to the Republican Party thanks to President Reagan’s amnesty. Republicans locked in those older citizens over the last forty years, so these alone don’t explain the flipped votes.
I’ve seen newer 1st-generation immigrants support the GOP for mostly socially conservative (i.e., religious) reasons. I’ve also witnessed 2nd- and 3rd-generation Latino immigrants of a more secular nature tend to fall into the more liberal and Democratic camps. No surprises there.
When things get interesting is when a) 2nd- and 3rd-generation Latino immigrants remain strongly religious and still vote against the GOP, perhaps for existential reasons (e.g., avoiding strong deportation policies which may affect family members), and b) the secular 2nd- and 3rd-generation immigrants strongly support Trump expressly because he is more likely to deport undocumented immigrants, build a border wall, and build up the economy.
I can’t tell how many from b) flipped from Democratic to Republican from 2016 through 2020. Most folks I know are so partisan that I don’t personally know of any turncoats.
I know a set of male twins who married sisters from El Salvador and the sisters are about as far right as you can get. They knew a woman newscaster who was beheaded by gangs there...I guess experiences like that will tend to galvanize you.
This post makes me sort of sad. So many Democratic ideas are good, but the not-so-subtle-anymore anti-Americanism is disconcerting and a turn-off.
The last paragraph says it all...
"America isn’t a perfect land of opportunity by any means, but to immigrants and their children and grandchildren, it remains a beacon of hope. That’s the whole reason we take in immigrants in the first place. Liberals must not forget that."
Even in an essay set out to persuade liberals to abandon the disparaging remarks, its leads with the negative.
American is a beacon of hope to immigrants and their children and grandchildren. Liberals need to remember and celebrate this, because that's the whole reason we take in immigrants in the first place.
On a side note, the other day I was reading an article about whether America is good or bad (CRT in education), and it occurred to me that the good and bad is irrelavent for some discussions. Obviously, America like all countries, and like all people has its share of good and bad. Whats missing from the discussion is how America is exceptional. And the United States is exceptional.
No other country could have mobilized like we did in World War II.
Our economy, though not perfect is unparalleled in human history.
Our music and media dominate the world.
Despite the challenges, no other country matches our combination of diversity, immigration and success.
Even our original sin of slavery, which was inherited from Europe, was eventually cast aside.
It's easy to flagellate ourselves, but I think we unjustly fetishize other countries.
My bother is Asian and my Sister are black. Both adopted as babies in New Zealand. My American parents (emigrated to New Zealand in 1970 when I was 6-months old) were able to adopt two babies within a few months of getting on the waiting list (which was years long) because they were the only ones willing to adopt non-white babies. In fact they weren't even on the list for my youngest sister, the adoption agency just called them out of the blue, because no one else in the country wanted my sister, and they remembered my parents from my bother.
I lived in Europe for 12-years. My children are dual UK citizens. My son lives in Scotland. I love Europe. I work in South America regularly, and also love it, and I can tell you without a doubt that America is exceptional.
Anyway, enough preaching. Anyone who grew up in Los Angeles or who was in the Military is not at all surprised that the Hispanic-Americans have a heavy patriotic streak.
Also... home downpayment plan good. Free community college good. Things that will further our exceptionalism.
So much low hanging fruit:
Conservatives: try not to give the impression that you hate non-white people.
Progressives: try not to give the impression that you hate America.
I live in Laredo; there's no shortage of Trump signs here (even now). David Shor is absolutely right that Hispanic Americans (at least here, I can't speak for places I haven't spent time) are, and often consider themselves, more conservative than a lot of Twitter seems to have assumed them to be.
Law-and-order and concerns about immigration definitely come up here but I think a lot of people are missing something really blunt and ugly.
An under-discussed factor (not the only one, obviously) is regular, garden-variety racism. Wealthier Mexicans and Mexican-Americans tend (*tend*) to have lighter skin, have more Spanish and less indigenous heritage, and are (sometimes) casually (or not) racist towards darker skinned, more indigenous, poorer Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. You get no points for guessing which group is more commonly crossing north-bound for manual labor jobs, sometimes illegally.
When better-off (and lighter skinned) Mexican-Americans hear someone talk about illegal immigration, migrant workers, or even just Mexican immigrants, they don't (at least not all of them) automatically think it's them or someone like them under discussion. Purposefully or not, when the Trump campaign started trash-talking Mexicans, a significant minority here read that not as "He's saying I'm terrible" but as "He's saying people I already think I'm better than are terrible" and they agreed with him.
I know this is not at all the same in multiple ways, but as an American who has lived in Tokyo for the past 3 years, there is some of the dynamic you describe at play in my personal experience here. In Tokyo, the majority of the foreign media and foreign online commentary is anti-Japan (the pandemic has been handled poorly, Japanese culture is misogynistic and racist, business is old fashioned and uses fax machines and hanko stamps, etc. etc.) What I see in my daily life doesn't match in anyway the fear mongering and whining I hear on Twitter - in reality, the pandemic has been handled decently well here, I see as many dads as moms picking up their kids from our local daycare, the people I meet at other companies, multi-national and Japanese, seem normal and business is conducted more or less like what I was used to in America. It all has the effect of driving me into a "pro-Japan" narrative to pushback on what I see as annoying Japan bashing, when in reality, I probably wouldn't be an LDP voter if I was from here. Like Hispanic immigrants to America, I chose to come here and part of me likely has rose-colored glasses or at least a glass half full mentality as a result.
I'm Hispanic. Doesn't make me an expert naturally but I think it is relevant.
In my opinion the economy was a big factor as to why Trump did well among Hispanics. The economy has been good for people in the lower end of the income scale. Also the measures signed into law by Trump (but proposed by Democrats) also helped in 2020.
Had Hillary been elected in 2016 and had she signed similar measures in 2020 Dems would have been the ones to benefit.
"It's the economy stupid" as Carville once said.
Trump is a quasi-fascist but Democrats can't count on that being the deciding factor, unfortunately.
They have to deliver results.
Anecdotally speaking after living in the DC area most of my life, Latino American 1st-generation immigrants within my family often felt a loyalty to the Republican Party thanks to President Reagan’s amnesty. Republicans locked in those older citizens over the last forty years, so these alone don’t explain the flipped votes.
I’ve seen newer 1st-generation immigrants support the GOP for mostly socially conservative (i.e., religious) reasons. I’ve also witnessed 2nd- and 3rd-generation Latino immigrants of a more secular nature tend to fall into the more liberal and Democratic camps. No surprises there.
When things get interesting is when a) 2nd- and 3rd-generation Latino immigrants remain strongly religious and still vote against the GOP, perhaps for existential reasons (e.g., avoiding strong deportation policies which may affect family members), and b) the secular 2nd- and 3rd-generation immigrants strongly support Trump expressly because he is more likely to deport undocumented immigrants, build a border wall, and build up the economy.
I can’t tell how many from b) flipped from Democratic to Republican from 2016 through 2020. Most folks I know are so partisan that I don’t personally know of any turncoats.
I know a set of male twins who married sisters from El Salvador and the sisters are about as far right as you can get. They knew a woman newscaster who was beheaded by gangs there...I guess experiences like that will tend to galvanize you.