A significant portion of the American public doesn't care about a lot of stuff: immigrants, refugees, LGTBQ people, their children's future with global warming, their children's future under authoritarian rule, the impact disease (covid, measles, bird flu, etc) has on other people, people of a different race or religion (did I miss anything?). And they don't like it when they are told they should care or when their taxes are spent on caring.
What they do care about is themselves, almost exclusively. No empathy or generosity for anyone outside of their small tribe. Greed doesn't fully describe it but is close.
IMHO if we had enjoyed such intelligent leadership on the type of problems inherent in integrating a flood of immigrants we would not be in the pickle that we find ourselves in. The Danish approach to cultural and ecoonomic integration of immigrants ought to be a model, as it gives immigrants the best possible chance of being accepted rather than demonized. I am glad, however, if Denmark's actions are opening the door for concerned Americans to consider progressive democratic ideas to take deeper hold among us.
"It’s sensible, fair policy that doesn’t contradict, but firmly supports a highly progressive agenda."
Sensible, fair and progressive policies are so termed because history has proven them to be so. It is not a straight line, but the arc of progress is unmistakeable.
With all respect, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump, and Biden deported twice as many in his first month than Trump in the last few weeks. And already since Obama, the ONLY presidents and political party serious about passing immigration reform and border security laws ARE Democrats. We saw that again last summer: Harris was the ONLY one to have a real border security plan, and her immigration reform plan couldn't be more detailed and tougher since it was the bill that she and Biden had co-written with ultra-conservative GOP Senator Lankford.
So yes, the time has come to do something about immigration. The problem in the US is that ONLY Democrats are truly willing to do something, whereas the GOP systematically blocks all bipartisan bills (without ever passing something on their own) because they vitally need to be able to lie about immigrants to win elections.
So Leonhard's argument may be "highly persuasive" but he's a little late to the party and therefore merely reinforces the false idea that it's the GOP and not Democrats who took the lead on this, for two decades now...
Yeup….it’s incredible how unorganized and just plain bad the republicans are at everything except top line tax cuts. Even going into his second term, where he has campaigned on immigration everyday for a decade now, Trump still cannot manage to do it effectively like he wishes.
Senator Lankford got censored by the OU GOP for working with the White House & Chris Murphy on a border bill. It’s absurd what’s going on in our country then flyin commentators (not Jared obviously) come in with overarching narratives about “both-sides.”
Jacob Hacker has a great book called winner take all politics that details how the republicans have managed to consolidate wealth to the top .001 to 1% who are rapidly pulling away from the top 5% to top 15%.
I think what often gets lost is Trump drastically reduces legal immigration pretty effectively. And because of this, the whole country suffers. There is also a soft power symbolism that goes on with the President’s words and character whereby people around the world make decisions on whether to move to the USA versus UK/Canada/elsewhere etc
Most first world nations have significantly tighter immigration policies than the US does. Know what it costs to emigrate to New Zealand? $800K USD! $500K to be invested in a local business within 6 months and that money cannot be taken out of the country. Ever. The other $300K is proof that you won't be a burden on their social safety net. Canada? Don't ask. No one ever accuses the Kiwis or Canadians of being cruel about this. It's just what they need to do to maintain solvency. Our situation in the US is driven by decades of businesses exploiting cheap immigrant labor. That's why it's never been fixed.
Jared: This is so much better than your "What Are We For?" post (on which I have a critique under review). There you kind of punted on the cultural barriers to Democrats' win/win policies connecting with voters, here (via Leonhardt and the Danes) you take it on. This is the economist-with-a-difference we need you to be!
Feels like a fever dream to discuss anything when the Democratic Party is not in the Oval Office. When out of power, the best that can be done is to stop the Tea Party/GOP from extending massive tax cuts which for 45 years have weakened the wonders of markets capitalism
like the analysis, we need a rational and humane immigration policy, as is often rightly pointed out, we are a nation of immigrants. Of course racism and xenophobia towards successive waves of immigrants is also a unfortunate tradition in the US. We need immigrants in many ways to bolster and keep our economy growing. Unbridled immigration does no one any favors however.
A significant portion of the American public doesn't care about a lot of stuff: immigrants, refugees, LGTBQ people, their children's future with global warming, their children's future under authoritarian rule, the impact disease (covid, measles, bird flu, etc) has on other people, people of a different race or religion (did I miss anything?). And they don't like it when they are told they should care or when their taxes are spent on caring.
What they do care about is themselves, almost exclusively. No empathy or generosity for anyone outside of their small tribe. Greed doesn't fully describe it but is close.
IMHO if we had enjoyed such intelligent leadership on the type of problems inherent in integrating a flood of immigrants we would not be in the pickle that we find ourselves in. The Danish approach to cultural and ecoonomic integration of immigrants ought to be a model, as it gives immigrants the best possible chance of being accepted rather than demonized. I am glad, however, if Denmark's actions are opening the door for concerned Americans to consider progressive democratic ideas to take deeper hold among us.
"It’s sensible, fair policy that doesn’t contradict, but firmly supports a highly progressive agenda."
Sensible, fair and progressive policies are so termed because history has proven them to be so. It is not a straight line, but the arc of progress is unmistakeable.
With all respect, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump, and Biden deported twice as many in his first month than Trump in the last few weeks. And already since Obama, the ONLY presidents and political party serious about passing immigration reform and border security laws ARE Democrats. We saw that again last summer: Harris was the ONLY one to have a real border security plan, and her immigration reform plan couldn't be more detailed and tougher since it was the bill that she and Biden had co-written with ultra-conservative GOP Senator Lankford.
So yes, the time has come to do something about immigration. The problem in the US is that ONLY Democrats are truly willing to do something, whereas the GOP systematically blocks all bipartisan bills (without ever passing something on their own) because they vitally need to be able to lie about immigrants to win elections.
So Leonhard's argument may be "highly persuasive" but he's a little late to the party and therefore merely reinforces the false idea that it's the GOP and not Democrats who took the lead on this, for two decades now...
Yeup….it’s incredible how unorganized and just plain bad the republicans are at everything except top line tax cuts. Even going into his second term, where he has campaigned on immigration everyday for a decade now, Trump still cannot manage to do it effectively like he wishes.
Senator Lankford got censored by the OU GOP for working with the White House & Chris Murphy on a border bill. It’s absurd what’s going on in our country then flyin commentators (not Jared obviously) come in with overarching narratives about “both-sides.”
Jacob Hacker has a great book called winner take all politics that details how the republicans have managed to consolidate wealth to the top .001 to 1% who are rapidly pulling away from the top 5% to top 15%.
I think what often gets lost is Trump drastically reduces legal immigration pretty effectively. And because of this, the whole country suffers. There is also a soft power symbolism that goes on with the President’s words and character whereby people around the world make decisions on whether to move to the USA versus UK/Canada/elsewhere etc
Most first world nations have significantly tighter immigration policies than the US does. Know what it costs to emigrate to New Zealand? $800K USD! $500K to be invested in a local business within 6 months and that money cannot be taken out of the country. Ever. The other $300K is proof that you won't be a burden on their social safety net. Canada? Don't ask. No one ever accuses the Kiwis or Canadians of being cruel about this. It's just what they need to do to maintain solvency. Our situation in the US is driven by decades of businesses exploiting cheap immigrant labor. That's why it's never been fixed.
Jared: This is so much better than your "What Are We For?" post (on which I have a critique under review). There you kind of punted on the cultural barriers to Democrats' win/win policies connecting with voters, here (via Leonhardt and the Danes) you take it on. This is the economist-with-a-difference we need you to be!
Where do refugees fit into the picture or are they immigrants like everybody else?
Feels like a fever dream to discuss anything when the Democratic Party is not in the Oval Office. When out of power, the best that can be done is to stop the Tea Party/GOP from extending massive tax cuts which for 45 years have weakened the wonders of markets capitalism
like the analysis, we need a rational and humane immigration policy, as is often rightly pointed out, we are a nation of immigrants. Of course racism and xenophobia towards successive waves of immigrants is also a unfortunate tradition in the US. We need immigrants in many ways to bolster and keep our economy growing. Unbridled immigration does no one any favors however.
well argued