The Art Of Liberals Not Losing To Fascists Because Of Immigration
A serious essay on political sausage-making from a satirist
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently made headlines when he announced he will begin limiting migration to Britain, and ending the UK’s “failed experiment in open borders.” This effort joins several other European nations, and — of course — the US, in rolling back generosity toward immigrants.
It makes me wonder how these decisions will be viewed in the future. Will the future generation of Woke ideologues consider this mid-2020s wave of rollbacks for immigration rights a moral travesty of blatant racism and xenophobia?
If contemporary leftists of today are any indication, probably! And they’ll probably hyperbolically compare it to colonization, slavery, and any number of historic examples of the vestigial Homo sapien trait to tribalize. And then spit on the memory of us backward 21st Centurians for being unenlightened rubes, like how we scoff at 20th Centurians for their societal imperfections.
But it’s a complicated topic because obviously the future will be much worse for immigrants (and liberal democracy-loving citizens) if the “open borders” smear continues to be such a successful wedge campaign issue for fascist political parties who, if elected, will go far beyond lowering quotas if voted into power.
A Kamala Harris administration’s policies on immigration would certainly have been more humane, fair, and Constitutional for America (she definitely wouldn’t be trying to end birthright citizenship!) than what the Trump Administration is doing right now. But it was largely the immigration issue that made her lose the critical swing counties in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada.
The similarly regrettable Brexit vote stalled the British economy for years, and Nigel Farage’s far right Reform Party is now threatening to destroy or replace the relatively more moderate Tories. If Reform radicals take over and force their British version of MAGA and ICE on the UK, wouldn’t that be worse than giving Starmer some leeway to cool down the issue and make a few manageable compromises toward addressing the valid concerns of more nationalist-minded voters?
But is that capitulating to the nationalists? Is it real-politik? The gross side of political sausage-making? A coalition of constitutionalists holding the center? Can parties on the left be forgiven for vibe-checking the electorate and reading the room? Isn’t it good politics for liberals to disarm the “open borders” electoral bludgeoning populist illiberals keep giving them?
I am very liberal, so I want Democrats to win elections and appoint thousands of liberals to the government to enact liberal policies. But, instead, America keeps voting in flirtatious fascists who appoint unqualified conspiracists to the government who enact ignorant and needlessly vindictive and cruel policies.
So I feel it’s vital for Democrats to figure out some compromises or recalibrations of their immigration policies so that the elections in 2026 and 2028 give Trump and Stephen Miller less power to rip apart families and ruin people’s lives.
Part of that is recognizing that, in a democracy, citizens have the right to be upset their country is changing too fast or feel that the country needs to shut their borders and take a breather to assimilate the immigrants they’ve already accepted (especially when that view keeps winning the Electoral College).
I think that’s a foolish and unimaginative perspective because, taking the long view, I feel every country should be eager to suck in as much foreign brain drain benefits as possible — and that it has been a great bounty for America that for most of 250 years we’ve been the best at it — BUT my favored presidential candidate and Congressional caucuses lost in 2016 and 2024 to the most overtly xenophobic political movement in a century.
And now Democrats have essentially NO federal power, and Trump and Miller are largely unchecked to be fascist, demagoguing dickheads exercising cruelty for cruelty’s sake. 🤷♀️
I won’t stop arguing that, in our era of plummeting native birth rates throughout the developed world currently alarming social philosophers and threatening economic projections, every government should probably be trying to revitalize and nurture their downtowns, suburbs, manufacturing hubs, tax bases, and cultures with as many people and as much diversity as possible. Or that the billion Americans proposal seems, to me, to be the only thing that can preserve our long-term prosperity and strength by keeping the US populationally and civilizationally competitive with China, India, and Africa.
But I’m not going to let perfect be the enemy of the good, and shit on Democrats for triangulating on the country’s most volatile political issue. I certainly won’t boycott Democrats — like the Green Party maddeningly does every four years — for compromising on immigration, which only helps the ethno-nationalists win future elections. If Democrats get a little squishy on immigration, their policies will still be FAR better, more humane, and true to America’s cherished melting pot ideals than what Stephen Miller is capable of thinking up. How’s the sausage smelling?
So be nice to Democratic candidates if they read the room and start adapting to public opinion that the pendulum on immigration has maybe swung a bit too far at the moment… especially if they end up winning in 2026 and 2028!
I would also like to suggest to all the 22nd Centurians, who will likely view this with their rosy-tinted history glasses from their futuristic perch of evolved moral purity as a great shame and dishonor, to give us in the 2020s a bit of grace for living when we lived in the political environment we had with the electoral calculus we were dependent on.
And remind them to remember that soon they too will be thought of as uncouth Neanderthals as history marches ever on. 🥃
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