You typically do not accept my counterpoints to your anti-immigration views.
- Immigrants have significantly lower crime rates than native citizens.
- Pretty much every economic boom in the history the US has been fueled by immigrants.
- Artificially low immigration caps continue to result in off-shoring of jobs and loss of economic leadership and innovation by the US.
- Undocumented immigrants pay substantial taxes without the benefits.
- There is no instant ”I crossed the border now I get welfare lottery”; It takes 10 years for even documented immigrants to be eligible for welfare.
To claim a loss of sovereignty, you will have to provide your current definition of sovereignty for me to understand your complaints, I don’t see the President of Mexico moving into the Whitehouse nor China annexing 5 states nor Russia installing Senators.
I’m patriotic. I may grumble about the amount of taxes I pay or if my favorites lose in the election but I was raised to view voting, accepting the outcome of elections, and paying taxes as deeply patriotic duties. I still believe that the US, for all her flaws, is still the best country in the world and I believe we have a duty to share that success with any others who wish to participate similarly. I believe we’re still flawed and we’ve still made some mistakes (the 17th amendment, capping the size of the House, and prohibition come to mind) but I also believe we’re better today than we ever have been. Definitely better than 200 years ago. Definitely better than 100 years ago. Definitely better than 50 years ago.
That all being said, here is the crux of where I don’t follow: I don’t see a pending dissolution of the US. I see an alienated hard-right micro-minority unwilling to trade in facts blustering about with phrases and notions of violence and bloodshed and gallows for reasons wildly beyond my comprehension. It’s not that I’m not open to explanation either. Explanations have been seriously lacking. Facts willfully discarded. Agitprop valued over real dialog. What really fries my brain though is the hard-left side of the spectrum still talks facts once the barrier of emotional arguments is breached. The fact that such an asymmetry even exists compounds just my “I just don’t get it” statement here.
If you want my view of the next 50-100 years? Global governance is coming. We have a choice in being the single defining voice above all others or shirking that responsibility and accepting (through force, economic hardship, or irrelevance) whatever is defined in our absence. Closing the doors all but ensures we eventually accept instead of define.