Trump's (blank)hole comment.....

[JaneV2.0]

I don't think it outrageous that places like Canada and Mexico base a large part of their immigration policy on what immigrants can contribute to their new home. I don't think it outrageous that the US could consider similar policies.

I really don't think having, in part, a merit-based immigration policy is necessarily bad, but traditionally we have taken in the "huddled masses yearning to be free," and those people have paid us back immeasurably with their hard work, initiative, and achievements.

[Tybee]

Jane, exactly right, and "those people" are also us, in the sense that at least in my case, most of my ancestors were European transplants, who had children with some of my more local ancestors, who were Pahmunkey, Creek, and Cherokee Indians.

[Williamsmith]

I really don't think having, in part, a merit-based immigration policy is necessarily bad, but traditionally we have taken in the "huddled masses yearning to be free," and those people have paid us back immeasurably with their hard work, initiative, and achievements.

Historically speaking, white Europeans legally immigrating have made up the majority of those “huddled masses” you speak about and they assimilated easily by working hard, having initiative and achieving greatly. It is naive to think that immigrants of color and undocumented immigrants will do the same. Enforcing legal immigration is about removing barriers, constructing an environment that enhances the probability of success, and providing a level playing field which encourages the very attributes that make a good citizen.

Our European culture puts people of color at a disadvantage unfairly. That has been proven by studies examining wealth inequality.

[Alan]

I have thought this too, LDAHL. Places like Norway and Australia, for example, are held up as "good" nations but their policies seem actually quite racist. So why are they considered to have good social policy, and we are considered to have bad social policy.

Because in the United States we are obsessed with race and our policies are viewed through a flawed lens.

[flowerseverywhere]

Because in the United States we are obsessed with race and our policies are viewed through a flawed lens.

especially by our current commander in chief.

[JaneV2.0]

Historically speaking, white Europeans legally immigrating have made up the majority of those “huddled masses” you speak about and they assimilated easily by working hard, having initiative and achieving greatly. It is naive to think that immigrants of color and undocumented immigrants will do the same. Enforcing legal immigration is about removing barriers, constructing an environment that enhances the probability of success, and providing a level playing field which encourages the very attributes that make a good citizen.

Our European culture puts people of color at a disadvantage unfairly. That has been proven by studies examining wealth inequality.

Off the top of my head, I can think of quite a few immigrants and offspring of immigrants from non-European countries who have contributed immeasurably to this country (Steve Jobs and innumerable techies, for starters), so I have trouble with this theory. Immigrants are by definition risk-takers and prone to taking initiative, whatever their ethnicity.

[JaneV2.0]

especially by our current commander in chief.

The most obsessed with race are those, like Bannon, Miller, Trump, and their ilk) who are preoccupied with "whiteness" and their European heritage. Like Europeans are the only group who have ever achieved anything. (Algebra, anyone?)

[LDAHL]

I'm not sure that Trump's attitudes reflect racism so much as a generalized solipsistic misanthropy. He is operating not so much from some theory of racial superiority/inferiority as from a highly aggressive narcissism. We are all his inferiors by virtue of not being him. In that sense, he is worse than a racist.

[Tybee]

Or maybe better--he is an equal opportunity hater.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm not sure that Trump's attitudes reflect racism so much as a generalized solipsistic misanthropy. He is operating not so much from some theory of racial superiority/inferiority as from a highly aggressive narcissism. We are all his inferiors by virtue of not being him. In that sense, he is worse than a racist.

That's a charitable way of looking at it, but he was raised by a father with KKK leanings (at the very least), reportedly kept Nazi writings at his bedside (doubtful, unless it was a picture book), and has surrounded himself with notorious white supremacist nationalists. He's just a kaleidoscope of awfulness.