October 26, 2024
Democrat Strategist: Progressive ‘Moment Is Well and Truly Over’ Thanks to Open-Border Policies
by Neil Munro
Breitbart.com
The Democratic political strategist who accurately predicted “The Emerging Democratic Majority” in 2004 now says progressives have destroyed their political power by supporting mass migration.
“The progressive moment is well and truly over,” Ruy Teixeira wrote on October 24, as he described immigration as the worst element in the woke agenda that has broken public support for the Democrats:Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea and voters hate it. When Joe Biden came into office, he immediately issued a series of executive orders dramatically loosening the rules for handling illegal immigrants. This was rapturously applauded by progressives as exactly what was called for …
The Democrats should have seen this coming. Contrary to the claims of progressive advocates, the reality of American public opinion and politics is that border security is a huge issue that cannot be elided in any attempt to change or “humanize” the immigration system. Public opinion polling over the years has consistently shown overwhelming majorities in favor of … border security.
Teixeira’s 2004 book argued that migrants, women, and white-collar workers would give the Democrats a lock on political power. Democrats were delighted with his prediction, which helped them build a winning coalition under President Barack Obama.
But that coalition was quietly dominated by West Coast tech-sector investors, who persuaded Obama and his progressives to extract millions of foreign workers, consumers, and renters from poor countries. That migration policy has inflated Wall Street stocks — but also impoverished millions of Americans who might otherwise have voted Democratic.
Teixeira’s October 24 report continued:
It should therefore have been obvious that any moves toward greater leniency at the border raised the possibility of knock-on effects and unintended consequences that would be highly unpopular. And now voters are increasingly open to even draconian immigration restriction measures. An astonishing 62 percent of voters in a June CBS News survey supported “starting a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the US illegally,” including 47 percent of blacks, 58 percent of white college graduates, and even 53 percent of Hispanics.
Other Democrat-leaning strategists are also blaming the Democrats’ immigration policy for Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House. Polling expert Nate Silver wrote on October 25:
This data tells a really clear story. Immigration and the economy are huge liabilities for Harris. In fact, they’re basically her only liabilities. They offset strong issues for her on abortion, democracy, and Trump’s personal attributes.
… there are plenty of legitimate ways to critique Biden and Harris on immigration, and many voters do so in polls. Harris is pivoting to the center on immigration now, but it may be too late. In a separate set of questions in the Times poll, voters trusted Trump more to handle immigration by a margin of 11 points, larger even than his edge on the economy (+7).
But many Democrats – and allied journalists — downplay the role of migration in politics because they want to treat Americans’ escalating opposition to migration as irredeemable bigotry.
“They see themselves as citizens of the world — [so they believe] immigration control is an atavistic and evil thing,” Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart BNews.
Kamala Harris, for example, has been unable to offer an immigration policy with crossover support, partly because she relies on pro-migration donors and pro-migration staffers.
Elsewhere, many Democrat politicians hide their refusal to negotiate with Americans’ mainstream desire for secure borders, decent wages, and affordable housing. In Michigan, for example, Democrat candidate Curtis Hertel was caught on camera declaring, “I don’t have an interest in deporting anybody,” according to an October 25 report by TheMidwesterner.com.
http://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/10/26/democrat-strategist-progressive-moment-is-over/
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