President Obama: The way ahead

[nhboy]

" WHEREVER I go these days, at home or abroad, people ask me the same question: what is happening in the American political system? How has a country that has benefited—perhaps more than any other—from immigration, trade and technological innovation suddenly developed a strain of anti-immigrant, anti-innovation protectionism? Why have some on the far left and even more on the far right embraced a crude populism that promises a return to a past that is not possible to restore—and that, for most Americans, never existed at all?

It’s true that a certain anxiety over the forces of globalisation, immigration, technology, even change itself, has taken hold in America. It’s not new, nor is it dissimilar to a discontent spreading throughout the world, often manifested in scepticism towards international institutions, trade agreements and immigration. It can be seen in Britain’s recent vote to leave the European Union and the rise of populist parties around the world.

Much of this discontent is driven by fears that are not fundamentally economic. The anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment expressed by some Americans today echoes nativist lurches of the past—the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the Know-Nothings of the mid-1800s, the anti-Asian sentiment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and any number of eras in which Americans were told they could restore past glory if they just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. We overcame those fears and we will again. "

More here: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21708216-americas-president-writes-us-about-four-crucial-areas-unfinished-business-economic

 

[SamSpade]

Sometimes, the wave of immigration DOES pose a threat. Ask the Aztecs or Incas.
You could ask how that worked out, but there aren't any left.
Poor Montezuma - he actually WELCOMED the conquistadors.

My ancestors WERE some of those immigrants but they didn't come slaughtering Americans that were here.

 

[vraiblonde]

Sometimes, the wave of immigration DOES pose a threat. Ask the Aztecs or Incas.
You could ask how that worked out, but there aren't any left.
Poor Montezuma - he actually WELCOMED the conquistadors.

My ancestors WERE some of those immigrants but they didn't come slaughtering Americans that were here.

You're expecting people who don't even remember the Clinton Years to know about the Aztecs and Incas?

 

[Hijinx]

You're expecting people who don't even remember the Clinton Years to know about the Aztecs and Incas?

I don't think any American is against legal immigration for people who want to become Americans.
Our complain is with people barging in here for anchor babies, food stamps, and other bennies. They don't want to be Americans because they don't want to learn the language spoken here, they gather in groups like Dearborn and want to make their own laws.
They come here unvetted, and then go home for more Jihadist training and return to terrorize us.They even have jihadist training camps in our country.

What Americans want stopped is illegal immigration,. something the politicians love because their rich donors want cheap labor.

 

[Monello]

ILLEGAL immigration. Why is this concept so difficult for him to remember?

 

[GURPS]

ILLEGAL immigration. Why is this concept so difficult for him to remember?

#wantsopenborders


anything else is nativist

 

[Larry Gude]

ILLEGAL immigration. Why is this concept so difficult for him to remember?

Because the opposition isn't able or willing to keep the focus on that point and that is because much of the 'opposition' prefers the system as it is.