Dems should listen to the author. Assuming the West is still the West in a century, mass migration will be second only to slavery, in lousy public policy. All over the West, citizens living with the ramifications have been screaming for relief, as Progressives stuff ever more migrants down their throats. All without adequate housing, healthcare and speciality teachers as they seek to Arabnize the West.
The term has nothing to do with ethnicity, but rather the notion a small subset of people should be waited on by armies of round the clock servants. In Dubai for my husband's job, more than 2 decades ago, we were amazed at the gleaming city rising out of of the sand. We were even more amazed to find we were obviously visiting a modern day Plantation, and no one seemed to care.
Many wealthy Arab nations have tiny populations of actual citizens, surround by legions of imported "workers". For a family of 3, our hotel room had a butler, multiple maids and someone devoted to our food needs, because picking up the phone to order room service, calling the concierge for dinner reservations or actually opening the minibar was, evidently, a bridge too far for some. I declined the offer of a round the clock nannies.
Over the course of a week, our butler patiently waited by the elevator to ensure I never needed to carry my own packages or open our hotel room door. He seemed genuinely perplexed when I explained I could draw my own bath and add the bath oil, all on my own.
The situation that really drove home the Twilight Zone existence, was a young Bedouin on the beach, with a camel. 15 or 16 years old, he spoke broken English, and as he gave my son a camel ride, I asked if camels were kept in stables like horses, and did he live nearby? He explained he and the camel lived on the beach, down the way with a few others, who also gave tourists rides. A fountain, several blocks away provided water. No mention of restroom facilities, in the shadow of our hotel, where I could have comfortably hosted cocktails for 12 people in our bathroom. He explained he would stay for a year or two, before a brother would take his place. Dubai can be 120 degrees+ in the summer.
People usually react to Arabnizing in one of 2 ways. This is a greatest idea since sliced bread or this a very, very, very bad way to operate a society. Guess the breakdown by political party? The Washington Post, or one of its' ilk, recently ran a piece on the plight of a DC power couple, whose $400K kitchen remodel was heartbreakingly on hold, due to a lack of migrant labor. This as Nazi Reps caused nannies, all over the neighborhood, to flee with no notice to their employers! Oh the horror.
If Dems do not wake up and have a come to Jesus immigration moment, the best they can hope for is to exist as a cartoon party. All over the West, citizens have reached their boiling point. The statistics are abysmal, across the board. Mass migration works for no one but exploitive employers, criminal migrants or those seeking only generous welfare states, and political parties hoping to import future voters. In the US, are obviously meant to prop up sagging Blue State populations for apportionment. Nowhere on the list are average citizens found. If mass migration is the hill on which Dems wish to die, voters will likely comply.
Interesting story but I am unclear on what you think should be done. The person giving camel rides presumably did it because he felt that was his best option. Were he kept out of Dubai he would be doing something perhaps less remunerative than giving camel rides. While agreeing to no one should be getting the kind of services that you declined in Dubai, do you think that people should simply be forbidden to provide such services? Should they receive some sort of help so that they aren't in the position that that is their best option? These are questions; I don't know the answer.
There is another perspective for these vexing issues - that policies regarding open borders, decriminalization of crime, support of homelessness, DEI, fentanyl, and the transing of children are meant to promote social disorder. Seriously, if you were tasked to shred social cohesion what would you do differently?
With all due respect (that's not a throwaway line, you'll see), I think crime is about the simplest issue I can think of. To me, for the Democrats to oppose efforts to fight crime may well be the clearest, most blatant sign that they are incapable of governing. They have really painted themselves into a corner on that one, and they'll have to do quite the snake dance to escape.
I have a great deal of respect for Liberal Patriot, and I am usually quite analytical myself. Not only that, but the practical reality requires that you spend 500 or 1,000 words on any given topic. So I sympathize with the dilemma you faced. All that said, to me it's simple: Crime is bad, and criminals need to be captured, prosecuted, and penalized. The Democrats have become pro-criminal and anti-police, and I don't see any sign that they are changing.
Racket News has a video up with Chicago protestors. People screaming "shoot ICE" and destroying cars, it's a Republican political ad that needs no words.
Previously, Republicans in thrall to Wall Street, were as much open border advocates as Democrats. See also Tories and CDU. Trump broke their power within the party. Democrats need someone to break the power of The Groups and not just on immigration.
That is inaccurate, in my opinion. There is a small faction of Reps that have always cheered cheap labor, that is light years away from the current Dem position. The denial of Dems is breathtaking. Perhaps having been so successful at memory holing the Covid debacle, they assume the purposeful importation of 10 million unvetted, mostly impoverished and sparsely educated people will also be quickly forgotten.
That is unlikely. 54% of all naturalized US citizens, and those dwelling legally and illegally in the US are enrolled in US welfare programs. Immigrants now comprise more than 25% of the US poor. 20 years ago the rate was roughly 1/2 that. A knowledge economy leaves few routes up the ladder for those sparsely educated. Worse yet, Biden purposefully greatly increased the number of manual laborers, just as our need for their services dropped by more than 1/3. It killed the wages of many migrants, here for decades.
An astute Dem Party would recognize the mistake, use Biden as a scapegoat and cheer the quick and humane repatriation of all Biden new arrivals, lacking a valid asylum claim. Dems should seek to increase the financial award for self deportation.
Instead Dems are doubling down. They insist all 10 million, but the criminally violent, must stay. No valid asylum claim necessary. And that taxpayers must cheerfully and permanently, financially support them, provide free unlimited healthcare and educate their children, or they are racists.
Dems are very lucky Trump did not stand in the well of the UN and rattle off stats. Most Americans have no idea more than 1 out 2 migrants are welfare recipients. The same way they do not realize 40% of Californians are now too poor to afford even Obamacare, largely due to wages driven down by an endless sea of humanity.
Mass migration is incompatible with economies not constructed on exploitation. Western Europe is a powder keg over the issue. The US will be no different, if Dem policies do not change.
You are correct about the base but I think I have captured the previous political actors and funders. You only have to go back to last year to the bipartisan bill mentioned in the article. It was on track to passage before Trump blew it out of the water by activating the base. It would have added an additional 2M per year plus anyone who got away and Republican politicians were fine with it.
I could be wrong , but in the end, not a single Rep Senator voted for the bill, and only a handful flirted with the idea. The Mitch McConnell/ Chamber of Commerce wing is dying or retiring.
In the end, it was the Math. 3-4 million more people a year, when the 2 million+ were added to the 1 million who immigrate traditionally. We literally have no where for that amount of people to sleep, unless we dream of corrugated metal shack villages, springing up across the US.
Thanks for this comment focused on the costs of immigration - unfortunately, that small faction of Republicans who cheer cheap labor are the ones who do all the hiring, corporate decision-making, and political lobbying in the US. Nothing happens in this country without the blessings of the economic rule-makers, including the mass influx of immigrants whom I have heard many conservatives refer to "workforce."
Since almost all of the major cities in the US are run by Democrats that is the perfect place to improve public safety now. The next step would be convincing a Democrat governor with a Democrat legislation to commit to increasing public safety now. What if just one mayor and one governor committed to aligning with the voters priority for greater safety? It would be a game changer for the party.
I am interested in learning how you think public safety could be improved. More cops or do you have something in addition in mind. Chicago has greatly increased its budget over the past 10 years and crime is down but few believe that there is a simple relationship between budget and crime.
Broken windows policing worked so well 30 years ago that people forgot why it was necessary and turned against it. It’s long past time we went back to it.
Can't argue with much of that. We do know that the bleeding not only has not stopped, but since Charlie Kirk's assassination it has accelerated (AZ, PA, NC data). I think despite the fact that the major news networks refuse to cover seriously illegal crime and their displacing the American urban poor by taking their assigned benefits, and despite the attempts to down play antifa fascist violence, the public is extremely concerned about the crime-illegals-"resist" movements with in the D party. I call this "social osmosis." Ds may still control the message to a degree through the mainstream media, but the public is still hearing of Iryna "Zarutska's murder, of the Kirk assassination, recall the Trump shooting (and the second attempted assassination by Ryan "Baby" Routh. This stuff SINKS IN. And as I've said now for months, the D brand now is as a party that supports criminal violence at best, terrorism at worst.
A look at Arizona shows how complicated this is. You have done a bunch of work on those numbers and other states, and you have your own Substack. Rather than making your readers plow through everything, why don't you compile the data yourself and present it in a cogent form with checkable source attributions?
It's not that people are "too stupid to find it," but rather that people have a lot of things to do. In the friendliest possible way, I am suggesting that, since you clearly have an in-depth interest and the time to pursue it, you save time for your readers and boil down the work you have done into a readily digestible form.
Incidentally, I don't see anything in the Arizona data showing comparisons before Sept. 10th (the day Kirk was murdered) and since then. I'm not saying it isn't there, but only that I didn't find it.
Firstly, it shows data only for the CD7 Special General Election, not for the state as a whole. Secondly, it is reporting on voters registered as of the CD7 election's registration deadline, not as of the date of the election itself. And while the election was held on September 23, that registration deadline was on August 25th. So none of this covers the period since Kirk's assassination on September 10th--nor does it give us a picture of how registration changed in Arizona as a whole. We'll need to wait for the next quarterly report for that. (from the report intervals on the site I'd guess it comes in October.)
Data like this takes time for states to tabulate. It's simply not possible to issue accurate weekly reports--which you would need to be doing to track registrations since Kirk's death.
I would caution against making assertions based on evidence that doesn't exist. It's a popular thing to do nowadays, but such assertions rarely stand up to scrutiny.
1) Continue with deportations, ICE, evicting illegal aliens.
2) Withdraw all "defund the police" measures
3) Follow through prosecuting antifa as a terrorist org
4) End lightweight sentences, such as the 14-convictions guy who killed Iryna.
5) Return to less tech and far more blue suits walking beats.
6) No cashless bail, ever
7) Strictly enforce obstruction laws for anyone impeding ICE or police work
But the thing is, I don't have an image to change. Everybody knows, like Rush Limbaugh, I'm a big teddy bear. But Ds have a major image problem. So just HAVING these points does nothing if you don't sell it to voters as "We really mean this, so watch our actions."
Triple the police force. Hire prosecutors who prosecute and judges who sentence. Lock up miscreants and clean up the streets so they are safe for everyone day and night.
Both sides need to be more concerned in proposing policy that runs the country better, not just positioning to gain or regain power.
I understand, you need to be in power to really do anything, but just winning for winning's sake then losing the next go-round because your policies failed is how we got here as a country.
Democrats are in power in almost all of the cities and a few states. They have the power to enforcement all the state and local laws within their jurisdiction. Why aren’t, all but DC, cooperating with the federal government to turn over those who have gone through the judicial process and have been determined that they have no business staying in the US? It is a very bad look for Democrats to be fighting to keep convicted criminals on our streets.
I'm referring to the ones that would make a voter who's actually on the fence over which side to vote for. Not a hard left or right person that's unlikely to change their vote.
Let's take immigration since that's obviously towards the top of most peoples priorities right now.
What's the Democrat proposal (the specifics, nuts & bolts, not just flowery language) that someone would switch from the present policy to a Democrat alternative. What exactly is that beyond just criticism of today's policies?
Keep in mind that the polls show a huge, 20%+ swing towards today vs a few years ago.
i’m a MAGA Dem. I have no problem with the goals of the MAGA agenda. The reason we need a MAGA Dem coalition is to be able to debate the strategies for achieving the goals. lots of people are flooding into the Republican Party, but we’re still going to need a mirror image coalition. It won’t be leftists. It will be liberals. Until we have that I’m fine with Trump‘s strategies. Things are sure better than the ridiculousness of the progressive approach.
There is actually a MAGA Marxist out there. Batya Ungar-Sargon. She is all over the media. Basic position is that MAGA is the clearest road to worker power.
And everybody knows Marxism is all about worker power. Rolling my eyeballs. Rebuilding the middle class will be the best thing we ever did for workers, not making everyone poor, except the elite.
These things need to be put in perspective. It is the rank and file Democrat that needs the lessons and wake up call. They are being manipulated and gaslit and they cannot seem to break free.
Immigration, wokeism and climatism are all constructs of the professional managerial class elite to prevent their fall from power that was provided them from the effects of globalism... where Western industrialized nations shed their industry and manufacturing for new white-collar paper-pushing, gambling, rent-seeking and looting enterprise that was a better fit for the professional managerial class elite type. Brexit and Trump and other, what we can call MxGA, movements that are rising up all over the Western world threaten these elite creeps that hold all the power. The are desperate to prevent it and win elections to take us back to that vision of the WEF Liberal Global New World Order... a goal that would keep the professional managerial class elite creeps in charge.
They own the media and tech and use cold war psych-op techniques to influence the negative emotions of those easily influenced. And those easily influenced tend to filter toward Democrat political orientation.
This is the mistake of the regular normie Democrats... thinking that they are well served by joining in fealty with these elite creeps... maybe because they expect some scraps from the table of continued PMC elite dominance.
But it isn't working. The PMC elite had a very difficult balancing act... to harm the economy enough to prevent the return of the productive class dominating, but not so much that the people blamed them for the damage. The pandemic caused the showing of too many PMC elite cards, and even today the creeps are idiots pushing for even more economic destruction with their opposition to deportation of illegals, and more spending to fund illegal's healthcare. They oppose the federal government stepping in to halt crime. They poll being happy about an assassination of a 31 year old husband and father because he is a political opponent.
The Democrats are toast not because of the existence of these PMC elite creeps... they always exist... but for the rank and file Democrats to keep on following them over the cliff.
I don't recall Baharaeen or Auchincloss raising any objections to Biden's open border policies during his term in office (or for that matter any other Democratic official or pundit). Or to the decriminalization policies of progressive mayors and prosecutors. Or to the rampant homelessness that abraded the quality of urban family and community life. Which suggests that if Democrats now follow Baharaeen's advice, it will be for purely tactical reasons rather than a sincere conviction that their policies were both wrong-headed and profoundly damaging. Why would America ever put those who were silent during the past 4 years about these issues back in power?
Since my numbers were challenged, Real Seth Keshel (@RealSKeshel or "Capt'n K's Corner" here on Substack routinely posts the most recent voter reg data. AZ just ended the moth at R+7.4 (was about R+5.1 in 2020. Rs have a net margin of 330,953---but that only includes the two biggest counties, Maricopa (R) and Pima (D)
This number is up .6% (35,398) since November 2024, up 2,466 since Sept. 1. Pima (blue) has lost about 1 full point.
This does not include all the other 13 counties, 12 of which are red and most of those are deep red.
NC D lead down from 175,000 in 2020 to now just 14,000, while active voters are R+100,000.
We no longer have a border problem. Trump fixed it.
"The border" is no longer a viable excuse. Though I have to say 4,600 illegal crossers at historic lows, is still a half million per year more than zero, and for the working class illegal immigration is adamantly a zero sum game.
Illegal low wage immigration is an economic issue, not a social one. Cui bono? Owners of meat processing factories obviously but who else? What voters benefit, cui bono? Upper middle class and beyond, the people who hire house cleaners and lawn guys, people who dine out and buy houses. People who both feel guilty for doing so little for being so rich and love having servants.
Is it a Democrat vs Republican issue? Hardly. Trump saw a hot button wedge in 16 and jumped on it, Democrats had already given up on supporting labor. There is still a lot of sorting going on. Lefty populists switching from Obama to not voting then voting Trump, Hispanic and
black voters shifting rightwards and country club Republicans voting Democratic. Democrats align with the Koch foundation and Club for Growth, at this rate we'll adopt the elephant as our symbol.
Trump is very visibly deporting, he's making a show of it, knowing that he needs more to self deport than are caught by ICE. Is there a role for Democrats? Can we offer up much more stringent workplace identification for hiring or harsher penalties for employers? If we were to lose the midterms to one of the most disliked politicians we've ever had it sure would be embarrassing and bode poorly for 28.
Mandatory e-verify. Democrats could almost do this on their own since most of the states that are not mandatory are blue states. Problem is that Trump would cheer and The Groups would go berserk.
E-Verify is riddled with problems (the Omaha meat plant's HR/E-Verify person was also an illegal immigrant). Des Moines School District (largest Iowa school district) just discovered that the Superintendent was here illegally and had an active order to deport. (His car was stopped and he ran away leaving $3,000 and a loaded handgun). What a head scratcher, I mean he TOLD them he was a citizen. The truth is documents are forged and employers aren't allowed to challenge them because ... racism.
There are ways to game e verify, but they make things harder, and if the background checking company really is looking to cull out bogus identities it is near perfect. That guy in Des Moines is certainly a spectacular case. The cash and gun less so, I too sometimes buy things cash and have a (legally) loaded handgun in case I want to shoot someone ;-) Turns out he was probably voting too.
“ Americans don’t seem to buy that Democrats have substantively shifted in a new direction on these issues”, because Democrats haven’t shifted at all on these issues. Sure a handful of Democrats have and continue to shift their rhetoric away from excessive support, but there have been no changes to actual policy. They would rather fight Trump tooth and nail than admit he has a point, and agree to meet him halfway only opposing him when he goes too far. A good start would be to stop the sanctuary nonsense and agree to honor ICE detention requests on a case by case basis, handling over serious criminals. The next step is to quickly and forcefully put down all riots and stop pretending that they don’t matter because they are confined to a small part of the city.
Great essay. Having been to Denmark, and spoken with many people there, I would agree. Denmark's population is homogenous, which will help their socialism have a longer glide path to failure. It's an attractive place presently, and seems to work.
Interesting comment but while Dubai is an interesting case for mostly other reasons, Europe is soon to be a better example of how things could go here.
We are fortunate to mostly be dealing with an influx of people south from of our border that share similar wants and needs. They want a stable and less corrupt government and an opportunity to work a real job to support their family. Still, we can't just let an unlimited number of un-vetted people walk in here.
Europe has a different demographic invading their borders. They don't have any desire to assimilate and they will overwhelm and change the whole of society if left to do so.
The above has long been a Dem talking point, but in my opinion, is not realistic. The neighbors from the South, in actuality, have little in common with an educated US, but the Catholic religion. Guatemalans and Hondurans generally end school, such as it is, in the 5th and 8th grade, although I forget which is which. Venezuelans have lacked a functioning education system for more than 2 decades. More than 1/2 the Mexicans residing in the US did not finish high school. 7% of Americans lack a high school degree.
No areas of Central and South America prioritize universal education, the safety and security of women and children and minimum living standards, like the West. In many parts of Latin and South America the prevention of child abuse, both physical assault and sexual, is paid lip service, but rarely enforced. Ditto for abuse of women. The nations also lack a commitment to law and order, and Western standards of community space cleanliness and order.
None of that means they are not good people individually, just that expecting mass assimilation of tens of millions is likely unrealistic. It is especially a difficult slog, when the lack of education and skills nearly guarantees poverty, in a high cost of living, knowledge economy, like the US. The unusually huge numbers of migrants with limited skills, coupled with a declining need for manual labor, means it is nearly impossible for their wages to ever rise, to anything near the US cost of living.
Moreover, as US schools now manage to educate to grade level only 1/3 of students , the prospects for their children are also not good. If US schools often cannot adequately educate the children of 2 American college grads with a middle class lifestyle, what chances do the majority of children of 2 non English speakers, working multiple jobs, marred in poverty and dwelling in an unsafe neighborhood, have of ever obtaining a middle class lifestyle?
The rather obvious conclusion is these people are not arriving as future Americans, but rather a servant caste, that will tolerate a lifetime of non Western living conditions for themselves and their children, most Americans would never accept for a week.
Our mistake has been rather than exporting our economic and legal systems, values and priorities from the 15% sliver of the world's population that is the West, we are importing nonWestern lifestyles and living standards for people, we deem more beasts of burden, then human. Meanwhile, those left behind have no hope of their nations ever developing, as their young and ambitious depart.
The other thing worth noting is that after Biden abolished the border, it wasn't just Latin Americans that were coming north. It was basically everyone in the world. Lots of Africans and Asians
"Moreover, as US schools now manage to educate to grade level only 1/3 of students..." edit to read "US public schools." No one in our family, including public school teachers, are putting their children in public schools anymore.
You bet - nations south of the border need the rule of law and functioning economies - billions in remittances every year allow those leaders to prop up their GDPs with US salary wealth and never bother to find ways to keep people employed via their own industrial base. It's win-win for US "job creators" and citizens from of the southern hemisphere, and US workers get the shaft.
Democrats are still digging that hole deeper. First step, stop digging. Don’t celebrate assassinations or attacks on federal agents carrying out the law. Second step, EVERY elected Democrat speaks out publicly against convicted criminals who haven’t been deported yet. It would require a sea change for that to every happen
Do you know of any elected Democrats who have celebrated assassinations or attacks on federal agents? If so, please name names and I will write them nasty letters? I don't know what you watch that has convinced you that Democrats don't support deporting criminals who have actually been convicted of a serious crime.
Join with Republicans in making strong penalties for employers combined with a universally accepted employment ID with a chip in it like a passport. Pass laws ending family reunification for countries that are over represented just as we now have for brothers, sisters etc. End guest worker programs for low wage jobs.
For crime build residential mental health facilities in every state large enough to hold all the crazy people now left on the street or in jail. Spend the money to make all jails safe and humane. Incarceration is punishment enough. Allow all to work enough to pay their own way.
I agree with most of that and I will note that it is Republicans that have opposed spending the money on many of those things. A lot of the nutcases are on the streets do to cutbacks authored by Reagan. Punishing employers would be fine but I think you'll find a lot more Republicans than Democrats will be busted under that law. Anyway, thanks, we now have a program.
I don't much care who did what and what party they came from. I belong to one party and have voted for another but am more than happy to vote for anyone who pushes my policies.
I don't care who is busted. Reagan was the beginning of neoliberalism that is now the Democratic Party.
Neither party wants to tax and deliver services because they both get hundreds of millions in dark money.
Dems should listen to the author. Assuming the West is still the West in a century, mass migration will be second only to slavery, in lousy public policy. All over the West, citizens living with the ramifications have been screaming for relief, as Progressives stuff ever more migrants down their throats. All without adequate housing, healthcare and speciality teachers as they seek to Arabnize the West.
The term has nothing to do with ethnicity, but rather the notion a small subset of people should be waited on by armies of round the clock servants. In Dubai for my husband's job, more than 2 decades ago, we were amazed at the gleaming city rising out of of the sand. We were even more amazed to find we were obviously visiting a modern day Plantation, and no one seemed to care.
Many wealthy Arab nations have tiny populations of actual citizens, surround by legions of imported "workers". For a family of 3, our hotel room had a butler, multiple maids and someone devoted to our food needs, because picking up the phone to order room service, calling the concierge for dinner reservations or actually opening the minibar was, evidently, a bridge too far for some. I declined the offer of a round the clock nannies.
Over the course of a week, our butler patiently waited by the elevator to ensure I never needed to carry my own packages or open our hotel room door. He seemed genuinely perplexed when I explained I could draw my own bath and add the bath oil, all on my own.
The situation that really drove home the Twilight Zone existence, was a young Bedouin on the beach, with a camel. 15 or 16 years old, he spoke broken English, and as he gave my son a camel ride, I asked if camels were kept in stables like horses, and did he live nearby? He explained he and the camel lived on the beach, down the way with a few others, who also gave tourists rides. A fountain, several blocks away provided water. No mention of restroom facilities, in the shadow of our hotel, where I could have comfortably hosted cocktails for 12 people in our bathroom. He explained he would stay for a year or two, before a brother would take his place. Dubai can be 120 degrees+ in the summer.
People usually react to Arabnizing in one of 2 ways. This is a greatest idea since sliced bread or this a very, very, very bad way to operate a society. Guess the breakdown by political party? The Washington Post, or one of its' ilk, recently ran a piece on the plight of a DC power couple, whose $400K kitchen remodel was heartbreakingly on hold, due to a lack of migrant labor. This as Nazi Reps caused nannies, all over the neighborhood, to flee with no notice to their employers! Oh the horror.
If Dems do not wake up and have a come to Jesus immigration moment, the best they can hope for is to exist as a cartoon party. All over the West, citizens have reached their boiling point. The statistics are abysmal, across the board. Mass migration works for no one but exploitive employers, criminal migrants or those seeking only generous welfare states, and political parties hoping to import future voters. In the US, are obviously meant to prop up sagging Blue State populations for apportionment. Nowhere on the list are average citizens found. If mass migration is the hill on which Dems wish to die, voters will likely comply.
Awesome comment.
The social model of the globalists is feudalism but without the reciprocal obligations downward.
Interesting story but I am unclear on what you think should be done. The person giving camel rides presumably did it because he felt that was his best option. Were he kept out of Dubai he would be doing something perhaps less remunerative than giving camel rides. While agreeing to no one should be getting the kind of services that you declined in Dubai, do you think that people should simply be forbidden to provide such services? Should they receive some sort of help so that they aren't in the position that that is their best option? These are questions; I don't know the answer.
Is there upward mobility or not. That might be one way to differentiate.
There is another perspective for these vexing issues - that policies regarding open borders, decriminalization of crime, support of homelessness, DEI, fentanyl, and the transing of children are meant to promote social disorder. Seriously, if you were tasked to shred social cohesion what would you do differently?
With all due respect (that's not a throwaway line, you'll see), I think crime is about the simplest issue I can think of. To me, for the Democrats to oppose efforts to fight crime may well be the clearest, most blatant sign that they are incapable of governing. They have really painted themselves into a corner on that one, and they'll have to do quite the snake dance to escape.
I have a great deal of respect for Liberal Patriot, and I am usually quite analytical myself. Not only that, but the practical reality requires that you spend 500 or 1,000 words on any given topic. So I sympathize with the dilemma you faced. All that said, to me it's simple: Crime is bad, and criminals need to be captured, prosecuted, and penalized. The Democrats have become pro-criminal and anti-police, and I don't see any sign that they are changing.
Racket News has a video up with Chicago protestors. People screaming "shoot ICE" and destroying cars, it's a Republican political ad that needs no words.
Previously, Republicans in thrall to Wall Street, were as much open border advocates as Democrats. See also Tories and CDU. Trump broke their power within the party. Democrats need someone to break the power of The Groups and not just on immigration.
That is inaccurate, in my opinion. There is a small faction of Reps that have always cheered cheap labor, that is light years away from the current Dem position. The denial of Dems is breathtaking. Perhaps having been so successful at memory holing the Covid debacle, they assume the purposeful importation of 10 million unvetted, mostly impoverished and sparsely educated people will also be quickly forgotten.
That is unlikely. 54% of all naturalized US citizens, and those dwelling legally and illegally in the US are enrolled in US welfare programs. Immigrants now comprise more than 25% of the US poor. 20 years ago the rate was roughly 1/2 that. A knowledge economy leaves few routes up the ladder for those sparsely educated. Worse yet, Biden purposefully greatly increased the number of manual laborers, just as our need for their services dropped by more than 1/3. It killed the wages of many migrants, here for decades.
An astute Dem Party would recognize the mistake, use Biden as a scapegoat and cheer the quick and humane repatriation of all Biden new arrivals, lacking a valid asylum claim. Dems should seek to increase the financial award for self deportation.
Instead Dems are doubling down. They insist all 10 million, but the criminally violent, must stay. No valid asylum claim necessary. And that taxpayers must cheerfully and permanently, financially support them, provide free unlimited healthcare and educate their children, or they are racists.
Dems are very lucky Trump did not stand in the well of the UN and rattle off stats. Most Americans have no idea more than 1 out 2 migrants are welfare recipients. The same way they do not realize 40% of Californians are now too poor to afford even Obamacare, largely due to wages driven down by an endless sea of humanity.
Mass migration is incompatible with economies not constructed on exploitation. Western Europe is a powder keg over the issue. The US will be no different, if Dem policies do not change.
You are correct about the base but I think I have captured the previous political actors and funders. You only have to go back to last year to the bipartisan bill mentioned in the article. It was on track to passage before Trump blew it out of the water by activating the base. It would have added an additional 2M per year plus anyone who got away and Republican politicians were fine with it.
I could be wrong , but in the end, not a single Rep Senator voted for the bill, and only a handful flirted with the idea. The Mitch McConnell/ Chamber of Commerce wing is dying or retiring.
In the end, it was the Math. 3-4 million more people a year, when the 2 million+ were added to the 1 million who immigrate traditionally. We literally have no where for that amount of people to sleep, unless we dream of corrugated metal shack villages, springing up across the US.
That bill was formulated to make the Rs look bad when they opposed it. It never had a chance and was bad law if enacted.
After Trump's intervention, sure.
But the handful of flirters would have been enough.
My point is the Democrats need someone to perform Trump's function on this topic.
Thanks for this comment focused on the costs of immigration - unfortunately, that small faction of Republicans who cheer cheap labor are the ones who do all the hiring, corporate decision-making, and political lobbying in the US. Nothing happens in this country without the blessings of the economic rule-makers, including the mass influx of immigrants whom I have heard many conservatives refer to "workforce."
Since almost all of the major cities in the US are run by Democrats that is the perfect place to improve public safety now. The next step would be convincing a Democrat governor with a Democrat legislation to commit to increasing public safety now. What if just one mayor and one governor committed to aligning with the voters priority for greater safety? It would be a game changer for the party.
A common sense post Betsy and your approach is self evident. It's an obvious solution so why hasn't it been attempted?
Dem zeal, and willingness to lose rather than to change.
Democrats will do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other options. (Variation of quote attributed to Winston Churchill)
I am interested in learning how you think public safety could be improved. More cops or do you have something in addition in mind. Chicago has greatly increased its budget over the past 10 years and crime is down but few believe that there is a simple relationship between budget and crime.
Enforce the law, consistently.
More cops, more prisons.
Broken windows policing worked so well 30 years ago that people forgot why it was necessary and turned against it. It’s long past time we went back to it.
Can't argue with much of that. We do know that the bleeding not only has not stopped, but since Charlie Kirk's assassination it has accelerated (AZ, PA, NC data). I think despite the fact that the major news networks refuse to cover seriously illegal crime and their displacing the American urban poor by taking their assigned benefits, and despite the attempts to down play antifa fascist violence, the public is extremely concerned about the crime-illegals-"resist" movements with in the D party. I call this "social osmosis." Ds may still control the message to a degree through the mainstream media, but the public is still hearing of Iryna "Zarutska's murder, of the Kirk assassination, recall the Trump shooting (and the second attempted assassination by Ryan "Baby" Routh. This stuff SINKS IN. And as I've said now for months, the D brand now is as a party that supports criminal violence at best, terrorism at worst.
"We do know that the bleeding not only has not stopped, but since Charlie Kirk's assassination it has accelerated (AZ, PA, NC data)"
No accurate data on net registration since the Kirk assassination exists.
You could prove me wrong--but you won't.
Posted monthly in SecState data. Too stupid to find it?
Perhaps--post a link to the data and prove it.
If it exists and you have free access to it and any imbecile could find it, said link should not be difficult for you to provide, yes?
I would like a link too. I hope you will provide one, or maybe more than one, to numbers. Thanks in advance.
https://azsos.gov/elections/election-information
Now, to do what I do, you'll have to compare current with previous months and years. Seth and I track this by the week.
Rinse and repeat with every other Sec State website.
A look at Arizona shows how complicated this is. You have done a bunch of work on those numbers and other states, and you have your own Substack. Rather than making your readers plow through everything, why don't you compile the data yourself and present it in a cogent form with checkable source attributions?
It's not that people are "too stupid to find it," but rather that people have a lot of things to do. In the friendliest possible way, I am suggesting that, since you clearly have an in-depth interest and the time to pursue it, you save time for your readers and boil down the work you have done into a readily digestible form.
Incidentally, I don't see anything in the Arizona data showing comparisons before Sept. 10th (the day Kirk was murdered) and since then. I'm not saying it isn't there, but only that I didn't find it.
All at Captn K's corner, compiled
So, as I said, it doesn't exist.
The latest voter registration report on that site is here: https://apps.azsos.gov/election/VoterReg/2025/CD7-Special-General-Voter-Registration-August-25-2025.pdf
Firstly, it shows data only for the CD7 Special General Election, not for the state as a whole. Secondly, it is reporting on voters registered as of the CD7 election's registration deadline, not as of the date of the election itself. And while the election was held on September 23, that registration deadline was on August 25th. So none of this covers the period since Kirk's assassination on September 10th--nor does it give us a picture of how registration changed in Arizona as a whole. We'll need to wait for the next quarterly report for that. (from the report intervals on the site I'd guess it comes in October.)
Data like this takes time for states to tabulate. It's simply not possible to issue accurate weekly reports--which you would need to be doing to track registrations since Kirk's death.
I would caution against making assertions based on evidence that doesn't exist. It's a popular thing to do nowadays, but such assertions rarely stand up to scrutiny.
Edit: for passersby, here's the page where all the reports are listed-- https://azsos.gov/elections/election-information/voter-registration-counts
Just exactly what would you do on crime? Let's say you magically because the czar of Portland, what steps would you take?
1) Continue with deportations, ICE, evicting illegal aliens.
2) Withdraw all "defund the police" measures
3) Follow through prosecuting antifa as a terrorist org
4) End lightweight sentences, such as the 14-convictions guy who killed Iryna.
5) Return to less tech and far more blue suits walking beats.
6) No cashless bail, ever
7) Strictly enforce obstruction laws for anyone impeding ICE or police work
But the thing is, I don't have an image to change. Everybody knows, like Rush Limbaugh, I'm a big teddy bear. But Ds have a major image problem. So just HAVING these points does nothing if you don't sell it to voters as "We really mean this, so watch our actions."
Thank you for your reply
Triple the police force. Hire prosecutors who prosecute and judges who sentence. Lock up miscreants and clean up the streets so they are safe for everyone day and night.
Are you willing to pay the taxes necessary to do those things?
Both sides need to be more concerned in proposing policy that runs the country better, not just positioning to gain or regain power.
I understand, you need to be in power to really do anything, but just winning for winning's sake then losing the next go-round because your policies failed is how we got here as a country.
Democrats are in power in almost all of the cities and a few states. They have the power to enforcement all the state and local laws within their jurisdiction. Why aren’t, all but DC, cooperating with the federal government to turn over those who have gone through the judicial process and have been determined that they have no business staying in the US? It is a very bad look for Democrats to be fighting to keep convicted criminals on our streets.
Which policies do you think are failing right now?
I'm referring to the ones that would make a voter who's actually on the fence over which side to vote for. Not a hard left or right person that's unlikely to change their vote.
Let's take immigration since that's obviously towards the top of most peoples priorities right now.
What's the Democrat proposal (the specifics, nuts & bolts, not just flowery language) that someone would switch from the present policy to a Democrat alternative. What exactly is that beyond just criticism of today's policies?
Keep in mind that the polls show a huge, 20%+ swing towards today vs a few years ago.
i’m a MAGA Dem. I have no problem with the goals of the MAGA agenda. The reason we need a MAGA Dem coalition is to be able to debate the strategies for achieving the goals. lots of people are flooding into the Republican Party, but we’re still going to need a mirror image coalition. It won’t be leftists. It will be liberals. Until we have that I’m fine with Trump‘s strategies. Things are sure better than the ridiculousness of the progressive approach.
There is actually a MAGA Marxist out there. Batya Ungar-Sargon. She is all over the media. Basic position is that MAGA is the clearest road to worker power.
And everybody knows Marxism is all about worker power. Rolling my eyeballs. Rebuilding the middle class will be the best thing we ever did for workers, not making everyone poor, except the elite.
These things need to be put in perspective. It is the rank and file Democrat that needs the lessons and wake up call. They are being manipulated and gaslit and they cannot seem to break free.
Immigration, wokeism and climatism are all constructs of the professional managerial class elite to prevent their fall from power that was provided them from the effects of globalism... where Western industrialized nations shed their industry and manufacturing for new white-collar paper-pushing, gambling, rent-seeking and looting enterprise that was a better fit for the professional managerial class elite type. Brexit and Trump and other, what we can call MxGA, movements that are rising up all over the Western world threaten these elite creeps that hold all the power. The are desperate to prevent it and win elections to take us back to that vision of the WEF Liberal Global New World Order... a goal that would keep the professional managerial class elite creeps in charge.
They own the media and tech and use cold war psych-op techniques to influence the negative emotions of those easily influenced. And those easily influenced tend to filter toward Democrat political orientation.
This is the mistake of the regular normie Democrats... thinking that they are well served by joining in fealty with these elite creeps... maybe because they expect some scraps from the table of continued PMC elite dominance.
But it isn't working. The PMC elite had a very difficult balancing act... to harm the economy enough to prevent the return of the productive class dominating, but not so much that the people blamed them for the damage. The pandemic caused the showing of too many PMC elite cards, and even today the creeps are idiots pushing for even more economic destruction with their opposition to deportation of illegals, and more spending to fund illegal's healthcare. They oppose the federal government stepping in to halt crime. They poll being happy about an assassination of a 31 year old husband and father because he is a political opponent.
The Democrats are toast not because of the existence of these PMC elite creeps... they always exist... but for the rank and file Democrats to keep on following them over the cliff.
I don't recall Baharaeen or Auchincloss raising any objections to Biden's open border policies during his term in office (or for that matter any other Democratic official or pundit). Or to the decriminalization policies of progressive mayors and prosecutors. Or to the rampant homelessness that abraded the quality of urban family and community life. Which suggests that if Democrats now follow Baharaeen's advice, it will be for purely tactical reasons rather than a sincere conviction that their policies were both wrong-headed and profoundly damaging. Why would America ever put those who were silent during the past 4 years about these issues back in power?
Since my numbers were challenged, Real Seth Keshel (@RealSKeshel or "Capt'n K's Corner" here on Substack routinely posts the most recent voter reg data. AZ just ended the moth at R+7.4 (was about R+5.1 in 2020. Rs have a net margin of 330,953---but that only includes the two biggest counties, Maricopa (R) and Pima (D)
This number is up .6% (35,398) since November 2024, up 2,466 since Sept. 1. Pima (blue) has lost about 1 full point.
This does not include all the other 13 counties, 12 of which are red and most of those are deep red.
NC D lead down from 175,000 in 2020 to now just 14,000, while active voters are R+100,000.
PA Rs have gained 48,000 since November.
We no longer have a border problem. Trump fixed it.
"The border" is no longer a viable excuse. Though I have to say 4,600 illegal crossers at historic lows, is still a half million per year more than zero, and for the working class illegal immigration is adamantly a zero sum game.
Illegal low wage immigration is an economic issue, not a social one. Cui bono? Owners of meat processing factories obviously but who else? What voters benefit, cui bono? Upper middle class and beyond, the people who hire house cleaners and lawn guys, people who dine out and buy houses. People who both feel guilty for doing so little for being so rich and love having servants.
Is it a Democrat vs Republican issue? Hardly. Trump saw a hot button wedge in 16 and jumped on it, Democrats had already given up on supporting labor. There is still a lot of sorting going on. Lefty populists switching from Obama to not voting then voting Trump, Hispanic and
black voters shifting rightwards and country club Republicans voting Democratic. Democrats align with the Koch foundation and Club for Growth, at this rate we'll adopt the elephant as our symbol.
Trump is very visibly deporting, he's making a show of it, knowing that he needs more to self deport than are caught by ICE. Is there a role for Democrats? Can we offer up much more stringent workplace identification for hiring or harsher penalties for employers? If we were to lose the midterms to one of the most disliked politicians we've ever had it sure would be embarrassing and bode poorly for 28.
Mandatory e-verify. Democrats could almost do this on their own since most of the states that are not mandatory are blue states. Problem is that Trump would cheer and The Groups would go berserk.
E-Verify is riddled with problems (the Omaha meat plant's HR/E-Verify person was also an illegal immigrant). Des Moines School District (largest Iowa school district) just discovered that the Superintendent was here illegally and had an active order to deport. (His car was stopped and he ran away leaving $3,000 and a loaded handgun). What a head scratcher, I mean he TOLD them he was a citizen. The truth is documents are forged and employers aren't allowed to challenge them because ... racism.
There are ways to game e verify, but they make things harder, and if the background checking company really is looking to cull out bogus identities it is near perfect. That guy in Des Moines is certainly a spectacular case. The cash and gun less so, I too sometimes buy things cash and have a (legally) loaded handgun in case I want to shoot someone ;-) Turns out he was probably voting too.
Nothing like criminal prosecution to fix this
And I mean TPTB
Great comment - exactly!
“ Americans don’t seem to buy that Democrats have substantively shifted in a new direction on these issues”, because Democrats haven’t shifted at all on these issues. Sure a handful of Democrats have and continue to shift their rhetoric away from excessive support, but there have been no changes to actual policy. They would rather fight Trump tooth and nail than admit he has a point, and agree to meet him halfway only opposing him when he goes too far. A good start would be to stop the sanctuary nonsense and agree to honor ICE detention requests on a case by case basis, handling over serious criminals. The next step is to quickly and forcefully put down all riots and stop pretending that they don’t matter because they are confined to a small part of the city.
Great essay. Having been to Denmark, and spoken with many people there, I would agree. Denmark's population is homogenous, which will help their socialism have a longer glide path to failure. It's an attractive place presently, and seems to work.
Citizenship:
You must have resided in Denmark for a minimum of nine consecutive years.
Permanent Residency: For the final two years of that nine-year period, you must hold a permanent residence permit.
No Criminal Convictions: You must not have been convicted of any serious crimes.
Language Proficiency: You must pass a test demonstrating your proficiency in the Danish language.
Citizenship Test: You must pass a test on Danish life and culture.
Children born in Denmark take their citizenship from their parents (in other words, no anchor babies).
On immigration the left would do well to remember 2 axioms.
You can either have a functioning welfare state or an open immigration policy but not both.
Assimilation is what separates an immigrant from an invader.
Interesting comment but while Dubai is an interesting case for mostly other reasons, Europe is soon to be a better example of how things could go here.
We are fortunate to mostly be dealing with an influx of people south from of our border that share similar wants and needs. They want a stable and less corrupt government and an opportunity to work a real job to support their family. Still, we can't just let an unlimited number of un-vetted people walk in here.
Europe has a different demographic invading their borders. They don't have any desire to assimilate and they will overwhelm and change the whole of society if left to do so.
The above has long been a Dem talking point, but in my opinion, is not realistic. The neighbors from the South, in actuality, have little in common with an educated US, but the Catholic religion. Guatemalans and Hondurans generally end school, such as it is, in the 5th and 8th grade, although I forget which is which. Venezuelans have lacked a functioning education system for more than 2 decades. More than 1/2 the Mexicans residing in the US did not finish high school. 7% of Americans lack a high school degree.
No areas of Central and South America prioritize universal education, the safety and security of women and children and minimum living standards, like the West. In many parts of Latin and South America the prevention of child abuse, both physical assault and sexual, is paid lip service, but rarely enforced. Ditto for abuse of women. The nations also lack a commitment to law and order, and Western standards of community space cleanliness and order.
None of that means they are not good people individually, just that expecting mass assimilation of tens of millions is likely unrealistic. It is especially a difficult slog, when the lack of education and skills nearly guarantees poverty, in a high cost of living, knowledge economy, like the US. The unusually huge numbers of migrants with limited skills, coupled with a declining need for manual labor, means it is nearly impossible for their wages to ever rise, to anything near the US cost of living.
Moreover, as US schools now manage to educate to grade level only 1/3 of students , the prospects for their children are also not good. If US schools often cannot adequately educate the children of 2 American college grads with a middle class lifestyle, what chances do the majority of children of 2 non English speakers, working multiple jobs, marred in poverty and dwelling in an unsafe neighborhood, have of ever obtaining a middle class lifestyle?
The rather obvious conclusion is these people are not arriving as future Americans, but rather a servant caste, that will tolerate a lifetime of non Western living conditions for themselves and their children, most Americans would never accept for a week.
Our mistake has been rather than exporting our economic and legal systems, values and priorities from the 15% sliver of the world's population that is the West, we are importing nonWestern lifestyles and living standards for people, we deem more beasts of burden, then human. Meanwhile, those left behind have no hope of their nations ever developing, as their young and ambitious depart.
The other thing worth noting is that after Biden abolished the border, it wasn't just Latin Americans that were coming north. It was basically everyone in the world. Lots of Africans and Asians
"Moreover, as US schools now manage to educate to grade level only 1/3 of students..." edit to read "US public schools." No one in our family, including public school teachers, are putting their children in public schools anymore.
You bet - nations south of the border need the rule of law and functioning economies - billions in remittances every year allow those leaders to prop up their GDPs with US salary wealth and never bother to find ways to keep people employed via their own industrial base. It's win-win for US "job creators" and citizens from of the southern hemisphere, and US workers get the shaft.
More specifics would be welcome as to exactly what it is thought Democrats should advocate regarding immigration and crime.
Democrats are still digging that hole deeper. First step, stop digging. Don’t celebrate assassinations or attacks on federal agents carrying out the law. Second step, EVERY elected Democrat speaks out publicly against convicted criminals who haven’t been deported yet. It would require a sea change for that to every happen
First law of holes: quit digging. Second law of holes: you are still in one so work on getting out.
Do you know of any elected Democrats who have celebrated assassinations or attacks on federal agents? If so, please name names and I will write them nasty letters? I don't know what you watch that has convinced you that Democrats don't support deporting criminals who have actually been convicted of a serious crime.
Join with Republicans in making strong penalties for employers combined with a universally accepted employment ID with a chip in it like a passport. Pass laws ending family reunification for countries that are over represented just as we now have for brothers, sisters etc. End guest worker programs for low wage jobs.
For crime build residential mental health facilities in every state large enough to hold all the crazy people now left on the street or in jail. Spend the money to make all jails safe and humane. Incarceration is punishment enough. Allow all to work enough to pay their own way.
I agree with most of that and I will note that it is Republicans that have opposed spending the money on many of those things. A lot of the nutcases are on the streets do to cutbacks authored by Reagan. Punishing employers would be fine but I think you'll find a lot more Republicans than Democrats will be busted under that law. Anyway, thanks, we now have a program.
I don't much care who did what and what party they came from. I belong to one party and have voted for another but am more than happy to vote for anyone who pushes my policies.
I don't care who is busted. Reagan was the beginning of neoliberalism that is now the Democratic Party.
Neither party wants to tax and deliver services because they both get hundreds of millions in dark money.