The Connection between Anti-liberalism, Immigration and Trump
There are many people in Europe and North America who seem to think that one can be restrictive on immigration and not be axiomatically anti-liberal as consequence. Or that believing in the existence of universal, unalienable rights and liberties doesn’t mean that it‘s necessary to accept limitless immigration or uncontrolled borders.
To some extend these people are right, of course. A liberal minded government can impose restrictions on immigration and a still be liberal, regardless of how good or bad that particular policy may be.
It is, however, important to note that the urge or vociferous demand to limit immigration is seldom propelled by motives which aren’t irrefutably anti-liberal in nature. The anti-liberal desires I speak of are ethno-religious supremacy. It‘s the everlasting dream of feeling superior to people who weren’t born in your country, to see them as something lesser than yourself, to desire a power imbalance between them and your own “tribe“ expressed by the power to arrest or deport immigrants irrespective of their employment status or their criminal record, irrespective of the fact that they may have contributed to the country they reside in or are perhaps the parents of an American citizen.
For adherents of an anti-liberal ideology, it‘s not enough to just close a border to be more selective in who‘s allowed in but to close it completely. It‘s not just enough to seal it completely but to assert their own supremacy, supposedly derived by their own origin or bloodline, over undocumented immigrants already in the country and to arbitrarily pick and choose who is deserving of the universal rights and liberties that the Declaration of Independence considers to be the divine rights of humans not just of American citizens. And it‘s not enough to have the power to deny newcomers entry or to push them out of the country and the society through the force of the most intrusive state intervention but existing constitutional rights, such as the birthright citizenship, have to be annulled on top of all that.
That‘s not a liberal agenda to alleviate border safety concerns by trying to keep criminals out and deport individuals convicted of a crime. Instead, it follows an inherently anti-liberal impulse. To go after the people who‘re different. Who weren’t born in your country, who‘re just learning your language, who‘re embracing different cultural practices and traditions. To degrade them, dehumanize them, turn them into scapegoats and to expel, exclude and dominate them.
In the end, all of these immigration related actions and rants aren’t about limiting migration to stop the illicit narcotics trade or to combat crime (after all, immigrants are on average less likely to commit a crime than Americans) it‘s about preserving an ethno-religious purity in the country which might be endangered by immigration induced demographic shifts. It‘s about race and racial supremacy, it‘s about defending or re-asserting traditional social hierarchies.
An aggrieved anti-liberal white man may no longer be allowed to discriminate against African-Americans or has to swallow the evolution of female empowerment, there may be little he can do to punish or censor his political enemies (for now) but undocumented immigrants? Well, they‘re just fair game. They‘re vulnerable, make an easy target and they‘re just different. Not real Americans anyway, or so the reasoning goes. Undeserving of being treated equally or as humans even now when they have already become a part of the fabric of US society.
It‘s no surprise then, that organizations which were once shunned by the conservative movement and the Republican Party are now the tip of the spear in Trump‘s movement. Whether it be about storming the Capitol to upend the constitution or about warning immigrants about the dire consequences if they shouldn’t leave the country now with leaflets. Alt-right, neonazi and fascist groups like the Proud Boys or the Klan have turned into the vanguard of Trumpism.
The liberal domestic order of the US is imperiled by a clear and present threat, and it is a threat emanating from within.
To some extend these people are right, of course. A liberal minded government can impose restrictions on immigration and a still be liberal, regardless of how good or bad that particular policy may be.
It is, however, important to note that the urge or vociferous demand to limit immigration is seldom propelled by motives which aren’t irrefutably anti-liberal in nature. The anti-liberal desires I speak of are ethno-religious supremacy. It‘s the everlasting dream of feeling superior to people who weren’t born in your country, to see them as something lesser than yourself, to desire a power imbalance between them and your own “tribe“ expressed by the power to arrest or deport immigrants irrespective of their employment status or their criminal record, irrespective of the fact that they may have contributed to the country they reside in or are perhaps the parents of an American citizen.
For adherents of an anti-liberal ideology, it‘s not enough to just close a border to be more selective in who‘s allowed in but to close it completely. It‘s not just enough to seal it completely but to assert their own supremacy, supposedly derived by their own origin or bloodline, over undocumented immigrants already in the country and to arbitrarily pick and choose who is deserving of the universal rights and liberties that the Declaration of Independence considers to be the divine rights of humans not just of American citizens. And it‘s not enough to have the power to deny newcomers entry or to push them out of the country and the society through the force of the most intrusive state intervention but existing constitutional rights, such as the birthright citizenship, have to be annulled on top of all that.
That‘s not a liberal agenda to alleviate border safety concerns by trying to keep criminals out and deport individuals convicted of a crime. Instead, it follows an inherently anti-liberal impulse. To go after the people who‘re different. Who weren’t born in your country, who‘re just learning your language, who‘re embracing different cultural practices and traditions. To degrade them, dehumanize them, turn them into scapegoats and to expel, exclude and dominate them.
In the end, all of these immigration related actions and rants aren’t about limiting migration to stop the illicit narcotics trade or to combat crime (after all, immigrants are on average less likely to commit a crime than Americans) it‘s about preserving an ethno-religious purity in the country which might be endangered by immigration induced demographic shifts. It‘s about race and racial supremacy, it‘s about defending or re-asserting traditional social hierarchies.
An aggrieved anti-liberal white man may no longer be allowed to discriminate against African-Americans or has to swallow the evolution of female empowerment, there may be little he can do to punish or censor his political enemies (for now) but undocumented immigrants? Well, they‘re just fair game. They‘re vulnerable, make an easy target and they‘re just different. Not real Americans anyway, or so the reasoning goes. Undeserving of being treated equally or as humans even now when they have already become a part of the fabric of US society.
It‘s no surprise then, that organizations which were once shunned by the conservative movement and the Republican Party are now the tip of the spear in Trump‘s movement. Whether it be about storming the Capitol to upend the constitution or about warning immigrants about the dire consequences if they shouldn’t leave the country now with leaflets. Alt-right, neonazi and fascist groups like the Proud Boys or the Klan have turned into the vanguard of Trumpism.
The liberal domestic order of the US is imperiled by a clear and present threat, and it is a threat emanating from within.
