Another possibility, however, is more intriguing. One, of course, is fear that they might be tarred as racist xenophobes-itself an indication that the cultural/identity argument is being morally discredited.

If we don’t take at face value the economic/services argument advanced with increasing frequency by immigration opponents, then there are two alternative explanations for this shift. Can we stop kidding ourselves about this? There's probably some genuine job-based animus toward illegal immigrants in the construction industry, but elsewhere you barely need to scratch the surface to figure out that anti-immigrant anxiety mostly seems to revolve around crime, gangs, culture, language, social services, and bizarrely trumped up fears of reconquista.

Illegal immigration is seen rightly as a threat to their economic livelihood.” In 2004, however, Carson acknowledged that, for the vast majority of Oklahomans “transcendent cultural concerns are more important than universal health care or raising the minimum wage.” Drum goes on to conclude: That's exactly right. Today, Carson argues that “the vast majority of those who oppose illegal immigration do so on sound public policy grounds. On this score, Kevin Drum catches Brad Carson in a little inconsistency. Dana and Lou (who apparently once picked beans with folks too poor to buy blond hair dye) are just sticking up for poor real Americans who can’t find work in the fields. On the day of the march, Lou Dobbs and Dana Rohrabacher were falling all over themselves remind Larry King and the rest of us that even illegal immigrants were truly wojnderful people, Salt-o-the-Earth. It’s rather extraordinary to watch the anti-immigration folks squirm around looking for the best language to obfuscate their deepest anxieties about undocumented workers. | Terrorism and Democrats » Immigration and the Identity Argument

The 'Decline' of the Public Intellectual (?).

The Supposed Decline of the Public Intellectual.

Lavare vallum concrete sink with drawer