Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Today's @bopinion post is about a pivotal moment in American history, that people didn't even realize was pivotal - the 1980s.

It was in the 80s that America's future as a diverse nation was sealed. And it happened because of Ronald Reagan.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

2/In the 1980s, America was still an overwhelmingly white country. Had our leaders wanted to, they could have kept it that way.- by reversing the changes made in the 1965 immigration reform, and by deporting the ~3M undocumented ppl who were here at the time.

They chose not to.

3/Ronald Reagan won two huge election victories. He had immense power to change the country as he saw fit.

He could have used that power to keep America as a mostly-white country. Yet he chose not to do so. Why?

4/We all know that Reagan held bigoted attitudes in private.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

5/But in public, he consistently advocated for more immigration. For example, from Mexico. Check out this 1980 debate between Reagan and George H.W. Bush:

6/In his farewell address, Reagan told a story about Southeast Asian refugees trying to get to America, and how proud he was that we let them come. And that by doing so, we proved ourselves to be a beacon of freedom.

reaganfoundation.org/media/128652/f…

7/And in his final speech from the Oval Office, Reagan uttered these fateful words:

"We lead the world because unique among nations, we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world."

relevantmagazine.com/current/watch-…

8/Now, Reagan did back up this rhetoric with actions. But it's also worth noting that presidential rhetoric is extremely important.

Here's some research that shows how important it is:
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.108…

9/How did Reagan back up his pro-immigrant rhetoric with actions?

For one thing, he granted amnesty to 3 million (mostly Mexican) undocumented immigrants - the largest such amnesty in American history.

migrationpolicy.org/research/irca-…

10/Had Reagan NOT granted amnesty, and instead had enacted a sweeping program of deportation - like the ones we enacted under Bush II, Obama, and Trump - the racial composition of our country would be much, much different today.

11/In the 1980s, the U.S. resettled more refugees than all other countries combined. (This policy continued until Trump put an end to it.)

12/In private, Reagan jeered at African leaders. But under Reagan, African immigration to the U.S. accelerated.

13/In order to make sure that his massive amnesty extended to children, Reagan also issued an executive order similar to DACA.

politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…

14/LBJ's 1965 law opened the door for mass nonwhite immigration to change the racial and ethnic makeup of the United States forever.

But in 1980, there was still time to close that door before significant ethnic change had actually occurred.

Instead, Reagan swung it wider.

15/Compare Reagan's record on immigration to that of Clinton, who denied many welfare benefits to immigrants; Bush II, who built a border fence and created ICE; Obama, who deported record numbers of immigrants; or Trump.

16/Now, many Republicans are freaking out about demographic change.

This demographic freakout was a BIG reason behind Trump's election. Maybe the biggest reason.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

17/A lot of this is just racism (and Western cultural chauvinism, which is deeply intertwined with racism)...

vox.com/policy-and-pol…

18/But some of their fear is political. Many Republicans assume that nonwhite Americans will always be a solid Democratic constituency.

19/In fact, the fear of "imported votes" was common in American politics in the 1800s, when massive waves of Irish immigrants tipped elections to the Democrats.

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1082042347888685056

20/The Trumpists think they can make the nation mostly-white again with a massive program of deportation.

But that attempt is doomed to fail.

A majority-minority American is already baked into the demographic cake.

brookings.edu/research/less-…

21/Let me put it bluntly: America had one chance to enforce a permanent white supermajority with mass deportation and immigration restriction.

That chance was in the 1980s. That chance was Reagan.

Instead he did the opposite. And now that ship has sailed.

22/Now, thanks to Trump's white-nationalism, the GOP is alienating millions upon millions of nonwhite voters.

It should have listened to Reagan, and courted those voters instead:
politico.com/story/2010/05/…

23/Smart conservatives know that it's time for the GOP to reject Trumpism and become a party of all races. And they know it's going to be a long hard unforgiving road, thanks to Trump.

But it must be done.

https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1169323313635692544

24/The 1980s were a moment that forever changed the composition of America - and with it, America's destiny.

Regardless of his personal attitudes, Reagan is, in many ways, the father of the multiracial nation that America is now.

(end)

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…