Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Here is an essay by Andrew Sullivan on immigration and diversity that deserves a response: nymag.com/daily/intellig…

Here is the money quote:

2/Sullivan is a thinker whom I believe to have shown consistently bad judgment, from his support of the Iraq War to his hammering on the "race and IQ" stuff.

This essay is another example.

3/Sullivan's argument, which is very similar to what you might see on a Tucker Carlson segment, is that immigration and diversity - foisted on an unwilling populace by liberal elites - have caused too-rapid cultural change.

4/Sullivan is correct that Trump's hardcore supporters tend to be very anti-immigrant, and afraid of cultural change. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

5/But Sullivan makes the mistake of thinking that these hardcore Trump supporters represent the "real" America, when in fact they do not.

Most Americans (unlike most Europeans!) are very positive about diversity.

6/Only a quarter of Americans overall express fear of cultural change.

nbcnews.com/politics/first…

7/Overall, Americans have been expressing more positive views of immigrants since Trump appeared on the political scene!

8/Most Americans are NOT deportationists.

9/This pro-immigration attitude - and the recent INCREASE in pro-immigration attitudes - can be found in almost every poll. americasvoice.org/press_releases…

10/Support for diversity is even solid in places like rural Nebraska! ianrnews.unl.edu/poll-highlight…

I'm sure @JamesFallows has more data and anecdotes about that.

11/In any case, by saying we should cater to the wishes of the relatively small minority of Americans who fear immigration, diversity, and the cultural change that diversity brings, Sullivan is saying we should give this minority pride of place in the American nation.

12/Sullivan depicts these diversity-fearing Trump fans as a vast land-bound volk, angry at a thin crust of liberal elites who tricked them into accepting immigration, and who now sneer and denigrate them.

But in light of the evidence, this is pretty ridiculous.

13/It's true that Trump won the 2016 election.

But should we view every presidential election win as a mandate to carry out the wishes of the most hardcore of that president's support base, on every issue?

I say we should not.

14/It is easy to imagine America as a vast, homogeneous working-class white nation, surrounding a few small enclaves of immigrants and intellectual liberals on the coasts.

But America isn't actually like that.

15/Not only are America's diverse cities a very large part of the population, but the vast, sprawling suburbs that surround them are also increasingly diverse, and increasingly liberal. politico.com/magazine/story…

16/I actually agree with Sullivan that we intellectuals should not revile the Trump supporters who fear diversity, foreigners, change, etc.

Sure, they're racist. Sure, they're xenophobic. But they're also our countrymen.

But neither should we treat them as The Real Nation.

17/This is a big country. It's diverse in a lot of ways - not just racial and religious, but also diverse in terms of lifestyles, political opinions, local cultures, and many other ways. And we've all got to live in this country together.

18/What we should NOT do is elevate one segment of the populace to Special Real American status, simply because they fit a certain classic stereotype, or because they are more intolerant and angry than the rest.

19/America is a nation for people of all races and all religions.

If we're not that, then we're nothing at all. Just a bunch of people who live together and hate our neighbors.

Let's not be that.

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