The BASED Immigrant Meme
The horrible success of assimilation should dispel conservative fantasies about new arrivals
American conservatives love to imagine immigrants as secret Republicans desperate to flee the Democrat barrio. The fantasy goes something like this: “Immigrants are hard-working, God-fearing people who love America more than any native! We just need to stop being bigoted and speak to these people in Spanish.”
This line has been propagated for as long as I’ve been alive. Despite the billions Republicans have spent on outreach, they only started doing well with immigrant communities when they were led by a guy who called them criminals and rapists.
This argument has receded since Donald Trump came to dominate the American Right, but it still pops up from time to time. Babylon Bee managing editor Joel Berry offered the latest and possibly most cringe example this week. “Unpopular take: mass immigration could save this country,” he tweeted. “These are hard-working, mostly Christian/Catholic people coming in. The Democrats want to immediately hook them on welfare and turn them into a permanent underclass voting bloc. We could prevent that by assimilating them.”
The takes got worse from there.
Berry argued that conservatives need to offer amnesty to illegals and “welcome them as citizens” to save them from the clutches of liberals. He insisted immigrants are “culturally conservative” and “just might save our culture”. He appeared to defend illegal immigrants because of how allegedly impossible it is to legally migrate. He began trolling his critics by insisting miscegenation should be mandatory so we can all be “the same shade of brown,” and that POC Greeks made Western Civilization while whites lived in caves. Berry also declared: “America is an experiment. We're not based on ‘blood and soil’ like most other countries. We're based on a set of ideas. If you adopt the ideas, you're one of us. It's a beautiful thing. Can it survive?”
Can immigrants save America? The answer is obviously no. By any metric, mass immigration would destroy the country conservatives wish to preserve . They’re not as “culturally conservative” as their right-wing fans claim. On pretty much every issue, immigrants favor the standard Democratic line.
Hispanics overwhelmingly favor big government over limited government. Hispanics and Asians overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans. Both groups support gay marriage. Both groups favor gun control. Both groups favor speech restrictions.
The bigger issue is Berry’s assumption that assimilation as the answer. Assimilation is more likely to turn these new arrivals into liberals. Asian voters are a good example. Polling data shows that Asians who are not born here and are less proficient in English are more likely to vote Republican than American-born Asians fluent in English. The New York Times recently claimed that first-generation Asian immigrants are more open to Republican appeals because they “may not be as attuned to the history of racial inequity.” There is a point there, obnoxious liberal phrasing aside.
Newly-arrived immigrants aren’t educated in American schools. They didn’t grow up with American media bombarding them with progressive messages. They’re less likely to enjoy the fruits of identity politics and affirmative action. They haven’t bought into the excuses for the crazy things they see around them. An Asian immigrant held up by a black robber is not going to explain it as a result of systemic racism, but their children and grandchildren might.
Assimilation to the New America is very different from what Berry imagines it to be. It doesn’t require one to learn about the heroes of America’s past (besides Martin Luther King), our Constitution, or what made us great. It just requires you to listen to rap, enjoy pro sports, speak a little bit of English, and pursue the almighty dollar. Eating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is more integral to modern American identity than knowing who Andrew Jackson is. America no longer has a rooted culture exclusive to the people here. What’s left is a mass culture that’s both shallow and extremely accessible. It doesn’t take much effort to enjoy the Super Bowl.
Many conservatives still believe Anglo-Protestant values are critical for assimilation, but not for the New America. You still need a strong work ethic to get ahead here, but that’s the only remnant from the past system. The only values you need to learn is that racism is very bad, white people are responsible for all of America’s wrongs, blacks are the true founding fathers, and equality is the highest ideal. This is an appealing message to non-white immigrants. It allows them to posture as the true Americans against the unworthy natives.
The more assimilated immigrants become, the more likely they embrace leftism and identity politics.
An example of harmful assimilation comes from Caldwell, Idaho. Hispanic students at a local high school recently staged a “Brown Pride” protest. The students waved Mexican flags, but all the signs and speeches were in English. The students appealed more to the American Civil Rights Revolution than to their own roots. The whole point of the protest is that the current American system should allow them to show racial pride. These kids learned their identity politics from America, not from their immigrant parents. Since they are a minority group, “Brown Pride” is welcomed by the Globalist American Empire. The only ones who disagree are the white school administrators who found the message the same as “White Pride.” The administrators don’t understand the proper standards, which shows their lack of assimilation to the New America.
Conservatives in the past argued that immigrants were “natural conservatives” because they’re hard workers, start their own businesses, and hate taxes. This line stressed the Business First principles of establishment Republicans. New Right types craft BASED reasons to like newcomers to differentiate themselves from the establishment. They don’t like immigrants because they oppose high taxes–they like immigrants because the newcomers oppose drag queen story hour. No matter the justification, the essence remains the same. “We need immigrants to replace the lazy/drag queen-supporting native population.”
Conservative fans of immigration won’t gain new foot soldiers against wokeness. They’ll just see more people who support Democrat policies at the ballot box.
The only way for conservatives to keep America from turning into Venezuela is to restrict immigration. It doesn’t matter if the recent arrivals dislike drag queen story hour more than white yuppies. They’re still gonna vote the same as white liberals and their assimilated children will grow to tolerate drag queen story hour. America’s hope lies with the people who made this country great in the first place.
And they’re not crossing the Rio Grande or coming here on an H1B visa.
Great column, absolutely necessary! Way too many people have warmed up to the "BASED IMMIGRANT" narrative, even outside the establishment right, very tired of it!
I didn’t know BB was so blue pulled and cringe. That line about forced miscegenation is frankly revolting to read.