LonePirate (13,225 posts)
Has the right won the messaging/narrative war regarding immigration and the border?
I'm very curious what other DUers are seeing and hearing outside of DU in their day to day life on this issue.
Has the right won the messaging war over the border and immigration?
I have encountered several Dems (not online but in person) who seem to be open to, if not agreeing partially or wholly with the right's position on the border and immigration. These are pro-union, pro-choice, pro-minority rights people who think our southern border is woefully insecure. To a lesser but noticeable degree, the related issue of undocumented immigration is a growing concern for them even if many are sympathetic to those immigrants.
It seems to me this is because the right's non-stop, five alarm fire messaging for the past decade or so about the southern border being insecure and the lack of consistent (or any?) messaging from Dems have allowed the Republican and Fox News driven narrative to dominate and dictate public opinion now.
Am I wrong here? Have I simply encountered the wrong subset of Dems voicing these views? Is anyone else experiencing this in their interactions with others?
What is the path forward for Dems on these two issues?
They are finally acknowledging that there might be an issue on the Southern border, but their big concern is how they can spin it to look like a positive for the Biden Administration. They aren't concerned that millions of people are entering the country illegally, just how it plays in the press. Guess what DUmmy, there is no messaging war. That would imply that Biden has taken a measured approach and has weighed the pros and cons of the situation. He's done almost nothing to stem the tide of people crossing the border and he has no idea what to do with them. There is no way to spin that. And I always chuckle at how careful they have to be when they bring up even the slightest criticism of Biden.
Kablooie (18,341 posts)
1. The thing that gets me is that Dems want to control the entry of immigrants too.
It should be the perfect issue to work together on.
If Dems and Reps had worked together to manage the problem there might be some actual progress.
Neither side would get everything they wanted but the immigrant issue would be much more controlled.
Of course the Reps aren't really interested in resolving the problem. They just use immigrants as boogiemen to scare imbeciles into voting for them, and that's the real issue.
Republicans don't want to solve problems.
They want the problems to grow to scare people into voting for them.
The irony is, when they gain power they actually expand the problems to keep people afraid.
Declaring the borders wide open to any and all is not a way to control the entry of immigrants. And providing free lodging, free food, free phones, free transportation and a little bit of spending money is not a way to disincentive illegal immigration. And how exactly did the problem expand under Trump? I would love to see the pretzel logic involved in that argument.
Xolodno (5,935 posts)
3. I think they have won on the disinformation narrative.
They all think that Mexicans are flooding over the border. Thirty years ago they would be right, now, not so much as Mexico is an up an coming economic country. Instead its Central and some South American nations. And often due to our own policies, we sanctioned Venezuela, so some of their populace struggling has just simply headed to our borders (another reason why I always say sanctions don't work, but that's a different subject). We literally created this problem.
And lets drop the other shoe, we actually need them since migrants from Mexico have dropped off. Lot of talk of raising minimum wage, wages for hotel, restaurant workers, etc. but agriculture still remains extremely low. Think it was Georgia awhile back that made some draconian laws against illegal workers, result, they didn't show up and crops rotted due to no one willing to harvest at such a low wage. Then they quietly repealed those laws, Florida is discovering the same lesson.
I work in the insurance industry and a lot of neighbors blame "illegals" for their rates going up. I inform them that they are the people we want the most. They usually have liability only with a junk of a car and if the other person is at fault, we give them 1k and were done. Its the people with a Tesla and Mercedes in an accident that cause their rates to go up. But the myth prevails.
We obviously need a guest worker program, but its political suicide for anyone on both parties due to the myths and emotions built in. But some of it might be true. For example, in a lot of places I travel, its obvious the maids are from down south. But not always, I've been to red states further north and the maids were white, so I can see how they buy into the myth that illegals are taking their jobs. And there isn't much economic opportunity in many of these places.
In short, there are solutions, just not the political will or messaging to go forward. Reminds me of ancient Rome, where a well to do land owner fled with his family when he heard the "barbarians" were approaching. Then he realized he left behind some important riches and returned by himself, risking what he thought was his life. Well, he got home and was surrounded by a barbarian leader. What happened next? The barbarian leader just wanted to buy some of his land holdings and negotiate a price.
What's the disinformation narrative? Millions of illegal aliens are in the US. The numbers of people illegally entering the country are at record levels. Social service are unable to keep up with the influx of people. What part of that is disinformation? And I like the effort to blame the US for Venezuela's problems. The economic conditions in Venezuela have nothing with their attempts at socialism? Nope it's all obviously America's fault.
LiberaBlueDem (501 posts)
4. Yeah well
The 'right' is cruel and hateful and that's in their message.
Ours is pretty much "there are no illegal humans,"
Before the borders went up 90% of the people coming to the USA just walked north and made homes here. Some went back south with no problems.
Haters just want to make trouble for everyone and the migrants are an easy target. Besides many rich people here thrive on the cheap labor.
The only people who use the phrase "illegal human" are Dems. They aren't illegal humans, they are humans who have illegally entered the country. It isn't cruel and hateful to call a criminal a criminal. And the majority of Americans clearly see that line of logic as nothing more than trying to shame the victims of a crime. And what does "before the borders went up" even mean. Did America have no borders before Trump? This DUmmy may be shocked to find out that all countries have borders and most have much stricter immigration requirements and harsher penalties for breaking those requirements.
uponit7771 (89,652 posts)
5. Yes, amplified by the M$M cause its their go to slow news cycle subject to scare rural America
Yep, most of the quotes in the news are coming from little rural towns like New York City, Boston, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. Quote from New York City Mayor Eric Adams: "Never in my life have I had a problem that I didn't see an ending to, I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City." I'm sure his big concern is that the recent influx of immigrants is going to ruin the rustic, small town feel of NYC.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218331440And thats pretty much the entire thread. They cant figure out to put a positive spin on the issue and all the lies coming out of the White House aren't impressing anyone. So the only choice they have is to stick their fingers in their ears and try to ignore it.
