Survey: ‘Great replacement’ belief correlates with Christian nationalist views

“A new survey finds a majority of Americans who hold to such a view also believe in a ‘replacement’ conspiracy theory holding that immigrants are invading the U.S. in an attempt to replace the country’s current culture.” - RNS

Discussion

This was quite interesting. I think a lot of people are frustrated, and so they are looking for theories to express their frustration.

"The Midrash Detective"

I have a hard time understanding what is the concern with allowing more people into this country? Our birthrate is decreasing and therefore the strain on our economy, social services and healthcare is going to grow. Allowing hard working immigrants into this country not only increases the labor pool, it introduces a whole new set of consumers, which is critical to a capitalist society, it increases the tax base and it increases the birthrate, thereby reducing the strain on our economy. People have been touting that they will take away jobs from hard working citizens. Well look around. Most restaurants can’t seat more than 50% of the customer because of a lack of workers. The supply chain is a mess because of a lack of workers. Even if they took away jobs, they also create jobs.

I have a hard time understanding what is the concern with allowing more people into this country? Our birthrate is decreasing and therefore the strain on our economy, social services and healthcare is going to grow. Allowing hard working immigrants into this country not only increases the labor pool, it introduces a whole new set of consumers, which is critical to a capitalist society, it increases the tax base and it increases the birthrate, thereby reducing the strain on our economy. People have been touting that they will take away jobs from hard working citizens. Well look around. Most restaurants can’t seat more than 50% of the customer because of a lack of workers. The supply chain is a mess because of a lack of workers. Even if they took away jobs, they also create jobs.

I agree. I just want to have it done legally. I want to have criminal background checks and then issue work visas or even paths to citizenship. I would hope most people in both political parties would agree with that. Several years ago my sister in law said she could not vote for the party I typically voted for because that party was against immigration. I challenged her to list one elected official in that party on the federal level that was against immigration. She started to do her research and now she is voting for the same party I typically vote for. There may be some out there, but she was satisfied enough after looking into the issue. It is encouraging to me that both major parties are still open to immigration.

[JD Miller]

I agree. I just want to have it done legally. I want to have criminal background checks and then issue work visas or even paths to citizenship.

This is the key. Those in sync with the left like to conflate opposition to illegal immigration to be opposition to immigration at all, when that is not the case. We can have closed borders and limit immigration, and that’s not opposition to immigration. I have a little experience with this as I am married to a legal immigrant. We went through all the hard paperwork that took money and years to accomplish, and did things the legal way. I have no opposition to people who immigrate legally.

I am, however, opposed to giving blanket amnesty to just anyone who makes it across the border. If an adult immigrant comes in illegally, that should either permanently disqualify them to immigrate legally, or at least make it incredibly difficult (like maybe being able to try again after 10 or 20 years). Minors need to be handled differently, but again, there should be no immediate blanket amnesty. Some amount of immigration is a good thing — it was essential to building the U.S.A. after all. All unrestricted immigration with amnesty (with full government benefits) will do is eventually destroy our nation. If a nation cannot protect its borders and control who enters, it ceases to be a nation.

Dave Barnhart