Alleged mass-shooter Payton Gendron’s references to “replacement theory” as a motivation behind his attempt to murder as many black people as possible drew new attention to this not-new conspiracy theory that a secret cabal is promoting open-border immigration in order to overwhelm and supplant the shrinking white majority in the United States.
Republicans tend to argue that Democrats support open borders for political reasons rather than high-minded moral concerns: they believe Latino and Hispanic immigrants will more than likely support Democratic candidates over Republican ones. As conservative commentator Michael Knowles put it in a recent tweet: “Democrats are using immigration policy to change the demographics of the United States in a way that would seem to help them politically.”
Democrats in turn condemn Republican insistence on strict border controls as rank racism. The political value for Democrats in being able to distract from President Biden’s abject failure to control our borders is of course manifest. In fact, Democrats have missed no opportunity to try to pin the racist label on Republicans, and lately take to accusing conservative pundits of encouraging malcontents fearful of being replaced.
Perhaps it would be more beneficial to the country if our politicians – and their respective media mouthpieces – focused less on blaming each other. In the wake of evil deeds, we need words and actions that will strengthen the moral fabric of our country, not further fray it from within.
