Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
[*]I don’t know how truly xenophobic most Americans are. I think dismissive and ignorant of foreign counties’ citizenry might be better characterizations. Still, we don’t have an equivalent to the FN.[/LIST]
Uhmm, Republicans in Arizona?
I meant on a national level. There are nasty attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in places in the U.S., without a doubt. I have no interest in defending SB 1070 but it’s worth taking into account 1) the federal government looks unwilling and/or unable to tackle holistic immigration reform and 2) that we’re talking about a border state bordering an area of Mexico with insane levels of drug-related violence. So I personally don’t feel the Arizona case is attributable purely to wedge issue politics or brazen racism. There are a couple of similarly worded initiatives outside of Arizona where wedge issue politics and xenophobia look like the primary drivers. One is in Alabama and another is under consideration in the supposedly liberal bastion of Iowa.

This stuff doesn’t always follow party lines. Rick Perry’s stance on immigration is decidedly touchy-feely and conservative (if not currently Republican) NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg rightly spoke out during the Islamophobic button-pushing of a couple of years ago. Constituencies matter in both cases, of course.