Denying and demonizing our most potent superpower

America's national brand attracts where others fail

Jim/Sara Nuttle illustration from “America’s New Map”

Chinese flood our southern border as the fastest growing group of migrants. Russians bail from Putin’s war into South Korea in unheard-of numbers. Both superpowers, seen as our primary threats, can’t keep their own people from escaping a present they no longer wish to endure and a future they no longer believe in.

In America, our migrant/asylum numbers are through the roof, as are apprehensions at the border. Crisis or not to us (and it sure seems like one), it reflects our nation’s powerful grip on the world’s imagination: when things are bad, head to America.

That bias has been around for centuries now, and it has profoundly shaped our country and its population. We are the destination for all the A-Types out there willing to make the dangerous journey and put their entire future on the line. These people are not losers; they’re just highly motivated and unusually brave.