Population fears and immigration fears are the same thing

As are their solutions, when you broad-frame the issues

We are bombarded with imagery and rhetoric demonizing immigrants, turbocharged with the Trump camp’s ominous warnings of mass deportations once back in power.

We are simultaneously bombarded with scary predictions of America’s looming demographic collapse.

And where they meet? There we locate the Great Replacement Theory and White Christian Nationalism as essential reactions to that intersection, peaking with demands of eradicating the wall between church and state.

Most recently Elon Musk has stepped into this limelight, bemoaning America’s declining fertility but then accusing those with the highest fertility (immigrants) of being brought in by Democrats to tip the electoral balance against Republicans (overwhelmingly White [80%+], Christian [80%+], and in a harshly nationalist mood right now).

Never mind all the data indicating that minorities are increasingly opening up to the GOP.

When you choose color over country, these are the knee-jerk answers to the difficult question of How must America change to remain economically strong and internationally powerful?

From Brookings’ William Frey, always a great source on demographics, we get the above graph from his latest report entitled “New census projections show immigration is essential to the growth and vitality of a more diverse US population.”