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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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The blue tribe has been importing a new electorate hand over fist for decades

And by importing, you mean advocating fewer restrictions. Isn't it just possible that people support immigration because they think it's good for a range of economic or moral reasons, not for some nefarious reasons regarding the partisanship of immigrants. I do, at least.

The media memeplex blares out left-propaganda 24/7 in an effort to manufacture consent

This is just silly. Not only does media coverage mostly just respond to demand - at the end of the day even MSNBC just want viewers, that's what they exist for - cable news is not the entirety of media in America. Local news and most print media (with a few notable exceptions), especially tabloids, don't 'blare of left-propaganda' at all.

Lawmakers just change the rules whenever they feel their hegemony slipping (e.g. Covid mail voting)

Sure, that's why famously liberal Kentucky, Montana, West Virginia, Indiana, Arkansas, Alaska and Missouri also expanded mail voting during Covid.

It doesn't matter whether the Reps or Dems win anyway because the politicians of both parties come from the same class stratum and are pursuing UniParty agreed goals anyway

Probably not the place for this discussion but consider that 'uniparty agreed goals' may exist because of genuine overlap in the preferences of both sections of the electorate, not some conspiracy.

And even if they weren't, the example of Trump proves that even if an outsider were to win, they'd just get stymied by the Deep State

Again, probably for another time, but I'd just ask on what specific issues wholly within the President's power Trump was stymied on.

And by importing, you mean advocating fewer restrictions

I can't speak for OP, but this is only kinda true. Yes, the nice white Unitarian types and Matt Yglesias do advocate for fewer restrictions, and feel bad when they see ICE hustling some poor dude in a hoodie onto a deportation flight because they figure the guy just wanted to make more money than he could in [$othercountry].

However, there are also well-organized NGOs, as well as less-formal ideological networks that exist explicitly to facilitate migration up and down Latin America, with the terminus being in the United States.

probably for another time, but I'd just ask on what specific issues wholly within the President's power Trump was stymied on.

Most frustratingly, withdrawing from Afghanistan and otherwise fighting the foreign policy blob.

That article just makes is seem as though Trump was uniquely incompetent at getting things done. Most of those frustrating him were his appointees, he could have just sacked them. I mean, Biden got it done.

There's a reason populist movements are habitually plagued by administrative mismanagement and procedural incompetent. When you decide that the experts are all frauds, you end up implicitly excluding competent people and making yourself vulnerable to grifters and charlatans.

And by importing, you mean advocating fewer restrictions. Isn't it just possible that people support immigration because they think it's good for a range of economic or moral reasons, not for some nefarious reasons regarding the partisanship of immigrants. I do, at least.

"A person" can do that kind of supporting, perhaps. But when 75% of people named José vote Democrat, then no, I absolutely do not believe that the opportunity to import a reliable electoral bloc is absent from the minds of the Democrat politicians advocating for low immigration restrictions.

Not only does media coverage mostly just respond to demand - at the end of the day even MSNBC just want viewers, that's what they exist for

I suppose I can't fault you for countering my Just So assertion with your own Just So assertion, but let's not pretend that yours is any better supported than mine. "MSNBC exists to serve viewer's demand" is one possibility. "MSNBC exists to spread it's owners propaganda to the masses" is another, and I feel like it's a better fit to the evidence of it's content.

"A person" can do that kind of supporting, perhaps. But when 75% of people named José vote Democrat, then no, I absolutely do not believe that the opportunity to import a reliable electoral bloc is absent from the minds of the Democrat politicians advocating for low immigration restrictions.

One could just as easily turn this round the other way and say that Republicans don't want immigration because they lean Democratic significantly. Seems pointless to get caught up in this hyper-partisan reading of policy, why not just debate the actual merits?

I suppose I can't fault you for countering my Just So assertion with your own Just So assertion, but let's not pretend that yours is any better supported than mine. "MSNBC exists to serve viewer's demand" is one possibility. "MSNBC exists to spread it's owners propaganda to the masses" is another, and I feel like it's a better fit to the evidence of it's content.

'Media companies exist to make money' seems like a fairly simple assumption to make in the absence of evidence suggesting otherwise; and I'm not a partisan about this, I would say the same about Fox or Newsmax or whatever.