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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026

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I only remember "Obama's deportations" used as a rhetorical weapon against Trump supporters, like a "we could've done it our way" once the conversation shifted back to "yes we're doing deportations". I think it turned out they were mostly border turn-backs, but I don't remember for certain.

Given that "abolish ICE" is a common slogan, providing services to ICE is seen as a boycott-worthy offense, sanctuary cities exist, and amnesty for illegal immigrants has happened in several European countries (most recently Spain), I think that the idea that a sovereign nation gets to enforce its national borders is still a controversial one in contemporary discourse.

I think that the idea that a sovereign nation gets to enforce its national borders is still a controversial one in contemporary discourse.

Depends on what you mean by "borders". Because when you say

a boycott-worthy offense

That is Blue enforcing its [version of] national borders. It just looks weird, because their borders are "inside or outside of our economic system" (which is how they define who "us" is/who they are as a culture), not "inside or outside of a physical location" (which is how Red defines who "us" is).

It's the exact same impulse for social cohesion preservation, it just looks different because they define their nations differently (and in a maximally self-serving fashion; Blue benefits from infinity migrants to destroy the cost of labor so denying the Red framing with "muh poor migrants" makes sense, Red benefits from zero migrants to preserve the cost of labor, so denying the Blue framing with "terk er jerbs" makes sense).