Monday on the RCP podcast, Andrew Walworth, Carl Cannon, and Tom Bevan discussed President Trump’s comments about Somali immigrants in Minnesota and whether this is really different from tension caused by past waves of mass immigration to the U.S. “In the 1860s, these Irish immigrants got off the boat in New York and were handed a Union uniform and sent to fight in the Civil War,” Cannon commented. “They had riots, but they didn’t chant ‘Death to America.’ There’s something going on, this worldwide clash of ideas.” “There is an anti-American strain among recent immigrants that I think is new,” Cannon said. “We need to talk about it, confront it, but not overreact or generalize about it. We don’t need to send people back where they’ve never lived.” “Trump is tapping into a real feeling, but I’d like him to be more precise and to lead, to encourage people to believe in and love America. Talking about them in racial or ethnic terms confirms their worst fears. You can make the problem worse by reacting badly,” Cannon said.
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