11 Comments

I truly have a hard time squaring the “liberals hope/assume that immigrants are antagonistic to American culture” take with my own lifelong experience. I have found that immigrants’ love of America to be one of the best things about this country, and something celebrated by liberals and non-liberals for decades. EVERYONE tears up at citizenship ceremonies. To think that there is this mass of liberals openly hoping that immigrants will turn anti-America is ridiculous, and probably founded, as most tropes are, on the actions of a tiny handful of “progressives” who in no way speak for the great majority of liberals and/or Democrats.

Expand full comment

As a child of immigrant parents, I deeply resonated with this article. I hold a reverence, perhaps almost naively, of American institutions and values. I believe that this is why America is a great country, one that allows people to be free and prosperous, and yet doesn’t descend into chaos because of a strong shared belief in those values.

For me, this was what hurt the most about 2016 election. That day, we elected a man that I felt was the antithesis of these values, indeed a man that I thought was the opposite of a decent human being, to lead this great country. I didn’t realize how much the *idea* of America meant to me until that day

Expand full comment

I am very relieved to read the comments to this article! As embarrassing as it is to admit, I’ve waited weeks to read this article because seeing the “left hopes” in the subtitle made my blood boil. Zaid’s commentary too often strays into outright strawmaning of left-of-center opinion. As a center-left Democrat, I deeply love this country but would love to see so many things improved. Wanting your country to be a better place and loving it for what it is are not mutually exclusive viewpoints. As some others have pondered in the previous comments, I too am curious as to Zaid’s definition of patriotism. He doesn’t really define it in the piece but the strawmaning on display hews closely to some of the pre-Iraq War rhetoric employed by some of the more unsavory corners of the Bush administration. Beto is not indicative of the entirety of the Democratic Party, much less the wider American left. I joined Persuasion to read good faith commentary on world events and to, you know, be persuaded to examine and challenge some of my views and assumptions. To that end, Zaid’s first Persuasion piece focusing on at will employment was superbly argued and highly persuasive. This piece falls far short of that high standard.

Expand full comment