Xenophobia plays a crucial role, but to truly understand the border crisis we need to take a global economic perspective
“I know that the left and all the gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement’,” the Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently said on his show, “but they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening, actually.” By accusing the Democratic party of trying to “replace the current electorate” with “more obedient voters from the third world”, the prominent conservative commentator shows that while Donald Trump may have left the White House, Trumpism is alive and kicking.
Carlson has already faced condemnation from Jewish groups and calls to resign over his seeming endorsement of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory – the false claim, which has motivated fascist mass murderers from El Paso, Texas, to Christchurch, New Zealand, that governing elites have conspired to undermine majority-white populations by encouraging immigration. (His employer defended him, pointing to his words during the segment: “White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.”) But it’s just the most extreme example so far of the US populist right’s growing rhetorical assault on the Biden administration.
