Immigration - A Quick Comment

I wish I could find the original article it came from back around the time of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe but there was a "man on the street" quotation from a Hungarian which to paraphrase was:

"Orbán understands that his constituents live in Hungary; they do not live in Syria."

This quote stuck in my head because of its essential truthfulness. Insofar as you agree (or not) that Orbán was "elected", he most certainly was not elected by people outside of the borders of Hungary. His first duty is to the welfare of the citizens of Hungary. I'm not even convinced this statement should be - or even is - controversial.

Sure, the populace can elect leaders who espouse support for international migrants who then implement those policies they ran on, but while Orbán may be a competitive autocrat, I'm not at all convinced that the majority of Hungarians ever wanted to play host to thousands upon thousands of Syrian migrant refugees who are not a cultural fit with Hungary.

So it is in the United States. Illegal immigrants are NOT the constituents of US elected officials - they literally can't vote for them. And this reality is what the leftists fail to understand or ignore. Most Americans have an expectation that the government should be working for THEM and not people who just showed up illegally and have never paid taxes into our system besides.

Fundamentally, Democrats need to internalize this reality. I think it's a significant reason that right wing parties are seeing a rise in power in Europe as citizens believe that immigrants are being prioritized over long-standing citizens needs. When politicians forget who their constituents are, they tend to be ousted.

These two articles from Roge Karma are excellent...

Why Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong for So Long

The Most Dramatic Shift in U.S. Public Opinion

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2025 at 9:14 AM

    From the NYT... "Mass Migration and Liberalism’s Fall"
    (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/opinion/immigration-liberal-europe-merkel.html)

    Bret Stephens is a goblin who it must be generally assumed thinks and writes entirely in bad-faith. However, despite that, his premise here echoes my own comments above and this is one of his least obnoxious columns I've read in a while. Too bad Democrats (and more certainly, their leftist wing) are likely to disregard this message coming as it does from an elevated troll.

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