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The real reason that no amount of assimilation will be enough for bigots.

Excellent article. Interesting spotlight on the Italian immigrants. So many of my Italian/American relatives are MAGA repubs. Ditto on the Polish side. Very "I got mine, now fuck the rest of you."

My take on it is ... EVERYONE belongs. As humans, we all have a few things in common: We are all born and we all must eventually die, and NONE of us had any say in, or took any action in, landing here on this earth. In that we are all equal and equally deserving of being here; we ALL belong.

El-Sayed is good at clowning Republicans.

"In last year's American Values Survey, 7 in 10 Republicans said that being born in the U.S. and being Christian were important to 'being truly American.'" Some American Jews: "We'll continue voting for GOP as long as they support Israel even if they see us here in US as second-class citizens."

When the Jewish diaspora emigrated during the pogroms, people said they'd never be Americans because their religion was too different. When the Irish came over during the potato famine, people said they couldn't assimilate because they came from a shithole country. The Know-nothing Party never left.

the other part about that exchange largely left unsaid is the final bit where Tommy is basically asked if he thinks the Constitution should supersede his Christian beliefs Tommy answered “No” this is not just about who belongs but what beliefs belong

People who were considered Not White and/or Unable to Assimilate at one point or another in U.S. history * Germans * Jews * Italians * Serbs * Polish * Chinese * Japanese * Catholics * Irish Basically, anybody not from England (the Welsh were suspect)

As I suggested to El-Sayed in this interview, Vance is basically saying he's lower on the American hierarchy than "heritage Americans" are: bsky.app/profile/did:...