Confessions of a Republican Exile

“These days I find myself rooting for the Democrats about 70 percent of the time,” @nytdavidbrooks writes of his migration to a new political party. “But my new suit is ill-fitting. I’m still not fully comfortable as a Democrat.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/trumpism-republican-party-exile-david-brooks/680243/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYVSMb20N-h1f1oV-6FVTD9g&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

****** We’re About to Find Out What Mass Deportation Really Looks Like

“Republican lawmakers are now preparing to lavish ICE with a colossal funding increase,” writes @NickMiroff. It will fund the “social and demographic transformation of the United States that immigration hard-liners have long fantasized about achieving”:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/ice-deportation-funding-increase/682480/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYUoM36PZ1Iy2R7WyJS7MUjo&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

********** NYTimes.com: Another Group the Democrats Should Stop Taking for Granted

Another Group the Democrats Should Stop Taking for Granted

Trump didn’t just defy the assumption that his demonization of immigrants would cost him Hispanic voters; he turned those expectations upside down.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/opinion/trump-latino-hispanic-vote.html?smid=em-share

Thomas B. Edsall

By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.

During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump portrayed Hispanic immigrants as “rapists,” “bloodthirsty criminals,” “animals,” “stone cold killers,” the “worst people” and the “most violent people on earth.”

Myah Ward of Politico reported on Oct. 12, 2024, that “the former president has escalated his xenophobic and racist rhetoric against migrants and minority groups he says are genetically predisposed to commit crimes.”

Trump’s language, Ward continued, “is a stark escalation over the last month of what some experts in political rhetoric, fascism and immigration say is a strong echo of authoritarians and Nazi ideology.”

Less than a month later, Trump set a record for a Republican presidential candidate, winning 46 percent of the Hispanic vote, 18 points more than the 28 percent he received in 2016 and 14 points more than his 32 percent in 2020.

Americans Want to Be Rich

Millions of those now alarmed by surging tariffs voted for Donald Trump to return to the White House, @reihan and @CharlesFLehman write. They thought a second Trump presidency would mean fulfilling that most American of desires—the desire to get rich.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/trump-tariffs-supporters/682370/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYYMk5rp20seh9HC41lI0yhg&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social