This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at

Patreon.com and by Verso Books which has loads of great left-wing titles

perfect for dig listeners like you.

One that you might like is All-American Nativism, how the bipartisan war on immigrants

explains politics as we know it.

Which is, funnily enough, by me Daniel Denver.

It is often said that with the election of Donald Trump nativism was raised from the dead.

After all, here was a president who organized his campaign around a rhetoric of unvarnished

racism and xenophobia. Among his first acts on taking

office was to block foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries

from entering the United States.

But although his actions may often seem unprecedented, they are not as unusual as many people

believe.

This story doesn't begin with Trump. For decades, Republicans and

Democrats alike have employed xenophobic ideas and policies, declaring time

and again that, quote, illegal immigration is a threat to the nation's

security, well-being, and future.

The profound forces of all American nativism have in fact been pushing politics so

far to the right over the last 40 years that, for many people, Trump began to look reasonable.

As Daniel Denver, me, argues issues as diverse as austerity economics, free trade, mass incarceration,

the drug war, the contours of the post-9-11 security state, and yes,

Donald Trump and the Alt-Write movement are united by the ideology of nativism,

...