Bernie Sanders’ Shift On Open Borders Signals ‘Political Realignment,’ Journalist Says
Journalist Glenn Greenwald resurfaced Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ previous opposition to open borders on Saturday and suggested it signals the existence of a political realignment fueled by President Donald Trump.
“The human brain does have the extraordinary capacity to simply stop remembering things it wishes never happened,” he tweeted before linking to an interview between Sanders and Vox founder Ezra Klein.
“Open borders? No, that’s a Koch brothers proposal,” said Sanders, whose opinion on the issue has evolved since the 2015 interview.
In a subsequent tweet, Greenwald outlined his belief on what sparked the change in opinion.
“There’s a clear political realignment taking place that was already evident prior to Trump but which the Trump presidency very aggressively accelerated. People who don’t see it don’t really understand anything about the political moment.”
According to NPR, the Democratic Party has gradually shifted to the left on immigration. The reason, the news outlet claims, is that the issue has steadily become viewed as a civil rights and humanitarian concern as opposed to a labor issue. As the Democratic Party’s base continues to shift to the left, the publication said that its leaders have attempted to strike a balance when they address the topic of border security.
Although Vox claimed Sanders was previously “wary” of immigrant workers, the publication noted that he has since adopted views that mix his “old-school labor protectionism” with the Democratic Party’s “more diverse and pro-immigration” beliefs. The Democrat lawmaker has since proposed to decriminalize the act of unauthorized border crossing and pushed for a moratorium on deportations.
Nevertheless, Sanders has supported the legalization of American’s unauthorized immigrants since at least 2007.
Sanders reportedly still believes that immigrants who are not paid living wages drag down American income as a whole, but Vox noted that he has dropped his belief in the idea that American workers and immigrants are in a battle with one another.
“Instead, he’s focusing on what the two groups have in common: Both need protection from abusive employers and big business, higher wages, better health care, and access to higher education.”
As The Inquisitr reported, the debate on the effect of immigration on worker payment continues to divide Republicans and Democrats. While some studies show that the majority of immigration does not have a negative impact on wages, nationalists like Tucker Carlson continue to rail against the process as detrimental to the United State workers. Others, like George J. Borjas, a professor of economics and social policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, have supported these sentiments, per Politico.
