http://www.nationalreview.com/node/422716/print Sanders and Trump: Two Populist Peas in a Pod?
By Jonah Goldberg — August 19, 2015
A new chapter in American politics has begun.
Millions of Americans on the right and left have lost faith in their political parties, their government, and even the economic system. Only one in four Americans are satisfied with the way things are going.
Policy experts will offer various arguments why at least some of these people are wrong to feel this way, but the discontented will not tolerate arguments that amount to “don’t believe your lying eyes — or wallets.” In politics, feelings are more important than hard numbers.
Consider immigration. I still believe that immigration is a net benefit for America, but those benefits aren’t felt uniformly throughout society. Obviously, immigration is a huge boon to the immigrants themselves, something nobody disputes. Employers, whether in the tech sector or in agriculture, also reap disproportionate rewards. But for the typical consumer, the positive effects (cheaper food, construction, software, etc.) are hard to tie to the causes (the importation of cheaper labor).
Meanwhile, the negative effects seem all too apparent, at least for many Americans. This is true not just for people who believe, accurately or not, that their wages are lower and jobs are more scarce because of immigration (legal and illegal), but also for people who dislike the cultural disruptions that come with millions of non–English-speaking migrants pouring into the country.
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