Trump’s blatant and vicious appeal to pure prejudice regarding immigrants and immigration has led many progressives and Democrats to dismiss all of his white working class supporters as racists rather than understand their concerns and seek ways to regain their support.
…While most Americans do not share Trump’s visceral loathing of Latin Americans and actually support a range of positive measures such as providing a path to citizenship for long time, law-abiding undocumented immigrants, a very substantial group also supports the demand that America regain control of the southern border and prevent further “illegal” immigration.
Simply dismissing all these voters as racists who do not deserve any response other than condemnation is a profound mistake—one that will endanger Democratic hopes of winning the presidency in 2020 and almost certainly place the Senate entirely out of reach. Democrats need to provide a reasonable response to the genuine concerns that do exist.
In fact, it must be recognized that there is a troubling element of elitism in the progressive and Democratic attitude toward the views of ordinary working class Americans, both African-American and white, on this issue. Many college-educated Americans simply do not see the problems that many less educated, more economically modest Americans do indeed perceive and which create the foundation for their demand to secure the border. CONT. – pdf
Andrew Levison, The Democratic Strategist