To say that over 45% of the voting population is " ignorant, racist, xenophobic rubes" sounds great in an echo chamber
Did I say that?
I said that DreamFIRE's contention that most Americans voted for a wall suggests that those people are ignorant, racist, xenophobic rubes. Because the wall is a symbol of ignorant, racist, xenophobia and not a rational response to illegal immigration. You can certainly want to reduce illegal immigration without being those things, but I don't think you can support a wall without being those things.
The wall is a symbol of racism and xenophobia perpetuated by ignorant people who do not understand our nation's immigration problems. It's an overly simplified rally-chant style "solution" to a complex problem with generations of backstory. A wall will not slow the flow of illegal immigrants into America, because a tiny tiny fraction of them cross the desert in the places that a wall would go. A wall will not stop the flow of drugs, which mostly come and go via main ports of entry, or ships. It will not reduce the incentive for immigrants to come to America to seek work, and it will not alleviate the conditions that motivate people to leave their home country's in the first place.
If you want to spend $5 billion on securing the border, building a border wall is about number six on the list of most effective ways to do it. The only reason people like it is because it's a symbol of their xenophobia, in a way that more effective policies like enforcing labor laws are not. The wall is a giant middle finger to refugees, an art installation that says "America hates you."
So yea, I think I can safely stand by my assertion. I did not say that Americans are ignorant, racist, xenophobic rubes, in facts I said that most Americans are not. I said that the people who are stuck on the wall as a symbol of racism and xenophobia but an ineffective deterrent are ignorant and racist and xenophobic rubes. It's DreamFIRE who tried to suggest that this was most of us.
Like most Democrats, I have no problem with "securing the border" and I've supported immigration reform for decades now. Let's not forget that it was republicans who have drowned the last four immigration reform bills in a row, because they included some form of a pathway to citizenship for people who are already in America, have no criminal record, have found employment, and want to become full American citizens.