I was listening to Dan Savage today, and he mentioned that the racism of Trump is nothing new, we did it with Catholics, Irish, Chinese, Italians, it seems most every nationality got it's brief turn as the "other". His point was that the right will eventually look back with shame on this moment too, when they demonized Mexicans and innocent refugees from Syria.

His point reinforced sort of the opposite in me, something else that I have been feeling for a long time: we need to understand that many people, now and in the future will have significant problems with immigration. Whether it's right, wrong or just illogical, we on the left do ourselves no favor by writing off their feelings as racism and not at least attempting to address them. Furthermore, this is a democracy, where they should have their viewpoint at least somewhat addressed, they certainly have the numbers to warrant it. It doesn't mean we buckle to racism, but it means we accept that wariness and fear of immigration is something that has existed in this world for a long time, and these sentiments are tied to real feelings people have to feel secure.

True, the real solutions to these insecurities are based on education and economic growth, not limiting immigration, but perhaps it's time we on the left said loudly "We hear you, and we understand."