Immigration and National Identity in Obama's America: The Expansion of Culture-War Politics.

CULTURE conflict; UNITED States emigration & immigration; IMMIGRATION policy; OBAMA, Barack, 1961-; TEA Party movement (U.S.); AMERICAN national character; UNITED States religions, 1960-; ETHNIC relations

The culture-war issues salient in US politics in the 1990s and early 2000s were typified by debates over the legality and morality of abortion and same-sex marriage. Immigration, in contrast, has been an intermittent issue, not as polarized as many others. That changed with the candidacy and then election of Barack Obama to the presidency. While anti-abortion and 'pro-family' activism has continued, there is a new public focus on a vision of 'America' that depends upon a conflation of race, religion, and national identity. This has helped transform immigration into a highly charged, highly polarized culture-war-style issue and has facilitated the lasting resonance of the construction of Obama as Muslim, as born in Kenya, as not a citizen, and as both a socialist and a fascist simultaneously. Drawing on popular media discourse and material from Tea Party and immigration reform web sites, I explore the construction of American national identity in terms of its ethno-cultural articulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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