Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
American flag reflections in Times Square
The GOP goes native
What kind of America do you want to live in? There are many ways to answer that question. But if you are a Republican these days, chances are that your ideal America suddenly looks very … homogenous.
A new poll put out this week by CNN shows that fully 55% of people who identify as Republican or Conservative consider an “increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities” to be “threatening” to American culture.
Meanwhile, over in the other political tribe, just 11% of Democrats are worried about foreigners wrecking Americana.
To be clear, the question wasn’t about rates of immigration or policies at the border, something that people can reasonably disagree about even while still embracing the idea of a multiethnic America. And it wasn’t a question about DEI programs at schools or agencies, something that has drawn backlash in recent years.
It was, simply, about what an ideal America looks and sounds like.
And what we see and hear in the study is that more than half of one of the major parties – in a country of immigrants no less – has come to view diverse national backgrounds as a threat to “America’s culture.”
What’s more, that view has emerged among the GOP very quickly.
Back in 2016, when Donald Trump began his unlikely campaign for president with a shot at undocumented immigrants from Mexico, 39% of Republicans felt that way. In 2019, it fell to just 20%, before rising again last year to 40%.
To be fair, this has happened in the context of rising concerns about immigration more broadly, and after several years of record numbers of undocumented immigrant arrivals in the US.
Overall, the percentage of Americans who say diversity of national origins enriches America has fallen from the low 80s in 2019 to the mid-60s today.
But even amid that broader trend, Republicans and Conservatives stand out. They are currently the only demographic group in which a majority sees things this way.
White, Black, male, female, high-earners, low-earners, those with college degrees and those without – in all of these groups, the poll shows, a majority still view ethnic diversity as something that “enriches” American culture.
Even among whites without a college degree, often considered the working-class bedrock of Trumpism, 56% say a broader mosaic of national origins is something good for America.
Why have Republican views shifted more radically than anyone else’s? Some may point to the racial makeup of the GOP itself which, despite steadily absorbing more voters of color, is still 85% Caucasian – or 20 points “whiter” than the Democrats. But that’s not new.
Something else is going on. In a political culture where our identities and perceptions are increasingly shaped by political leanings, one party – one man, even – has been working hard to normalize, and give voice to, a certain kind of nativism.
When Trump speaks of immigrants “poisoning the bloodstream of America,” or repeats falsehoods about foreigners eating cats and dogs, he is fueling a kind of simmering xenophobia that has scary echoes of the past and powerful effects in the present.
There is, room for reasonable debate about how well American society assimilates people from other places. Historically, we actually do a relatively good job – particularly by comparison with much of Europe – in part because being American is, in principle, an idea rather than an ethnicity.
The question is whether, in an America that is observably becoming more diverse while also becoming hazily more skeptical about diversity, the fresh appeal of the GOP’s nativist message is reaching a climax. Or whether Trump is tapping into something deeper, darker, and broader still.
SPECIAL SURVEY: Numbers Up North
What do Americans and Canadians really think of one another? What do they make of their governments and of each other’s? Whom would they vote for in each other’s elections? Do they share concerns about key challenges like, say, artificial intelligence, and what do they think about Israel’s war in Gaza?
Ahead of our landmark US-Canada Summit earlier this week, we teamed up with the Montréal-based pollster Data Sciences to find out. Their team asked 2,340 folks on both sides of the border what they really think. Here’s a selection of key findings, by the numbers.
68: What’s the most important aspect of US-Canada ties? 68% of Americans and Canadians say it’s the economy and trade. Security and defense ties came in a close second, but fewer than half thought culture or personal ties were very important. We did not ask about hockey.
70: Things aren’t going great … Huge majorities on both sides of the border are heading into their upcoming elections – in November for the US and before October 2025 in Canada – with negative sentiments. A whopping 70% of both Canadians and Americans are “frustrated” with their federal governments.
26: Still, Canadians are keener to kick out their current government than Americans. Just 26% of Canucks would vote for the incumbent Liberals, whereas Americans are more split – 47% would vote for Trump and 45% would vote for Biden.
21: Even good-natured Canada isn’t safe from America’s partisan splits. There is a 21-point difference between the percentage of Biden voters who see Canada as a “partner” (82%) and the share of Trump voters who say the same (61%). But who, we wonder, are the 2-3% of both candidates’ voters who view Canada as an outright “enemy”? What did Canada do to hurt you?
72: The robots are coming, and 72% of Americans and Canadians are somewhat or very concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence, with almost half worried that a robot or machine could do some or most of their jobs.
25: Canadians are more pro-Palestinian than Americans. Asked whom they sympathize more with, 25% of Canadians said the Palestinians against just 16% who listed the Israelis. South of the border, the views were almost exactly flipped, with 16% of Americans saying they felt more for the Palestinians, while 29% said the Israelis.