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This essay is published anonymously.

I am in principle opposed to anonymous essays, here's why we made an exception:

So, she spent thousands out of pocket to flee to Virginia for an abortion, realizing that somehow, shockingly, despite her relative wealth and privilege, she had become one of those people without adequate health care.

Our author was already a mother. She mourns for a world where she could have seriously considered staying pregnant.

Over 40, with an IUD still in place, she scrambled to get an ultrasound as the clock ticked away on her freedoms.

The point is not to make immigration an 80-20 issue, it's to neutralize it as a tool of radicalization. Black Chicagoans who witnessed their city crumble under a few thousand immigrants were infuriated that social supports went to migrants instead of them. apnews.com/article/chic...

Yes, die-hard xenophobes are not moveable. But anyone doing immigration work (including many advocates, left thinktankers, and immigrants themselves) witnessed widespread negative polarization against immigration because of very material concerns.

> and was America not YIMBY from 1950 to 2002, then YIMBY from 2002 until 2022, and now no longer is? etc...

And yes, housing costs were much lower from 1950 to 2002 and then from 2002 until 2020/2021-ish

? I did not say that YIMBY was a driver of these sentiments. My point is that lowering housing costs (or any major costs tbh) could make raising taxes easier because people think about their costs as a total portfolio.

I wouldn't be surprised if that played a role (since uh, Republicans do very much focus on lowering taxes as a major part of their platform), but I still think "why were people so mad about taxes during Covid" seems much more likely to be about inflation than anything else

eh looking at the actual underlying data that doesn't seem that clean

doesn't seem implausible to me? Poll isn't granular enough to be certain but do you have an alternate hypothesis?

Meme in replies this time. Happy @stephenjacobsmith.com?