Charlie Kirk isn’t just some freak on the internet, he is, but he is also a major player of the American right and a leading figure in the neonationalist movement seeking to bring about a 21st-century American authoritarianism.

This is their movement, and what it is about.

Over the last several cycles politicians exploited the fentanyl crisis for their own selfish ends - see JD Vance - they offered a toxic brew of bad nativist "solutions." We need to get familiar with a better workable alternative, @kfrydl.bsky.social is the place to start.

Instead, they should truly lean into what their name implies calling for a revival of American democracy because what is broken will not be fixed by border policy reforms and we should be honest about that fact. We need a revitalizing to achieve a responsive democracy.

The conclusion: the immigration ‘debate’ is not one about boarder policy but it’s the politcal battleground between American democracy versus American authoritarianism it. Dems shouldn’t respond to this moment with policy and head nods to the new nationalists who say our neighbors are a threat.

Working people understand our system is broken their concerns are not heard and more important responded to will the real fixes, democracy is malfunctioning and Miller and the like are filling that gap with a story that makes our immigrant neighbors, the villain.

They tell our neighbors ‘if there are less un-Americans around wages will go up crime will go down and you will have a community where you feel like you belong’ - this is a convincing story. It just so happens to be an authoritarian lie.

3. What Miller, Bannon and the new nationalist movement understand is that the American democracy is broken, its not working for working people, and are offering authoritarianism its place (which is why they actively helped sabotage American democracy). Their vehicle for ‘selling’ this is nativism.

The talk of making great again isn’t backward focused but future focused unlike the conservative Dems that currently dominate the leadership of the party. Working people are struggling have been struggling and realize something is deeply broken. We don’t want the status quo but a better future.

This new nationalist movement - championed by the likes of Miller - are effective at foiling policy because he understands politics. But this leads to point 2: conservative Dems are still only offering the status quo a going back to the days of Bill Clinton, missing the very appeal of Trump.

Good policy means nothing without the power to implement it. Dems have called for largely the same policy for decades but haven’t been able to deliver because there is a social movement that has out maneuvered them to block reform because they belief immigrants are a threat to “real” Americans.