[javert]

I concur, but coming from a more historical/legal perspective.

The U.S. has always fundamentally been like the Central and South American countries, just with a thin layer of Lockean rule of law and property rights.

That layer is quickly eroding. The U.S. will become more like Mexico or Argentina (for instance) over time.

Love him or hate him, Trump did a lot to advance this timeline. You can see that his style is much more reminiscent of Central and South American politics. His followers want to replace the Lockean style with a political system built around a strong central personality.

[rthomas900]

A Mexican friend, long living in the USA, told me how much the Trump family reminded him of corrupt elite families in Mexico: "The dad thinks he's above the law and constantly cheats on his wife. The sons wear their hair slicked back and boast about how good they are at business even though they've never done anything in life but sponge off their dad's companies. And the daughters think they are glamorous fashion models and dream of owning a lifestyle brand."

[CyberDildonics]

You can see the same thing in thailand where the rural voters voted in a corrupt billionaire. Eventually his attractive daughter took over.

[gorbachev15]

Politics is downstream of culture, and as the demographics of the country shift more towards those of Mexico or Argentina (for instance) we should not be surprised when our political climate reflects that.

[margalabargala]

If that were true, I would expect the demographics of the supporters of the current administration to be skewed towards immigrants, especially from Central and South America, and I would expect to see opposition to the current political climate from the demographics most culturally different from those- non-immigrant, white males.

But it seems to me the opposite is instead true. Are you perhaps suggesting the non-immigrant, white males supporting the current political climate look up to the immigrants as role models?

[javert]

Yes, but that is an entirely separate phenomenon from the one I was raising.

Immigration is not the reason the U.S. is not losing the Lockean "rule of law and property rights" layer.

It's losing it because other ideas have come to predominate the intellectual landscape.