Why would I lie on an anonymous internet message board to a total stranger about being from eastern North Carolina? I'm from Fairmont, NC- where the majority of my family still resides- which is in arguably the poorest, most rural, most economically destitute county in North Carolina. I then lived in Pitt County for four years after college. So, yeah, I'm a pretty darn "born and bred" eastern North Carolinian.
Regarding your comment about immigration, you're essentially saying exactly what I said, which is that most Americans (myself included) favor ultra-strong border security while also favoring a more efficient and more humane system of legal immigration. The problem is, the current MAGA-fied Republican Party has become so hostile to immigration of any kind that the entire floor of the RNC last week was filled with "MASS DEPORTATION NOW!" signs. Notwithstanding the logistical implausibility of mass-deporting ~10-20 million people, do you understand what kind of economic collapse such policy would cause? You know all of those hog farms and tobacco farms in eastern NC? What would happen to them? What would happen to our meat-packing, agricultural, construction, hospitality, food service, and factory/manufacturing industries? You think inflation and prices were bad in the aftermath of the pandemic? Wait til the entire economic backbone of the United States collapses because hard-core right-wingers think that anyone with brown skin who comes to the United States wanting to make a better life for themselves is "an illegal" who "should be deported."
