Immigration has been a galvanizing issue for Republicans for roughly two decades and, with President Biden visiting the border, it's back in the headlines. We're looking back at polling over the past three decades to see why the issue seems to be intractable. Then, Elon Musk may be making the biggest waves in social media but we're looking at how it's shifted recently in ways that make it fundamentally different than when it began. And, we finish with a Fun Fact from a time when a man on the moon seemed like a long shot.
Almost since the founding of the nation, immigration has been a political flash point. Since 2016, when Donald Trump rode his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to the White House, most Republicans have supported very tight restrictions to immigration of all types. Over the last year, the number of people crossing the southern border has hit record levels and, this week, Biden made his first visit to the border as President. So, we're marking the occasion by looking at polling on immigration over the last 30 years -- and we've found some surprising changes.
Next, we welcome back Marist Communications/Journalism professor Kevin Lerner (@KLerner) to talk about how social media has moved away from being a virtual town square and the "great leveler" to being a series of tribal destinations. Now sites for specific groups have gained traction, especially political ones. Twitter has been challenged by a host of conservative apps like Parler, Gettr, Truth Social, Rumble, and Gab. And, as Elon Musk made big moves at Twitter to un-ban some infamous right-wing extremists, liberals have headed to Post.social, Mastadon, and Hive. As part of our conversation, we're releasing results from our December poll on Musk's Twitter purchase. Marist Poll Tables (Musk/Twitter)
We finish with a Fun Fact that's older than Lee! It's all about how bad we can be at predicting the future. Plus, we get to close out the show with a favorite TV show theme song.