   The open society and its discontents   See article  Readers'
comments    Goodbye to Lexington and here's hoping your
successor does a better job. Your articles increasingly resemble
the tired opinion pieces from The Independent. Don't hurry back.
Everyone rightly points out that America has been built on the
backs of poor but ambitious immigrants. So why is the backlash
coming now? Partly, I think, a shaken self-confidence as we
contemplate a 21st century during which other nations catch up
to (and maybe even surpass) our economic strength. More to the
point, non-white nations. Americans see increasing non-white
competition abroad, and then they see the outsized growth of the
non-white population at home, based in part on illegal
immigration. And that scares hell out of them.  I was frankly
shocked when we elected a black President. I voted for Obama
because I believe in much of his agenda (if not its actual
execution thus far). But the more I read the more I believe
that, on the whole, he was elected as