Podcast Summary: The Realignment Live from the Aspen Ideas Festival with Reihan Salam

Episode Overview

In this special edition of The Realignment, host Marshall Kosloff sits down with Reihan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute, live from the Aspen Ideas Festival (Economy) in Newark. The conversation interrogates the intersection of immigration, culture, economics, and politics in America’s ongoing political realignment. Focusing on New York City’s working-class immigrant experience and the new debates shaping both the populist left and right, the episode considers how narratives around mobility, assimilation, and meritocracy are being rewritten—and politically weaponized—at a time of deep social change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Discuss Politics and Culture at an Economic Forum?

[03:03]

• Salam’s Framework:
  Salam outlines how elites shape society along three dimensions:
  • Formal control of institutions
  • Storytelling and cultural production
  • The power of imitation
    These, in turn, inform economic and political sensibilities via people’s self-narratives and perceived agency.
• Notable Quote:
  • "So much of our economic lives, our political sensibilities, are informed by our narrative self-understanding. Who do we believe ourselves to be?" — Reihan Salam [03:23]

2. Working-Class Immigrants: Strivers Amid Stalled Mobility

[05:17]

• A Shifting Immigrant Story:
  Salam rejects the over-romanticized, linear tale of immigrant upward mobility. Many working-class immigrants—especially in cities like New York and LA—feel stuck, even as their children attain modest educational gains but remain locked out of homeownership and economic security.
• Aging and Discontent:
  He illustrates with the story of an older Bangladeshi cab driver, symbolizing immigrants who, after decades, find their sacrifices seemingly unreturned amid rising precarity.
• Broader Narrative:
  While the first generation lays foundations, subsequent generations might struggle, producing intergenerational feelings of discontent that now drive new coalitions and political realignment.
• Notable Quote:
  • "What about those people who are going through this other shock that's happening in these big coastal metros...where for some, not all, their narrative is not one of uninterrupted pure upward mobility, but rather of discontent and dissatisfaction." — Reihan Salam [08:36]

3. Revisiting Assimilation: Then and Now

[09:17]

• Historical Contrast:
  Salam contrasts past and present assimilation stories: Many 19th/early 20th century immigrants returned home; Irish and Jewish migrants became paradigmatic for the “one-way ticket.”

  • Today, technological advances (e.g., WhatsApp) allow for deeper transnational identity maintenance.

• Upward Mobility:
  Historically, economic gains realized mainly by the second or third generation; but current low fertility rates challenge how the “sacrifice narrative” plays out—many elders are uncertain about their children’s prospects and their own legacies.

• Political Implications:
  With roughly 25% of Americans being first or second generation, disaffected immigrant communities represent a potent but underexamined cultural and political force.

• Notable Quote:

  • "If you're looking to your children as people who themselves feel this very deep sense of discontent, who themselves feel very precarious, that's a way in which your story has not necessarily been vindicated." — Reihan Salam [12:11]

4. The Right’s New H1B Debate: Meritocracy, Parenting, and Backlash

[14:35]

• Historical Right Consensus:
  The right previously said, “We’re not anti-immigrant, just anti-illegal immigration.” Support for skilled immigration (e.g., H1B visas) was common.
• The Crisis Post-2024:
  • Vivek Ramaswamy’s defense of the H1B process and his controversial comment:
    “Americans, you have to work harder to keep up with high skilled immigrants. And if you have to give up sleepovers, you give up sleepovers.”
  • This Tiger-Parenting ethos was quickly rejected by parents across the political spectrum, reflecting exhaustion with meritocratic rat races even among the affluent.
• Breaking Point:
  There’s a growing, trans-ideological cultural discomfort with the costs and expectations of “global economic competition,” especially regarding child-rearing.
• Notable Quote:
  • “As a young parent myself, I find myself less thinking I really need my young son to be ready to compete in a globalized economy in 20 years. So no sleepovers—that just doesn’t culturally sit well with me…” — Marshall Kosloff [15:52]

5. Indian American Immigrants: A “Triple-Selected” Population

[17:15]

• Rapid Growth and Visibility:
  Salam discusses how Indian immigrants represent over 1% of the US population and are highly selected:
  • By caste and class in India
  • By US educational and professional filters
  • By the H1B system
    They are now among the most affluent and institutionally present immigrant groups.
• Cultural Anxiety:
  The speed and scale of this group’s visibility, unlike previous upwardly mobile groups, generates both admiration and alienation among longstanding Americans (especially the older generation).
• Changing Attitudes:
  The breakdown of cultural transmission, shrinking family size, and waning intergenerational narratives fosters envy and resentment, both within and across immigrant and native groups.
• Notable Quote:
  • "When you have a society in which everyone feels very culturally insecure, then that's something that can be really combustible." — Reihan Salam [21:31]

6. Meritocracy and the Upper-Middle Class: At a Crossroads

[24:01]

• The Manhattan Institute's Position:
  The Institute, and many on the right, have been staunch defenders of meritocracy—standardized testing, gifted and talented programs, etc.
• Real-World Backlash:
  The reaction to Ramaswamy’s comments showed that even parents favoring meritocracy draw the line at sacrificing “childhood” and traditions (like sleepovers) at the altar of outsized ambition.
• Changing Priorities:
  Affluent parents today are increasingly willing to accept more humble educational outcomes for their children, favoring well-roundedness, resilience, and social development over extreme academic competition.
• Parenting Reflections:
  • "My impulse is...I just really believe that you want to do difficult things...but also you just want to do things that machines can't do. You want to build friends, you want to build relationships..." — Reihan Salam [25:22]
• Strategic Advice to the Right:
  Salam urges conservatives not to retreat from cities—where two-thirds of immigrants live—but to engage, as these urban debates will become national debates sooner than later.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “So much of our economic lives, our political sensibilities, are informed by our narrative self-understanding. Who do we believe ourselves to be?” — Reihan Salam [03:23]

• “What about those people who are going through this other shock that's happening in these big coastal metros...where for some, not all, their narrative is not one of uninterrupted pure upward mobility, but rather of discontent and dissatisfaction.” — Reihan Salam [08:36]

• “If you're looking to your children as people who themselves feel this very deep sense of discontent, who themselves feel very precarious, that's a way in which your story has not necessarily been vindicated.” — Reihan Salam [12:11]

• "Americans, you have to work harder to keep up with high skilled immigrants. And if you have to give up sleepovers, you give up sleepovers." — Vivek Ramaswamy (reference via Marshall Kosloff) [15:13]

• “When you have a society in which everyone feels very culturally insecure, then that's something that can be really combustible.” — Reihan Salam [21:31]

• “I just really believe that you want to do difficult things...you want to build friends, you want to build relationships... My kids are incredibly difficult kids. And I think that's going to be a gift to everyone around them to learn to deal with people like my children.” — Reihan Salam [25:22]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:03 — Why culture belongs at the heart of economic debate
• 05:17 — The real immigrant experience: narratives of stalled mobility
• 09:17 — Reframing assimilation: historical and present-day contrasts
• 14:35 — H1B, meritocracy, and the troubled new right consensus
• 17:15 — Indian American immigrants: visibility, selection, and societal response
• 24:01 — Meritocracy, parenting, and the shifting upper-middle class mentality
• 25:22 — Salam’s advice to conservatives: engage in urban debates

Conclusion

This episode illuminates the rapidly shifting tectonics of US political culture as viewed through the microcosms of working-class immigrant communities and the divisive “meritocracy wars.” Salam’s nuanced, on-the-ground insights—whether about the legacy of immigrant striving, the changing meaning of assimilation, or the cultural unease simmering beneath both left and right—paint a vivid portrait of where American realignment is heading, and what’s at stake as the nation redefines success, belonging, and its own story.