Xenophobia and racism have always lied just the surface and a lack of familiarity hightens people's fear of the unknown. When a political party learns to take advantage of these fears they invarably have a period of increased popularity and power until ultamately overthrown either at the polls or the battlefield.

This is a case of people aying on thing in public but once they have the ability to say whats in their heart and mind in private - look out; in this case the numbers switched by a huge 23%. Again I feel governments have cause this problem by allowing way to many things to be allowed to go to public vote. This is why we elect officials so they can look at the big picture. Citizens act out of fear and passion on the immediate not the measured response the elected officials normally use.

Several. comments. This needs to be read in conjunction with the recent posting about a study that 'discovered' that people are influenced by repeated exposure to ideas. US history is filled with restrictive immigration tactics based on fear - colonial anti Catholic provisions, 'no Irish need apply", Chinese exclusion, national origin immigration quotas, etc. Europeans are relatively new at dealing with 'other' and also very uncertain about being 'European' - just look at the ... More »