Failed official coercion pushed nativism back toward racial and religious targets

Evidence

During the war and its immediate aftermath, interest focused not on the old objective of restriction but rather on new policies of repression, Americanization, and deportation. By 1920, however, about as much official coercion as the United States would tolerate had been undertaken; for some time to come further attempts to impose internal conformity would rest more completely in private hands. By 1920, also, the policies of Americanization and deportation, as massive ventures, were suffering general discredit. Political nativism shifted again toward its traditional goals, by the same maneuver that turned nativist thinking back into racial and religious channels. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1807

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the reader’s core question about how the constructed enemy category shifts form — here from wartime repression focused on political menaces back to race-and-religion-focused restriction once official coercion failed. — connects to: Nativism’s ideological enemies got remade as biologically fixed racial ones — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1580; Disappointment shifted nativist targets to vaguer enemies — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1626; Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1580 (+5 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supports and extends the reader’s model from the stillbirth/lasting-concept piece: nativism re-channeled into racial and religious forms when the political-enemy frame was discredited.

Broader Connections

• Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved #corroborates (0.85) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1580
• American nativism racialized over time rather than starting as racism #expands (0.82) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 2003
• Nativism’s core charges repeat for centuries and shift only toward racism #corroborates (0.80) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 757
• Racial nativism began as a defensive swing requiring no new intellectual input #qualifies (0.78) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 804
• Racial nativism matured only when public confidence recovered #complicates (0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 762