Superman Has Always Been An Immigrant

An Essay by Ben Cominos

Hi Folks,

This week, Ben Cominos unpacks how political messaging has become more about emotional manipulation than meaningful leadership.

What happens when the political machine stops working for the people it’s supposed to serve—and starts working only for their emotions instead?

In this latest piece, Ben traces the growing disconnect between political identity and actual policy, exploring how phrases like “Bidenomics” or a single comment about immigration can hijack public discourse. What begins as a conversation about Superman’s immigrant origin story quickly reveals something far more troubling: how easily our politics have been programmed to reject nuance, kindness, and even truth.

Ben is the host of “Outside the Box,” a political talk show on WHBY in Appleton, Wisconsin. I’ve been on his show multiple times and always come away impressed by his clarity, wit, and unflinching honesty.

Writers like Ben are supported through the sales of our Progressive Beer. For the next three days, a portion of every beer purchase goes directly to supporting this work.


And now, without further ado, here's Ben...


Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC


P.S. We've now made it possible for you to get fewer emails from us but stay on our mailing list. You can unsubscribe from "Wine Wednesdays" or "Public School Saturdays," for example, but still get my Sunday newsletter by clicking the "update my preferences" link at the bottom of this email.

Superman Has Always Been An Immigrant
Ben Cominos

This country is broken in ways that I’m not sure I can completely quantify.

I think that this is a fact that is only becoming more apparent to me as my show allows me to talk to all walks of life.

I’m learning very quickly, that there are certain phrases or terms that will immediately make political party supporters snap to attention, like an army of Manchurian Candidates.

Well… like an army of Manchurian candidates that almost certainly couldn’t spell the word Manchurian.

Now, this is going to be an article about MAGA, but it’s important to stress that neither party is immune to this. Watch:

“Bidenomics” was never working.

I’m not going to mention the economy for the rest of this article, but I promise there will be a handful of people reading this that won’t stop thinking about it.

It’s that entrenchment in our “camps” that get’s us to agree to a LOT of policy decisions that otherwise will have undesirable outcomes.

When it comes to Republican voters, I will admit, my list of triggers grows substantially. You could have a conversation about the Epstein list for 40 minutes, make 1 comment about the transgender community, and, as a talk show host, my text line will go from silent to a dozen people explaining why there’s only 2 genders.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon now has real life implications.

I’m using this introduction to set up a very real situation that we need to deal with as a nation that we may not be able to full rationalize yet.

The Republican right does not fully understand how to have a conversation about immigration in this country.

It’s easy to chalk this up to “they are all bigots.” Hell, there’s days where it’s hard for me to justify any other thought process. On my show, my short hand for this population is the “Git dem Mexicans” crowd.

I refuse to allow myself to paint with a broad brush though, as tempting as it may be.

The construction of Gator Gitmo (in 8 days no less) has been a difficult thing for me to stomach.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t get into this industry to fear monger, and if there’s anything I’ve learned in the last 6 months, it’s that government can cut federal funding to programs, regardless of the programs popularity, and especially if it’s unpopular.

If Liberals cut the nonsense and run a competent candidate, they’ll walk through 2028 and this will just be an embarrassing time in American history. One that I’d like to make a memory as quickly as possible.

It’s hard for me to get past the concept though that this was even built in the first place… until, at least, you gain an understanding of just how programmed voters are in this nation.

Part of getting older is realizing that this country makes mistakes. Like, a lot of mistakes.

So many mistakes that it pains me to say that this definitely won’t be the last one.

But it was an online discourse that I watched transpire over the holiday weekend that opened my eyes to just how bad this conversation has become.

Enter the new Superman movie releasing this Friday. (I promise, this all ties together.)

I had decided to separate myself from politics for 3 days for my own mental health. I went out with friends. I caught up on TV shows I like to watch. I cleaned. Anything other than follow the nonsense that is American politics.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw people mad at the premise of the new Superman film. Creative Director James Gunn was quoted in Variety, having said: “Superman’ is about an immigrant that came from other places and how we’ve lost the value of basic human kindness.”

This comment sent the right, both the talking heads as well as the voters, into a tailspin.

Claims of “Go woke, go broke” or “when will Hollywood learn” filled my social media feeds, and had completely shifted the narrative surrounding the excitement for the movie.

Allow me to now explain this story in non-nerd terms. Republicans are just realizing that Superman HAS ALWAYS been a story about the immigrant experience.

It’s a story about an ALIEN arriving in RURAL AMERICA with untold power and the ability to shape the future of this country, and the world. The stories often focus on him ASSIMILATING into society and making us all better for having known him.

I don’t care if you’re watching Henry Cavil.
I don’t care if you’re watching Christopher Reeves.
I don’t care if you’re reading the original comic from the 1930s.

THE MESSAGE HAS NEVER CHANGED, ONLY THE PEOPLE READING IT HAVE.

When you watch the conversation highlight such high levels of naiveté, or genuine hate, it makes it hard to maintain hope.

A conversation about a superhero movie devolved into more xenophobic rhetoric, but with every political talk there is a chance to change minds.

I am a firm believer that we can get back to a time where Republicans don’t freak out every single time the word immigrant is mentioned. I believe that path is paved with truly transcendent economic change.

If every American sees a path to the American Dream, none (or at least most) will care about who else is coming here with the same intentions.

So I guess what I’m saying is “Bidenomics” wasn’t working, but if we can get it to work, we’ll watch the MAGA platform fade out.

Then I can be a 37 year old man excited to see superhero movies in peace, and isn’t that all that we really want?

Catch Ben's live show, "Outside the Box," on on weekdays from 8:30-11am on WHBY Radio