There was a time when the world went through open borders. Free trade. Free movement of people. New waves of immigration poured into the New World. As they flocked the major urban centers, these ethnic minorities were looked down upon. Discrimination on the base of nationality, what we now call xenophobia, was rampant. Then the greatest city in the world, in sharp contrast to the rest of the New World, elected someone from that minority as their new mayor. The son of a family of immigrants, he defied the corrupt establishment against all odds. His election would usher a major shift in American politics.
His name? Fiorello LaGuardia.