“Fear of birth rates is a way of feeding into this anxiety of national identity, who we are and how we are being threatened,” Wilson said. “Just look at the words of MAGA itself: Make America Great Again. It’s a very conservative view because it’s saying that in the past, there was a kind of ideal America and we’ve been knocked off track. We need to reestablish that old identity — even if it’s a myth.”

The anxiety is closely tied to anti-immigration policies as well. Immigration could be seen as a solution to the falling birth rate — but opponents connect migration with a loss of culture, loss of control in democratic institutions and loss of status.

For the right, Wilson said, “the question becomes, how do we win back the culture through majorities? How do we win elections and guarantee future elections? We make majorities through procreation — it is a kind of really basic arithmetic.”