MOTHERLESS CHILDREN HAVE A HARD TIME
I think there’s a real chance that the Trump Administration policy of taking immigrant children from their parents will turn out to be a wedge issue in the next election.
Let’s acknowledge that it’s popular with Trump’s base. The base approves of cruelty, as long as it’s directed at African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, or Liberals. Hard core Deplorables are a lost cause. Pray for them, if you’re so inclined, but don’t waste time trying to show them the error of their ways. They’ve gone to the Dark Side, where cruelty is a feature, not a bug.
And yet Trump (and a few of his minions) are squirming now that the press is has spotlighted this particular piece of cruelty. Not that they care about the kids. But they know that the optics of children in cages hurts them with 70% of the voters. That’s why they’re trying to lie their way out of responsibility for their actions. Blame Obama. Even blame George W. Bush, as Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to do on Monday. Trump himself keeps tweeting “Change the law!”
The Republican defense is so stunningly bogus that it’s hard to know where to start, but let’s begin with something you learn on the first day of class in Trumpism 101. Donald Trump routinely ignores laws he doesn’t like. Even if there were such a law that required him to separate children from their families, all he’d have to do is tell ICE to stop enforcing it. Republican congressional majorities are effectively gelded. Some of them would be relieved at that particular order, while others would be privately annoyed. But they’d all roll over, just like they’ve done every time Trump breaks the law.
But the truth is that there is no law that requires Trump to take children away from their parents. None. He could enforce immigration laws by deporting entire families intact. He’s chosen instead to terrorize children.
Taking children from their parents and keeping them in cages is a deliberate strategy, a form of psychological warfare. Republicans want those pictures to circulate widely in Mexico and Central America. They think it will discourage potential refugees from crossing the border. Some of Trump’s lackeys – Sanders, Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, and John Kelly – have even acknowledged this.
But Trump himself is a coward, so he claims that Democrats made him do it. That’s a lie. And blaming Democrats is weak.
The most important point, though, is that if Trump wanted an unambiguous law forbidding ICE to do what he’s ordered them to do, all he’d have to do is propose one. Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, and they have a Republican-appointed conservative majority on the Supreme Court. The wind is at their backs. Just do it, for crying out loud.
The moral of the story is that the only way for decent Americans to stop this is to elect a Democratic majority in the House and Senate next November.
In 2016, the Russian-Republican strategy was divide and conquer. Putin’s bot army kept sowing dissension between the Clinton and Sanders camps, and way too many people fell for it. Russians call those people “useful idiots.”
In 2018, Trump is all about pandering to his base. He’s betting the store that they’ll be enough to save him. ICE’s gratuitous cruelty is popular with the base because it exemplifies the twin pillars of contemporary Republican policy – racism and annoying liberals. But that strategy provides Democrats with an opportunity to do a little dividing and conquering of their own.
Republicans in swing districts may find that Trump’s “kids in cages” policy is too much for independent voters to stomach. It may even offend a small percentage of reliable Republicans. Maybe they won’t vote for a Democrat, but they could decide to sit this election out.
In my view, it will be important for Democratic candidates to attack this area of vulnerability. Donald Trump will be the issue. Make Republican candidates own his cruelty. Make them own his rampant corruption. And if they refuse to do that, demand that they explain how they intend to curb his excesses. Whether they reject Trump or embrace him, either choice will alienate potential Republican voters. In some districts, that will be enough.
As an added bonus, the useful idiots of 2016 will have an opportunity to show that they've learned from their mistake. Redemption is a good thing. I'll be writing more about that soon.