REUTERS/Monica Lozano
Two stories in yesterday’s news jump out. One is Donald Trump working himself into a not-even-bothering-to-sugarcoat-the-racism lather over little kids whose parents want to bring them to America, followed by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen repeating demonstrably-false talking points about Trump’s policy of forcing toddler children of allegedly-illegal border entrants into chain-link cages when Nielsen had, hours before, denied the policy even exists.
The other: Trump’s longtime political advisers Roger Stone and Michael Caputo claiming they just forgot, in press interviews and Caputo’s testimony before Congress, about Stone meeting with a Russian who offered Trump’s 2016 campaign “dirt” on Hillary Clinton for the low, low price of $2 million. Until special counsel Robert Mueller helpfully reminded them of that meeting, and they realized Mueller knew already.
In one, Team Trump defends the rule of law, protecting us from those who might have attempted a misdemeanor (illegal entry to the U.S.) punishable by a fine as low as $50 — assuming they don’t qualify for asylum because of threats to their safety back home. In the other, we are reminded of just how many arguable felons have gathered around this president — from an attorney general who told untruths at his confirmation hearing about contacts with Russian officials, to a leader of the free world who has admitted obstructing the investigation of his campaign.
And that’s before the son-in-law, the national security adviser, the rogue FBI agents leaking investigative secrets to GOP politicians before the election, the personal lawyer who paid off the porn star, the staff secretary who allegedly beat not one wife but two, the campaign chairman jailed for allegedly tampering with witnesses before his trials on charges of fraud and other mischief; and Charming Stephen Miller, the White House immigration-policy leader, still smarting from being expected to treat janitors at his high school with respect.
All these fine people protect us from folks facing fines smaller than what my town charges for many parking tickets, and a tenth of the penalty for riding a scooter in New York. Or about 3% of the tuition for a three-day Trump University course. If you will.
All in defense of this splendid example of Americanism, uttered yesterday.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said in a speech. “You look at what’s happening in Europe, you look at what’s happening in other places. We can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.”.
There is much to be offended by in Trump’s immigration policy. But a few, practical conclusions stand out amid the moral outrage.
1. Trump will never get an immigration deal now — let alone a wall.
The president himself has made few bones about the fact that the 2,000 kids separated from their parents — with more to come — are hostages to his bid to limit not just illegal but legal immigration.
He flatters himself that Democrats and a few Republicans otherwise tempted by mercy will cringe before the sight of Trump’s base — according to a Quinnipiac University poll, only 27% of Americans approve of Trump’s border stunt — and restrict immigration in exchange for springing the kids and letting so-called Dreamers stay in the U.S.
But Americans like the Dreamers and are horrified by the tapes emerging of crying children in border camps — a toddler screaming for Mommy sounds the same in English or Spanish.
The more the immigration debate is about babies and Dreamers, the worse it is for Trump and his wall along the U.S-Mexican border. On Tuesday, Democrats urged Trump to visit the camps, no doubt hoping he’d throw paper towels at the kids as he did after Puerto Rico’s hurricane, cementing his image as Scrooge McDuck.
2. Michael Dukakis was wrong: The GOP doesn’t rot from the head.
Quinnipiac’s poll shows why Trump’s dug in on immigration: Republicans approve his policy by 20 points, 55% to 35%. Democrats may not fear this — base Republicans didn’t put them in office. But Republicans sure do.
The GOP base has led the president into overplaying his hand ahead of a general election for Congress this fall — where, unlike in primaries, the GOP base is a mere faction.
Dukakis, 1988’s Democratic presidential nominee, caught flak for saying “a fish rots from the head” about Ronald Reagan’s Pentagon — now, GOP rot emanates from the base up. Even Trump didn’t start moral rot that made Republicans nominate for the Senate an accused child molester, a Confederate and neo-Nazi sympathizer, and, possibly, an Obama “birther” theorist and serial abuser of power who accepted a pardon from Trump for criminal contempt of court — all in this past year. His base did that, and was doing the same stuff before Trump arrived.
3. Trump’s immigration policy is bad economics.
The economy has a growth problem, whose root causes include too-slow population growth, especially among young families. More immigration means more strivers — people who build American lives, buying homes, cars, and furniture. This is the time to loosen, not tighten, immigration.
There are studies on this, but just use your eyes. Immigrants skew young and blue-collar, and they’re more likely to work than we are. People like Trump have demonized newcomers throughout America’s history — they’re always wrong.
Of Trump’s offenses against taste and logic, the most absurd has always been his masquerade as the one man protecting the rule of law — when he’s felt free to trample rules himself. Americans see through that now, thanks, most recently, to the border crisis, and, in time, to the likely result of the investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In the meantime, Trump does best politically when he makes little policy, distracting voters from his actual goals, like shoving little kids into tent cities.
So, do your job Mr. President. Soon, voters will do theirs.