idiot 45* thinks every appearance is about him and his autograph
"These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones. The word permanently being the word that you have to think about. Permanently. They are not separated for a day or two days. Permanently separated," Trump said, seeking to cast a contrast between grieving families and the crisis on the border that has captured the nation's attention and prompted his administration to hastily craft an executive order.
"I always hear that -- 'Oh no, the population is safer than the people that live in the country.' You've heard that, fellows, right? And I say is that possible? The answer is it is not true. You hear like they are better people than what we have, than our citizens, it is not true," he said.
As CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted on Wednesday, “It’s not an accident that the US government is making it so difficult for journalists, lawmakers, lawyers and others to bring you images and firsthand accounts from these separated parents and children. They are hiding the truth from you because they fear your reaction.”
[...]
Today, it’s exceedingly difficult to compete with Trump at the rhetorical level. This is in part because Trump has no shame, while most people do. But it’s also because Trump has so bent, damaged, and disfigured language to a point that we no longer have a shared vocabulary, especially in a world of open platforms and algorithm-fueled polarization. It’s easy for Trump to belittle the press and its reporting as “FAKE NEWS” because the press can’t usually provide contrary evidence other than “sources say.” But hard, concrete, visual evidence—the pictures we see from the border—seems to be the most effective antidote to Trump and his ability to dominate our mindshare. As the migrant story took hold across every channel and platform, visual media came to feel like a cure, however temporary, for our political schizophrenia.
[...]
But when media organizations deliver on their original value proposition—showing the public something compelling and important—Trump has a harder time creating his own reality. News today works best when it visualizes the stakes and victims and consequences of policy decisions, rather than just talking or writing about them. People don’t trust reporters. They do trust pictures.
Trump’s team, ever astute, contributed to the cause, optimizing their callousness for social media. Corey Lewandowski had his “womp womp” moment when responding to news of a disabled child being separated from her mother. Melania Trump smartly wore her “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” jacket for the television cameras. And when Trump signed his executive order halting the family separations on Wednesday, the White House sycophants who had previously claimed the policy was out of his hands were now all memorialized on tape as liars forevermore.
less than 25% of the more than 2,000 children separated have made it back to their parents
- Since 2005's McCain-Kennedy legislation, the basic approach to comprehensive immigration reform has been the same: you need to be *tough* on the border, assure people there is a rigorous and orderly process and then people will accept legalization for the undocumented.
- This was the same general structure of the Gang of Eight immigration bill in the Senate in 2013. And it makes a lot of sense: there's strong majority support for this approach in poll after poll.
- In fact that bill passed the senate 68-32!
- But.
- Both those pieces of legislation were killed by hard-right, restrictionist mobilization against it. The plain fact of immigration politics in this country is that the Steve King/Stephen Miller wing of the GOP, a small minority of the country, has a total veto on it.
- Now what *has* happened during the last 13 years is that unauthorized immigration has fallen significantly, net migration from Mexico has reached zero, and funding and manpower at the border has doubled. There have never been more border patrol and more ICE agents.
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Deportations in the first term of Obama hit record highs. In short, The border has never been more patrolled and militarized.
- And yet somehow the anti-immigration forces during this time have only gotten stronger and more extreme.
- That's because the politics of opposition aren't driven by concerns about border security or lawfulness. There *are* lots of persuadable *voters* who do have those concerns. But they're not the obstacle.
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No, the hardcore oppositon is driven by demographic and racial panic.
- The leaders of that wing, Steve King for instance, are very open and clear about their opposition to demographic change. Steve Bannon even pointed to having too many Asian tech CEO's as an example of the problem he's trying to solve.
- The president himself lamented immigration from Haiti because it is a shithole country and openly pined for more people from countries like Norway.
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They are not subtle about this.
- And that is why no amount of border security or enforcement ***will ever be enough*** to assuage their opposition.
- The only political solution is for the pro-immigration faction, which is closer to the majority's views on the topic, to organize sufficiently to deal Steve King et al total defeat. That's what happened in California after Prop 187. I see no other way out.