June 27, 2018

What Trump Gets

In the 1950s, the great neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol acknowledged Joe McCarthy’s stark failings, but famously refused to take the side of his critics. “For there is one thing,” he wrote, “that the American people know about Senator McCarthy: He, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesman for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing.”

In the 1950s, the great neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol acknowledged Joe McCarthy’s stark failings, but famously refused to take the side of his critics. “For there is one thing,” he wrote, “that the American people know about Senator McCarthy: He, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesman for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing.”

The sentiment could equally apply to President Donald Trump and the issue of immigration.

Trump’s team is still trying to figure out how to extricate itself from a policy of separating families at the border that was incompetently executed, incompetently explained, and incompetently reversed.

The president himself is so heedless of his own priorities and legislative strategy that he initially opposed a compromise House immigration bill crafted with the input of his own staff, then reversed himself and supported it, then declared that it should be put off until next year. Who knows what he’ll say about it next?

He poured contempt on the idea of adding immigration judges at the border, when it is rock-solid Sen. Ted Cruz who is proposing the idea and every immigration restrictionist welcomes it as a way to expedite the consideration of asylum claims (the current backlog of 600,000 cases is a disgrace and adds to the dysfunction of the system).

Trump talks of immigrants in the crudest terms (they are infesting or invading) and portrays them as budding violent criminals. Illegal immigrants routinely violate the law to come, stay and work in the U.S., but the overwhelming majority simply want a job.

Yet, with apologies to Irving Kristol, the one thing the American people know about Donald Trump is that he believes we have a border and it should be enforced. About his opponents, they know no such thing — and how could they?

Trump almost certainly hurt himself over the past two weeks, but the damage shouldn’t be exaggerated or the opportunity for recovery minimized (assuming that migrant kids can be returned to their parents expeditiously, despite the insane legal and bureaucratic obstacles).

In signing his executive order reversing course on family separations last week, Trump flipped from representing a splinter view to associating his opposition with one. Family separations were unpopular — less than a third of people supported them. But even fewer people support so-called catch-and-release, permitting migrants to enter the country pending a court date. In a CBS News poll, only 21% say they want to temporarily release families into the country. An Economist/YouGov poll found that 19% favor release.

With Democrats now banging on Trump for wanting to detain families together, they represent the minority view. The public wants migrants to be treated humanely, but it doesn’t want them to walk into the country. Of the various options that the CBS News poll gave people for dealing with the migrants, the one that had the most support, by far — 48% — was returning families home together.

The Democrats are ill-equipped to take this on board, since the party is as hostile to immigration enforcement as it’s ever been, and is getting more so. The hot new cause on the Left is calling for abolishing ICE, as allegedly (to quote New York progressive Zephyr Teachout) a tool “of arbitrary power and cruelty” and “unconstitutional illegal behavior.” At a time when Democrats should be cognizant of their vulnerabilities on immigration, many of them consider U.S. immigration authorities the interlopers, rather than illegal aliens.

This is the opening for Trump. He’s always benefited from his opponents going too far, in part under the pressure of his provocations. If he can make it clear that he wants to deal with migrants at the border decently but firmly, and that his opposition favors rules and limited detention space that effectively mandate catch-and-release, he’ll be in the stronger political position, again. On immigration, his advantage is the one thing that the public knows about him.

© 2018 by King Features Syndicate

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.