Bipartisanship is another word for ignoring the base
Here’s how the Opposition Media’s beloved “bipartisan cooperation” works among the residents of Incumbentstan here in Washington, D.C. Republicans join leftists to proudly pass a “prison reform” bill that is of absolutely no importance to the conservative base that keeps Washington country-club conservatives in office.
But all passage of “prison reform” really proves is that Curator of the Senate Mitch McConnell and retiring Boy Ryan are more than willing to quickly pass a bill that speeds the process of putting illegal immigrants in prison back out on the street. Unfortunately, they won’t spend a dime to prevent illegal immigrants currently out of the country from finding a way back in.
In fact, McConnell is having trouble keeping his utter disdain for the base that elects him in check. His latest disingenuous move is a continuing spending resolution that pushes wall funding into February — when Nancy Pelosi will be running the House.
Building the wall, deporting illegal immigrants, and citizen-first immigration reform were the issues that elected President Trump. Those should have been the primary focus of his administration from the beginning.
Trump did face a unique situation. First, he didn’t expect to win, which is something he and Hillary had in common. He had to scramble to staff his administration. It was chaos. The only difference between the product of Trump’s HR department and Uber’s was that Trump’s staffers didn’t assault women. Well, at least not as many as Uber drivers.
His closest advisors were Democrats, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared, neither of whom would have voted for any other Republican candidate running on Dad’s issues. Staff slots went to closet Never-Trumpers who opposed his immigration plans and careerists dragging their feet because they were afraid Trump’s policies would kill future job prospects with housebroken conservatives and big donors after they left the administration.
I also suspect that Trump was naive. He probably assumed that after he achieved an unprecedented upset, what passes for Republican leadership would be eager to fall in line behind policies that obviously resonated with the electorate. The bumptious outsider and the wily insiders would pass important legislation while the opposition was stunned, and this before the investigations began.
Trump should have realized that it was him against the world when prissy McConnell contemptuously dismissed Trump’s first budget with a wave of his dainty hand.
Trump should’ve started publicly making the case for his signature legislation then and there. It should have contained all funding for the wall; nationwide, retroactive E-Verify for all jobs; criminal sanctions for employers who hire illegal immigrants, and a tax on over-the-border remittances to fund a stepped-up program of deportations.
The first step would’ve been passage in the House followed by internment in the Senate. But Trump could’ve been patient. Then, when the next spending bill came up, he could have informed McConnell that he won’t sign any budget bill unless his immigration reform is passed.
Curator McConnell’s dirty secret is it doesn’t really take 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate. And he doesn’t need any Democrats, either. All the Curator must do is return to the filibuster rules that were in effect until 1975. Then a simple majority is enough.
Yes, there would’ve been wailing and gnashing of teeth, but so what? It would have been worth the turmoil and potential loss of the House in the 2018 midterms to get that bill passed. Now Republicans have lost the House and have nothing to show for it.
Instead, Trump did nothing. He tweeted while the border burned. Last week, he said he would embrace a Trump Shutdown if he didn’t get just the wall. Earlier this week, he said he’d sign the spending bill without the wall. As this is written, Trump says he’s not going to sign the bill.
So who knows? My bet is that Trump will botch his last chance for a wall.
Illegal immigration matters to some of us. My wife’s best friend was killed by a drunk-driving illegal immigrant. After we moved to Virginia, another drunk-driving illegal immigrant killed a friend we made here. My daughter has had two cars totaled by illegal immigrants. I was rear-ended by an anchor baby. By the way, where is Trump’s executive order ending the anchor baby scam? We certainly aren’t alone in this. We’re just ignored.
We read that when Ivanka gets teary-eyed, her father often responds forcefully. I’m hoping that in the next few days one of the First Daughter’s friends will have a bad experience with an illegal immigrant. Maybe he’ll take that parking spot at the mall the friend was waiting for, or he’ll prune the wrong tree. Something that really engages upper Manhattan emotions.
If only Ivanka chokes up again, maybe her father will stop choking on the border wall.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
Articles related to “Bipartisanship is another word for ignoring the base”
Actually, the 14th Amendment prohibited birthright citizenship
