Donald the Democrat? By Michael Davis. Betrayal update.
No one’s surprised or disappointed that Trump reneged on his promise to deport illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors (so-called ‘Dreamers’). It was one of the handful of truly cruel policies he suggested during the 2016 campaign, like the proposed ban on all Muslim immigration. It wasn’t going to happen, nor should it have. Instead, the President took the correct course of action: He repealed the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals order instituted by President Obama and handed the issue over to Congress.
It was odd, however, that also he threatened to reinstitute DACA if they didn’t act quickly. … Stranger still is how Trump’s taken up a full-throated defence of Dreamers against… well, it’s not clear whom exactly. He took to Twitter again on the 14, asking: ‘Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military?’ Well, no, Mr President. I mean, you did, a few months ago. …
This transparent virtue-signalling — this lame, useless pandering to the Twitterati — is becoming a new theme of the Trump presidency. …
As Jonah Goldberg wrote in National Review: ‘Despite his “fake news” refrain, Trump doesn’t hate the mainstream media the way his most ardent supporters do. They sincerely believe it’s a hostile opponent in the culture war, while Trump’s anger is more that of a jilted lover.’ …
The President’s gone about systematically knee-capping the MAGA brigades. Several key boosters, including Paul Joseph Watson and Milo Yiannopoulos, loudly exited the Trump Train after the President ordered his strike against Syria. Ann Coulter seriously considered retiring when she realized the US-Mexico border wall isn’t going to be built. Steve Bannon was fired in the wake of the Charlottesville attack; Sebastian Gorka resigned shortly thereafter. And so on.
This leaves a question of how many Chuckservatives there are in the GOP. … referring to Republicans who hate their own Congressional leadership so much they’d rather work with the Democrats’: Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, etc. …
What’s left is a functionally Democratic president working with a Democratic minority in Congress to pass Democratic legislation, all while trying to oust moderate conservatives Ryan and Flake. Like Pilate, I’d prefer to wash my hands of this whole debacle. And, like Pilate, I’m afraid it’s much too late.
As noted before here, there is almost no daylight between the advertised policies of Donald Trump and those of Bill Clinton in 1992.
Phillip Barton notes:
A Wall is of huge political significance to Trump’s supporters, many of whom cannot find work. They want a wall, they were promised a wall, and Trump had better start delivering on a wall.
I am reminded of Dwight Eisenhower’s remark…
“When I was Commander-in-Chief of the European Theater I could move a million men with a phone call. Now that I’m President of the United States I can’t get anyone to do anything.”
hat-tip Stephen Neil
