I don’t understand why the Democrats can’t just give him the wall. Keep the government closed for $5 billion? That’s chump change compared to the money we’ve wasted on pointless wars- and it might even create a few construction jobs to build the stupid wall.
Both sides are acting like children trying to get their way and keep the other side from getting what they want.
There are far more important issues for Washington to work on. It’s hard to see who’s going to be hurt more, politically, by this. But Trump has the presidency, and right now the Democrats don’t have anyone who can beat him in 2020. I think they have more to lose.
2
The problem is that Trump's supporters have committed voter malpractice. They elected a man who is not a statesman, who has neither experience of nor regard for government, and who is a demonstrably terrible businessman with multiple bankruptcies to show for 40 years of "work." So why does Dothat even try to pretend that Trump can "do" anything about the sorry state of affairs that Trump has created? It's to pretend that Trump's supporters were acting from any motivations beyond malice, greed, bigotry, and racism.
14
Good column. Well written and insightful.
What about Schumer’s anti-illegal immigration rhetoric in 2009, Hillary’s in 2014 or Bill’s in 1995. If they worked then, why don’t they work today?
1
Thanks, a well written intelligent opinion piece. All very logical
if you had a logical president with competent advisors.
4
I once heard that political leaders “campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.”
But now, we have “campaign in demagoguery, and govern in lies.”
15
Why was it necessary for you to bring in the Dems when your piece was about Trump.
Can you ever not have to make a comment about Trump/Republicans/Conservatives opposition when you have the spine to call any of those three out?
5
Ahem, the djt's 2016 immigration rhetoric was outvoted by 2.87 million Americans.
7
It's clear that Trump is a cult leader- and his goal is to incite his cult followers to violence if he is impeached or otherwise legally indicted for his crimes. And Fox New is complicit in the gas lighting of Trumps cult. There is no reasoning with him- he is a malignant narcissist who can not face any criticism or thwarting of his impulses. He is not normal. It is only going to get uglier until he is removed from office
10
20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States, a dramatic increase. Fix the perverse immigration laws to stem this flow. A border wall will signal to parents that sending unaccompanied children is not an automatic application.
Assume $100,000 each child in heath, food and education. That's $2 billion per month added to the national debt. $24 bill per yr. Wall paid for in 3 months.
United States needs robust border security to get back to legal immigration for refugee, genuine asylum seekers and highly skilled workers. Que jumping is hugely unfair and illegal and fosters crimes such as the killing of police officer Ronil Singh. https://www.modbee.com/news/article223949180.html
2
Like many voters who, after two years, know Trump never tells the truth, I was watching something else on TV while mute-streaming his speech on my laptop. Once he finished, I stopped the DVR taping, unmuted the laptop stream, and listened to Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, who, if over made-up and a bit wooden, at least spoke truth to power.
After two years of nothing but lies, Donald Trump has no credibility at all. His demand and rationale for money for a border wall is STUPID. He's like the boy who cried wolf; if he ever has something important and truthful to say, NO ONE will be listening except spinmeisters like Mike Pence and Kevin McCarthy. And no one will be listening to them either.
8
The only terrorist crisis that this country is experiencing is from armed US men who think it is OK to shoot and kill children and teachers, jews, black Americans, of anyone who happens to be around. Yet this is not considered terrorism.
Trump has his priorities way out of order, and does not have sense enough to notice the death rate in this country caused by armed US men, who are the real terrorists.
16
Trump’s fragile ego has ruined lives and our standing in the world much like the Bush administration debacle of Abu Grabe.
How will we ever hold our heads high after the travesty of the Gulag at the border.
5
Come on, Ross, when will you at long last gather the courage to write, simply, that Trump is not smart, not sane, not compassionate ?
Notice that I use polite words, which a columnist could all see fit to print.
7
Here's hoping Tucker Carlson as president with Ross Douthat as immigration speechwriter replaces Donald Trump and Stephen Miller.
Trump just walked out ... he knows they are calling his bluff.
It's over for him -- all he has left is to try a declaration of emergency. Is he stupid enough to try it? I think he may be -- if he does it will certainly be the end of his effective presidency, and will also certainly hasten impeachment.
Nobody in Congress can let Trump get away with such a declaration -- it destroys the power of Congress and is a precedent that the Republicans absolutely cannot give the Democrats.
3
People who "overstay" visas have some kind of background vetting from their initial application for the visa.
https://www.justfactsdaily.com/visa-overstays-dont-negate-the-benefits-of-border-barriers/
No, Ross, no and shame on you. These were racist and race bating lies when he told them in 2016 and they are the same disgusting lies now. Why would you want to be an apologist for this? He's not a couple of tweaks and a better speechwriter away from persuading anyone that spending $25 billion on a wall that no expert thinks will address any legitimate problem is a good idea. Stop enabling. Perhaps you need to go back to church and see what they say about how to treat the poor, the vulnerable, the stranger.
9
Please refrain from offering any advice to our pathetic POTUS and his band of myopic xenophobic speech writers. Let the Steven Millers of the world dig their way into the abyss that awaits anyone so filled with hatred and devoid of empathy.
7
CNBC talking heads made a case that broadcast was in fact a fund raiser for the 2020 campaign pointing to emails to donors
before and after the broadcast.
Has the NYT checked this?
6
Immigrants aren’t coming to kill us. US citizens armed to the hilt with guns and big pharma pushing drugs are what’s killing us.
17
The U.S. Government should never be shut down for any reason, ever. It's immature, disgraceful, shameful, undemocratic, self-defeating, harmful, and perfectly asinine. This holding the entire country hostage has got to stop. A law should be passed to that effect.
14
My God guys! Frame your titles for your editorials without using “he who should not be named”!
He loves his name in the paper! Even if his deeds are described as infamous as long as his name is in large bold print he is a happy man!
You keep feeding the beast! Stop it. Use your journalism skills to aid the country and not to sell more newspapers by invoking the flimflam man’s name in biggly bold letters.
6
Trump had to wait for the Democrats to achieve a majority in congress before his showdown for the wall: that is the only way to blame the Democrats. What a pathetic little president.
10
It's obvious that this whole brewhaha wsa cooked up to once again draw attention away from POTUS's legal troubles, as well as his ego bruising by RW blowhards and harpies. His skin is too thin for the job, and his behavior is totally irresponsible. We can't have a POTUS or Senate ML who will screw things up for everyone if they don't get their way, although pretty much every conservative I know has this tendency, which is why his base is perfectly alright with this. "My way or the hiway" is just how conservatives roll, so get set for a lengthy standoff.
5
Douthat, you must be kidding? "He could have explained the new challenge of family migration, admitted to mistakes (I know, imagine that) in the child separation policy of 2018, and emphasized that he’s asking for more money and various legal and administrative changes to ensure that inhumane conditions can be improved, that families can be kept together, that the system can adjudicate, process and deport without last year’s performative cruelty."
Trump is am insecure and cruel human being. There is no way in the world where he would ever say anything like this.
3
In other words, if Trump weren't Trump, this national address might have worked. If he hadn't doubled down on the lies, racism and fear. If he hadn't talked only to his cult. If he hadn't refused to admit that his immigration policies were indecent and inhumane, that his policies have made the humanitarian crisis much worse.
Time for all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, to take him both seriously and literally.
3
Trump is neither subtle nor supple.
That said, the robotic Pelosi/Schumer response was disheartening.
Bernie Sanders on youtube had some pizazz.
But - in general - at this moment in time - I'm looking up Will Rogers quotes on politicians and found this: "The Democrats and Republicans are equally corrupt where money is concerned. It's only in the amount where Republicans excel."
2
"Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor". People come to this country to find a better life. My grandparents came to this country and I'm grateful to them and to a country that welcomed them. I'm blessed with a good life because of their courage. We shouldn't demonize desperate people at our borders. We should embrace them and remember that we are here as citizens because of people seeking a life in this country under the same circumstances.
3
Why can't we immediately deport the thousands upon thousands who have overstayed their visas? If this is the main way that people are coming here illegally, we should work on that first. The government already has documentation and papers for these people and they should go after them. After this, make sure that asylum seekers are following proper international protocol and remain in the next safe country in which they arrive. In the case of migrants from Central America, that would be Mexico. Here they should remain while we perhaps work on placing pressure on the governments of those Central American countries that are wreaking havoc or allowing drug cartels to run amok. As usual, it's the $$$. We love the cheap labor that migrants offer and that we would never tolerate for our own citizens but then pontificate on how we are treating them inhumanely at the border.
3
It will be interesting to see which Republican member of the Senate decides to sign up to being Flake Mark II and newly preassigned for early retirement.
Could you have imagined the uproar if Obama threatened to declare a national emergency to push through universal health care? How is this different? They are both policy objectives without support from Congress. Why is this man allowed to get away with such thuggish behavior?
6
I am disturbed at how Mr. Douthat, like the Republican Party, expresses no concern for the millions of people who are facing disruption, loss, and true hardship due to the government shut down. The whole calculation seems to be “Democrats care about the well being and lives of US citizens, and they will eventually yield to our demands in order to get relief for them. We do not care, and so can wait the Democrats out (DJT has threatened months of shut down if he doesn’t get the money he seeks)”. The GOP does this over and over, inflicting pain and hardship on citizens; throwing wrenches into important programs and research; and wasting money; all to force unwanted policies on the American public. Yet Mr. Douthat only regrets that DJT was blunt and deceitful in his speech, not smooth and persuasive. The GOP has no regard at all for the country or the Constitution. It is fitting that a vulgar, incompetent, spiteful megalomaniac is now their feared and obeyed leader.
3
Although Trump's speech is a speech of an uncouth foul-mouthed boor, he must be given credit for one of its aspects: he is only one of the two or three elected presidents since the 1950s who spoke without a regional or ethnic accent.
May the Greater New Yorkers forgive my not liking their accent ...
Ross Douthat is doing his usual rationalizing and minimizing of Trump’s colossal incompetence. All well and good. In the meantime, Putin, who invaded and seized Crimea, has closed the Kerch Strait, choked off Ukraine’s access to the Sea of Azov, injured and taken Ukrainian sailor’s captive, massed troops and materiel on the Ukrainian border, and Ukrainian President Poroshenko has requested assistance from NATO (of which we are a member). And what is Trump doing? Announcing that Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan was justified and shutting down the US government. If I were Putin, I would take full notice that the United States is in serious trouble and go ahead with the invasion of Ukraine.
2
Hmmm.... Which was a more convincing television appearance: Clint Eastwood's conversation with a chair in 2012 or Mr. Trump's address to the nation January 8, 2019?
Donald has the same audience share he had two years ago. He's holding on to his ratings. His job, as executive producer, is to put the best spin on his show.
It's not his fault that he lacks the depth and experience of running something as big and complex as the federal government. He's not particularly good at making money or making deals.
So yes. He missed his chance to act presidential. But if you ask Republicans, they think when he stops yelling, he's acting presidential.
Sadly, being presidential is something you are, not something you do.
1
"the Democrats’ core vulnerability — their difficulty figuring out exactly what kind of deportation policies, if any, their base will allow them to support."
There is such a thing as a Democratic Party base? News to me.
I suggest we ask all Trump supporters to take the US citizenship test. If they fail, we deport them. The space they make by their welcome absence can be filled by new citizens who study for and pass the test.
Problem solved.
3
Historically I've considered myself a Dem, though more and more I reject the 'everything is black or white', overly-PC mindset and behaviors of most Dems.
I am completely against the notion of a wall. It's against everything the US should stand for and be about. That said, I can accept some of Trump's particular points on the need for a tougher stance on immigration, and how we define 'refugees', etc.
What I found utterly unbelievable however.... laughable...and which made me turn off the TV... was his actually trying to suggest that the majority of those trying to enter the country via Mexico are .... dangerous criminals? ...responsible for the heroin, meth and opioid epidemics in this country? Talk about fear-mongering.
We have far, far more dangers from the NRA, our own fellow Americans who are white supremacists, home-grown terrorists, anarchists, etc.
When oh when will this nightmare of a presidency end? It's like one very long bad dream.
3
the problem is the negotiation style 45 has developed over the years. It is perfectly appropriate to use an "all or nothing" style in negotiating a real estate contract. There are winners and losers. However, a democracy works only with a more integrative style in which both sides work toward a mutually beneficial end. No winners, no losers. or if you will , all winners. 45 has put himself into a real bind. He needs a wall otherwise he will be the loser. And we all know what he thinks of that idea.
It would be interesting to imagine a counterfactual world where Trump was careful with facts, and where he stylized them in a way that could withstand the obvious errors or falsehoods, and where he was persuasive at reasoned level instead of his base appeals to emotion and existential fears. That's just not going to happen, and that ship has sailed on immigration (and a few other concerns, like climate). Democrats now are feasting on his inability to manage facts and to articulate them persuasively and with a disciplined sense of urgency. And the feast is onto new territory as he becomes ever more desperately locked into his own style and incompetence with facts. Put another way, he's digging is own political grave with his ego and his loose tongue.
1
"...the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
Mr. Douthat, do you honestly believe that the women and their children fleeing drug cartel violence spend 1 milisecond hatching plans to exploit our asylum system before they come? If they did, one would suppose they would know by now that their kids will be detained, they will be detained, and all eventually dumped at a bus station in Brownsville TX at midnight.
You are still nurturing the anti-immigrant conspiracy paranoia of Trump's "base." Most illegal entry is via airports by people with visas, who are smart enough to know that when the visa expires, nobody will notice; those are the ones who disappear into America's heartland. You must know this, yet you swallow Trump's lies and spew them back as truth. With advice on how to make the lies more palatable. For shame.
2
Building a border wall has negative return on investment due to its utter ineffectiveness. But negative ROIs are a common feature of Trump businesses. Throwing money based on ego and emotion, rather than based on sound analyses, is how he has run his many abankrupt businesses in the past. Real estate moguls of New York city knew Trump to be a fluff and an incompetent businessman; it is unfortunate that Trump's base doesn't see it.
So, we have a president who does not govern by sound analyses and principles, but rather as a puppet of conservative talking heads like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. Elected Republicans have no spine to stand up to Trump, so he gets away with his asinine behavior that is hurting the country.
Trump exploited spate of terrorist attacks, especially in Europe, that happened in 2016. My greatest fear is that these attacks may happen again around 2020, organically, or instigated by powers who wish to see Trump elected again.
In the fourth and fifth centuries, the Goths, maligned as barbarians, were said to have been chased toward Rome by other alleged barbarians, the Huns. It was basically a slow-moving assault on Rome that showed Rome, as led, was unsustainable. Rome fell. Migration is meaningful.
Among many of Trump's ugly statements, one of the worst and one that he keeps repeating, is the utterly racist remark that refugees crossing the border harm the employment prospects of blacks and Hispanics. As if all those menial jobs the refugees are willing to take are the exclusive domain of blacks and Hispanics. He thinks these kind of jobs are reserved for them and he is protecting them for blacks and Hispanics since, to him, they are not good for anything else.
5
(One of)The worst part(s) about trump truly is the wasted opportunity.
Ross' analysis seems sound but does not go quite far enough. What I notice is that when Trump railed against immigration in the 2016 campaign he at least had some statistics (higher crime, more attacks), as Ross points out, to ostensibly suggest it was needed, which allowed him to claim his motive was security and not bigotry. But now that those numbers have faded, the fact that he still pushes this plan with the same inflammatory rhetoric reveals what many suspected - it was (and is) bigotry all along. A "supple" president could have adapted his views to current circumstances, but a bigot won't.
5
One unlooked-for upshot of the Trump immigration debacle speech is that we again see Ross attempting both to polish his pro-Trump-and-Republican-political-madness street cred with sly little gems like "fate has given him an immigration crisis..." (No fate has not, Ross. Trump built this 'crisis' from the ground up, and he has controlled every facet of the experience: the desperate crowds camping in freezing rain, the dead children, the international loss of reputation and influence).
Ross uncritically repeats Trumpian hoo-hah like the annual push for immigration increases and the note that Trump would never really be as "restrictionist and hawkish" as the desperate left paints him. No matter that is the essence of his appeal.
So anyhoo, we can be increasingly confident in tossing old Ross on the same heap as David and Maureen: closet extreme Trumpists eager to maintain some impression of sanity or even openness to a variety of political ideas. As if.
Mostly, it is confounding trying to imagine Ross honestly thinks we didn't want the networks to gave to Trump, again, because we so feared hjis rhetorical gifts.
That's not it at all. We wanted them to stand up for themselves, top act like responsible media. To demonstrate that, this time around, we can count on them to be rigorous and fair.
Now we know we cannot. News has become, almost universally, an entertainment industry. With a loaded gun. Journalism is a failed experiment in America.
6
What I saw on TV last night was a campaign speech aimed at Trump's base. It was a bow to Coulter, Limbaugh and Fox News Trump Nation. It had nothing to do with the rest of us, who want the government re-opened and federal workers paid their wages. This president only governs in the interests of a small slice of the electorate and is incapable of serving the entire nation.
He owns the Republican Party and they are going to pay the price in the next election. But if this if this keeps up a credible argument for impeachment can be made and the nation might not be able to wait for 2020.
10
It's odd that no one worries about Islamic terrorists coming across the border from Canada, only Mexico.
12
Is your point that a better president could have done a better job? I'm not sure we needed an entire opinion column to deliver that message...
Also I disagree with this "So what we heard from the president was a play to people deep in the Trumpian bubble"
He seemed to be behaving in a way that does not appeal to his base. If he wanted to appeal to them he would've behaved more like he does in his campaign rallies - full of unhinged malice, to paraphrase Speaker Pelosi.
Instead what we got was a president who tried to be calm and collected, with the appearance of directing his message towards moderates and possibly democrats (appealing about humanitarian issues - not something the gop has been known to care much about in the last decade or so). In my opinion he failed completely because he lost moderates a long time ago and isn't going to get them back at this point, and Democrats are a completely lost cause to him.
The end result then was nothing but another failure in a long string of failures for a failing president. As Kamala Harris tweeted right after his speech ended - "That was unproductive. Time to reopen the government and get back to work for the people"
4
When Trump's writers say there is a "humanitarian" crisis that the Wall will end, what they mean is that an impervious border will convince the huddled masses of Central America that it is impossible to get into the United States without a visa by any route, including asylum claims, so they will stop trying. "Make them stop coming!" is the objective, and the professed concern for the suffering along the way is crocodile tears.
3
@JackCerf
Isn’t that a good thing? To stop illegal immigration so that people get visas properly. All countries do the same.
1
I think Mr. Douthat doesn’t have his pulse on the electorate in general and on Trump supporters in particular. The deadlock over the wall is not about forging a compromise. It’s been apparent to both conservatives and liberals that Mr. Trump’s election is about which group(s) in America wield power. Is it the Democrats’ coalition, fronted now primarily by educated and affluent (White) women, or the primarily White and middle-class Republican (male) voting base? Neither side will back off or compromise because doing so could be perceived as a death blow. Mr. Douthat adheres to the rather pragmatic ideology of the pre-Trump Republican elites. That group thought it had returned to prominence when many of its pet issues (tax cuts, deregulation, conservative Supreme Court nominees) were passed in the first two years of Mr. Trump’s presidency. But the old Republican elite are largely irrelevant to both the majority of Republicans and Democrats. None of the Republican base really care about a physical wall. But the symbolism of the wall, which dictates who is in charge, matters tremendously to both sides.
I don’t know who will win, but it’s an existential fight.
13
@Shiv
A very compelling analysis.
1
I saw no rational reason to watch Mr. Trump's address last night.
I disagree with him on his ideas on immigration and on the concept of spending billions on a expanded border wall so there is absolutely nothing he was going to do or say to persuade me otherwise.
Ross this is not a matter of a lack of rhetorical skill on Mr. Trump's part it is a matter of a complete lack of justice and compassion in his message.
Candidly the most eloquent statement I have heard on the next step congress should take concerning the Trump Presidency was the oft quote one made by Freshman Representative Rashida Tlaib.
Given Mr. Trump's increasingly irrational behavior I am reasonably sure that many members of both houses of congress are thinking Representative Tlaib has it exactly right.
12
Trump's speech boiled down to "immigrants are coming across the border to kill you." The real thing that is killing Americans, and making them suffer needlessly, is the lack of affordable healthcare. Even people with insurance at their jobs have unaffordable deductibles.
Trump promised a healthcare plan the was "better and cheaper than Obamacare." Why doesn't he care about that as much as he cares about his wall?
24
Very good, Ross. An exemplary argument for the wall's irrelevance. There's not crisis that can't be resolved with (a) more immigration/asylum judges, (b) more humanitarian support, and (c) more foreign aid to stabilize the economies and societies from which people are emigrating.
Trump is neither smart nor compassionate. So he wants Wall and gave a terrible speechlet.
11
Asking Trump to make reasoned arguments for his Wall misses the point of why he's there in the first place.
He was elected to attack reasoned argument as the basis for political decisions in our democracy. Reasoned argument compels both sides to accede to fact, to admit evidence, and to concur on the truth concluded logically whether they like it or not. His base wants him to denigrate and dismiss the very idea that it's useful. By reasoned argument, they lose. Reasoned argument compels Republicans from Trump down to the nastiest Trump voter threatening the press at his mob scenes that there are facts, that facts work for us all, and that they are the basis for the system we live by.
Trumpism is nihilism that attacks all of this.
Trump was elected to wreck all that, not to use it. Trump himself is the only argument, the only evidence, and the only conclusion he needs to make his case. Which is why he and his base are a massive problem for the GOP; why he is doing the Republicans far more damage than the Democrats ever could have; why the Democrats should work to keep him in office and not hasten his departure; and why he will surely test the whole system by declaring an emergency.
He'll lose, of course, and he'll kill the GOP doing it. Mr. President, proceed.
11
I love this comment! Yes yes yes! Trump's base is a wrecking ball for the USA, a loud, proud crowd of bullies.
1
From my perspective, the most upsetting crisis at the border is the one Trump created himself and it is a humanitarian crisis, not a national security crisis.
I agree with many of the posters who consider it cheap of Ross Douthat to cast asylum-seekers as cynical exploiters of US resources. That's just so 2016 of him.
10
Actually, their has been an increase in terrorist actions. However, the terrorism has mostly come from gun shootings, anti-semites and the right of the political spectrum. Why doesn't Donald Trump bring up these acts of terrorism, or would that upset his supporters? The label of "terrorists" does not apply to mothers and children fleeing true terrorists.
13
I remember during the campaign that many people who were actually shocked by Trump’s behavior and rhetoric justified supporting him by saying that they didn’t take him literally. I remember Democrats being chastised because they didn’t understand he shouldn’t be taken literally. Trump might have weaseled out of this whole wall thing by letting it just die as typical campaign bluster. I doubt his base, with the possible exception of Anne Coulter, would have cared all that much. The problem seems to be that Trump took himself literally.
128
@Robert Here is what I posted to a Guardian article just after the 2016 election, in dismay that Trump had won.
"The press takes him literally not seriously but his supporters take him seriously not literally."
8
@Robert Exactly. I read several interviews with Trump supporters who said immigrants would be so scared to come here, it would be “as if” we had a wall. It was just a nice fantasy. It really seems like Trump could pivot here and just say the wall symbolizes border security, and then buy a bunch of drones or whatever.
4
Interesting take on the situation through the narrow lens of tactical politics What's curious to me is that the sincerly Christian author, Mr. Douthat, didn't once mention the moral, humanist and religious questions about separating children from parents, punishing the suffering victims, etc., or Christian scripture about welcoming the alien and helping the suffering...or at least not contributing to their suffering.
9
@wts
The Bible also says something about respecting authority and obeying the law.
My experience is that today's Christians are not really Christians. They are -- almost to a person, in my experience-- Blue Meanies.
I largely agree. I tuned in, last night, because I thought it would be funny. Thought DJT would stumble through it and make some laughable gaff. Instead, it was one of his best reading jobs ever (which, I suppose, has a certain humor to it). But, he was BORING! He should fire his speechwriters. That speech was so weak, particularly when you know that even your enemies want a rational, safe border operation. And all you can say is, “Oog want Wall!” A missed opportunity.
38
@Tony Fleming
He left me when he started with the traditional "My fellow Americans...." That would work for every President of my long life, but not for this rascal. To begin with an air of a sense of belonging was too phony for my tastes. This man of an imperial bearing is not one of us.
Who can forget (or forgive) him saying "Russia, if you are listening, send us the 30,000 Hillary emails." That was an offer to but stolen property. would you trust a pawn shop that had a sign in the window that said "Bring us your stolen property"? Where I come from solicitation to receive stolen property is a crime, by the way.
For sure he will declare a national emergency. For sure he will be stopped by the courts. For sure he will tell what we now call his "base", to be polite about them, that he tried to fulfill his campaign promise but the Democrats and the liberal courts stopped him.
He has blamed others for everything, but he sits at the very desk where Pres. Truman had a plaque that read "the buck stops here". The new sign should be the buck passing starts here.
8
@Tony Fleming- Initially I thought Stephen Miller was behind the speech Trump gave last night. Now I'm hearing it was written by Bill Shine, the current Trump communication official. (Shine is noted for being the former Fox News executive who was pushed out over his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network.) No matter who wrote it, it was a load of malarkey. A political and TV ratings fail.
6
We should build a wall--around the White House.
13
The charade many watched last night reaffirms that Trump remains in campaign mode, and hasn't actually governed once since being elected president; however, what benefited him three years ago, is also now an albatross around his neck. While promising himself as the cultural and economic savior to many white Americans economically and socially disenfranchised by globalization was facile, actually being that isn't really in concert with Trump's character.
One could easily write a twenty to thirty page essay on what a border wall with Mexico symbolizes what the American experience has been about since Reagan. One can't adequately summarize it briefly here.
6
Well put Mr Douthat!
2
... and at the other end of
the spectrum those who
- underpay the ones who overstay,
- use every available loophole to evade or avoid taxes or
to launder money, to the detriment of society and democracy,
- who continue to benefit from unfair trade & foreign policies
to the detriment of countless countries in- & outside latin america
- ...
border walls don't work as problem solvers.
they just postpone solutions of the issues behind them.
2
This is the difference between then and now: Everyone knew Candidate Trump couldn't deliver on his promises, because they were so impossibly vague to begin with. He refused to offer any serious, concrete (or steel), comprehensive proposals for what he wanted, and still won't do so. His idea of policy is: "Believe me. I can tell you. Mark my words." Mr. Trump, you don't get billions of Americans' tax dollars to subsidize your empty campaign rhetoric.
7
We wanted Central America to be a place where American businessmen could make money and where the Southern myth of white supremacy would not be disproven. We got what we wanted, including a supply of cheap and docile labor. Now we are getting more cheap labor than we can use.
We also have a drug problem, and have insisted on dealing with it in ways that did not work while pretending that they were working and would work if we only tried harder. The unaddressed (in a realistic and workable way) drug problem had worse effects on the countries south of us than it did on us; we got overdoses and crime, while they got violence, corruption, and the breakdown of society.
7
The Democrats rebuttal seems confirmation, immigration is not a big problem. The long status quo seems acceptable, next.
3
HE used his calm, serious voice. Very persuasive.
3
There were 1,248,185 violent crimes in 2016 with 1,199,310 in 2015. In 1990, there were 1,820,127. I fail to see a spike in 2016 unless you consider 4% to be a "spike" and I can only imagine what the stats looked like in the 1980s. It took me about two seconds to look up these stats in the World Almanac and Book of Facts. You are not entitled to your own facts, Mr. Douthat, and a modicum of research is always appreciated, thanks very much.
6
A demagogue in 2016 to get elected and now a narrow minded president unwilling to learn facts or real solutions but instead uses bumper sticker slogans as a substitute for intelligent ,informed problem solving. Trump confuses our allies and tries to run the country as a dictator not accepting he lost the House in 2018 based on immigration rantings , he lost elections have consequences. McConnell the cowardly hypocrite may wish to retire in 2020 like Ryan did as he does not want to end his career as minority loser.
5
Really smart analysis, except that the speech you suggested Trump could have made was not a realistic alternative for a President whose moral compass points only at Trump himself
4
Immigration isn't a problem in this country of immigrants, it never has been. Immigration is a problem for old white people who fear that the nation will not always be dominated by white people. It's pure racism - they don't want more brown people for political power reasons.
We're fighting the civil war again on new territory. It's not complicated.
11
"But the problem for Trump is that presidents have to deal with changing circumstances and cope with unexpected crises, not just fulminate in the same style regardless of the context. " This assumes a capacity to change, lead, and be smart. Trump is none of those things. At this point everyone, including the Republican establishment, knows this. So, the ball is in the Republican reps and senator's court. At some point the will feel the pain and, If we are lucky, they will vote to reopen the government and get serious about invigoration reform, not just using it to scare people into voting for them.
2
Please, build the wall. We need the wall.
Well, actually I need the wall because I've planned my retirement on moving to Mexico and selling 35' extension ladders.
13
Has anyone bothered to point out that it's really not that difficult to cut through steel using commonly available tools?
5
America has a long way to come and unfortunately it is ever more obvious that you leadership are not all honourable men.
Here in Canada most of us understand that open borders define stability and safety and it only our total economic dependency that stops us from escaping the paranoia and fear consuming your nation.
My comments on populism are all to often met with disdain and populism and democracy are considered much the same thing even as William Jennings Bryan defined American populism whose first commandment was a repudiation of the elite.
Bryan's coalition of socialists and religious fundamentalism shows how the fundamentalists were co-opted by the elite in their war against democracy which in today's interesting times needs all Americans working together to find 21st century democratic solutions.
America needs to pick up its dictionary and discover it is the middle-class who are the elite and the deep state and it is the middle class that made America the greatest nation that ever was. It is America's middle class that understands walls are economic suicide.
8
@Montreal Moe And in Canada you have stricter rules as to who gains entry into your country. How would you like several thousand illiterate people with several children and no discernable skillset? Thought so.
Things have changed for this administration on this issue because we have seen the images of children being ripped from their mothers. Children held in cages on cement floors . Unlike the current administration most people are not on board to further abuse people escaping unbearable hardship.
10
"My proposed wall, really an expansion of steel fencing, would build on this success, he could have said, and build on policies that Democrats once voted for, in order to make sure the old rates of illegal immigration don’t come back."
Really? What are these policies Democrats once voted for with regard to the "wall"??? Never happened.
1
@Sam D
Obama and the Democrats used to talk all the time about preventing illegal immigration. Then they started pandering to La Razza and pro-immigration extremists.
I didn’t understand critics who didn’t want the networks to air Trump’s speech. He’s his own worst enemy with all but his committed base which is no help with addresses to the entire nation. I’m happy the networks aired his speech so couldn’t complain that they treated him “so unfairly”.
His speech is what I expected: he started out gingerly enough with talk of a humanitarian crisis, but the rhetoric of Stephen Miller couldn’t be dressed up. His speech descended into a horror show of rapes, murders, beheadings, and general mayhem commted by terrorists, thugs and MS-13 gang members. He was thoroughly unconvincing.
The nation at large needed to see what an unfit and irresponsible person they have put into office. Only by experiencing him and those who serve with him will the citizens of this country be able to move on and start to repair the damage done in 2016.
7
@Jazz Paw
There were a few reasons to deny DJT air time for his speech. Everyone knew it would be full of misinformation and lies; and the networks struggled with how to counteract the use of free airtime for blatant propaganda and political campaigning. This fear was realized, as DJT’s was indeed filled with lies and half truths, that reporters struggled to debunk in real time. DJT’s re-election campaign sent out e-mails before and after the speech urging contributions to the “Official Secure The Border Fund”; otherwise known as the DJT re-election campaign. Then there was the hypocrisy of the same networks who refused to give air time to Barack Obama to give a speech on the same topic of immigration in 2014, on the grounds that it was “overtly political”. So, yes, there were good reasons to deny air time. As it turned out, though, giving DJT the exposure and allowing him to flop on his own was the better choice to make.
2
As with any convincing confabulator he actually believes that what he says is true, despite strong evidence to the contrary. Perhaps that's worse than lying.
5
It's difficult not to read Ross Douthat's piece here as some form of communications primer for the Trump administration. An alternative playbook if you will for turning hallucinatory policy ideas into a more palatable reality. Are there ways to couch Orwellian disinformation a bit more effectively? Absolutely, but how far do we need to go to in order to understand the opposing point of view?
At what point do we simply name the administration's immigration policies what they truly are: dark fantasies that stretch reality into an absurd and grotesque farce.
8
"[In fairness to Trump], the immigration bludgeon was effective once — for two reasons that played out in surprising ways across the 2016 campaign. "
In-all-fairness? The term hardly fits. Giving kudos for the skill of using racist fear-mongering rhetoric successfully, isn't something to admire.
8
So are Conservatives who sincerely care about the future of the United States and the principles of our Constitutional government going to put pressure on the Republican Congressional cowards to stand up for the American people? And if so, when?
10
Trump is not trying to govern. He is trying to start a civil war. It is his only way out of being prosecuted for all of the crimes he confesses to on TV.
Trump's father was a leader in the Klu Klux Klan, and if Trump is not a racist, he does a really good imitation of one, repeating the memes and conspiracy theories of right-wing terrorists so that they know he is on their side.
For example, on the very day that two of his allies were convicted of crimes (with his personal fixer flipping on him) he retweeted a white supremacist conspiracy lie that blacks were killing white farmers for their land in South Africa.
Trump has no real legal team, just a PR team claiming that "truth is not truth," and no legal defense, except "flipping should be almost illegal."
Everything Trump does is designed to increase the loyalty, anger, and violence of his white supremacist base which apparently includes the 90% of the Republican Party that still supports him.
At least two mass murders were committed by white supremacists with Maga hats.
The global billionaires, including Trump, his backers the Mercers who fund Breitbart and Bannon, are attacking our Constitution by allying themselves with right wing terrorists who murder more Americans than international terrorists.
This is not about making a bad argument for a wall, Douthat. This about trying to start a second Civil War, because they want to Make America a Colony Again, with Trump as king and billionaires as Lords.
6
Wasn't this the same, killers and rapists fear-mongering speech he gave when he announced his candidacy?? Just no escalator this time. I didn't buy it then, nor do I now.
Also, why was his face out of focus?? Tie was sharp, but face out of focus. It almost looked as if he was recorded against a green screen. Intentional to cover wrinkles? Or camera man messing with him?
3
sounded as convincing a hostage tape. were Coulter, Limbaugh, & Hannity just off screen threatening him with their twitter devices?
4
We are all chumps. He has no intention of negotiating or of paying attention to data that would guide responsible decision making. Last night (and everyday) we gave the man free airtime to plump up his base’s enthusiasm for his re-election. He spent nothing and got priceless advertising. We need to stop giving him oxygen.
6
It is true that Trump tells only part of the message. We do need to stop illegal immigration so that we can provide a secure safety net for our own citizens which includes universal health care. (It may be that the reason we cannot afford universal health care is that the US population has grown by 86 million people, mostly due to immigration, since the last Immigration Reform Act was passed in 1986, then promptly flouted.)
The other side is that Americans are unaware of the suffering that occurs in the third world. The population of Guatemala has exploded from about 4 million in 1950 to 17 million now. Liberals are innumerate when they imagine that open borders is a solution. Not only does Guatemala contain 17 million poor, but there is also El Salvador, Belize, Honduras and other countries south, as well as Bangladesh and Yemen for example. Trying to solve poverty in the third world by immigration to the US is like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.
The only way to stop population growth in the third world is through family planning and access to abortions, which conservatives oppose. So both sides are partly wrong.
Ross Douthat combines the worst of both worlds. He fails to recognize that concern about population growth is not inchoate ramblings, but was pointed out by Sir Thomas Malthus in 1798 and again by Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 book, the Population Bomb.
Overpopulation is the reason for hundreds of millions of premature deaths in the third world.
2
There’s a huge assumption in your premise that “...we cannot afford universal health care.”
I hope others have commented on this:
"in which the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior." this is plain wrong. People are not exploiting the system but are seeking refuge from persecution. When they surrender at the border, they are given a credible fear interview, and if they are found to have a reasonable probability of succeeding in their claim, they are given a chance for bond or kept in detention until they can have their day in immigration court as per law of the land. Instead of a wall, we should fund the immigration courts with more judges and clerks and if their persecution claims are meritless they will be removed. Fund the immigration courts, fund the lawyers who represent the asylum seekers and I imagine we will save billions and have a fairer system.
The wall is a phony baloney publicity stunt grown out of a mnemonic for pea brain trump to remember something.
4
Trump knows without his base to keep the GOP in line they would turn on him. If they turn on him he is doomed politically.
If he is doomed politically he loses in 2020 he may very well go to jail.
It's that simple.
4
You're really not listening to the president, are you? He could have made any number of various arguments that might make sense - BUT: He wants to build a huge wall!! Not a fence, not "increased border security", not sensors or additional personnel. He wants a wall. It's almost comical at this point to see republicans spin round and round tying to tell us what the president means or how the wall is just a proxy for some other thing. It's a wall. The president wants a wall. That's the entire argument. Now, let's make sure he doesn't get one.
5
"...hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system..."? That's unworthy of you, Mr. Douthat. When I look at those seeking asylum, I do not see a collection of shrewd-eyed lawyers hunting statutory loop-holes. I see desperate people fleeing terrible circumstances. Do they not deserve our sympathy and grace?
297
And to see him sitting at the Resolute Desk spewing his filthy, racist agenda, like it's the 1950s. Shameful. The man is a disgrace to the office. The most pressing national emergency that I can see is this fraud of a President who continues to use misdirection while dismantling our government a piece at a time.
50
@Liam Otten- To be sure, there are some seeking asylum who meet our legal standards for granting it.There also some who do not. What they deserve from us is the opportunity to be heard in a timely manner. As long as Trump continues to villify these people, we will never get the funding we need to provide adequate courts to hear their claims
33
thanks for calling out that line.
15
I wanted to comment on this: "crisis of families and children, in which the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
I just spent a few days volunteering in El Paso with an organization serving asylum-seekers, mostly families, and it is nonsense to portray them as cleverly trying to exploit the system and then "disappear" into the "interior" of the US. The people I met were truly in search of a better life for their kids and were truly hopeful - in other words, they were true believers in the promise of America. Save the cynicism for the Republican party.
12
@elizabeth
Yes. They want a better life by evading our immigration laws and disappearing into the interior. It’s the same thing.
Trump might be a lot more convincing if he and his businesses weren't constantly applying for more H1B visas for employees to wait on tables, groom golf courses and clean at his golf resorts. How hard would it really be to train local workers to do these jobs? And if he really cares about American industry, maybe he could get his wife to buy some American designed clothes and have his MAGA hats made in America instead of China.
10
Ross - you said he was squinting. Well, he sure was doing something peculiar. His right eye was almost closed most of the time. What's wrong with him? Also, his general demeanor was so untrumpian I wondered what pill he had taken before sitting down to read. Very strange.
The rest was very predicable. Thankfully, it was blissfully short.
Has anyone ever seen him comforting "all" the families who have lost a family member to immigrant violence? We all know that would be a BIG photo op if it actually happened.
3
'The President is speaking!', from my 95 year-old aunt in CT. and I would sweep off my bed with the comforter to turn on the T.V. It was another era, a decade ago, when fortunate to be in possession of the above, I would turn it on and listen. Nevermore. Not with poor Trump, unhealthy viewing and possibly the cause of brainwashing.
'The Nation is planning a show of solidarity, in not submitting a tax form this year'. This is 'propaganda', when promises are broken, the government policy is unclear, and the judicial system is out for the verdict.
The Ides of March are nearing, Marc Antony was left deserted by Cleopatra, and there are children dying at our Border. Remember the symbolism of 'The Caravan', Mr. Douthat, which was mentioned on the advent of Christmas. If looking for profundity you may find it in the timeless 'Au Hazard, Balthazar', the fate of a donkey, surrounded by sheep, after WWII.
Immigration laws are far stricter since 2000 apparently. There is a lottery for Green Cards per Nation. A colleague in the humanitarian community might pay you a visit on retirement, after tried and proven duty and valor, with documentation, fine combed and meticulously reviewed.
The Humanitarians, some have come out of retirement, are at Our Border now, leaving some of us feeling like Heathens, waiting for the ball to drop, while consuming another round of organic pie.
Keep breathing, Mr. Douthat, we have miles to go, but we will prevail. Pax.
1
The reason I wanted the networks to rebuff Trumps call for airtime, was not that I thought he'd miraculously turn into a Shakespearian like actor and seduce us with his worls. Lol.
Dont be silly Mr. Douthat.
It was because he gets too much airtime now...most of it over his vacuous tweets. Plus this waste of time was no more then him campaigning for a small number of his die hard base. "See I tried, but those nasty Dems..."
He wasnt talking to me, or most Americans who are sick of his lies and fear mongering.
He brought nothing. Said nothing. And did nothing but gin up news outlets for another 24 hour news cycle.
16
Thanks Ross. I really enjoy supposedly thoughtful people telling me that this wall thing with trump is like real policy created by a competent president and his competent staff dealing with a national crisis instead of what it really is. An incompetent, shallow child man who wants a shiny new toy. A narcissist, racist and misogynist man whose toes curl in disgust at the thought of losing to "Nancy" as he so patronizingly enjoys calling her. The only concern he has for workers living from paycheck to paycheck and now without one is how their discomfort might effect him politically. That's it.
Maybe you find it comforting to believe otherwise but it's time to grind yourself up some fresh brew and take a big whiff.
12
This article is so boorish. All it is is the continued attempt to find fault with a President who is arguably the most media hated President in history. Briefly, all the writer does is regurgitate the foolish attacks we who support more security have continued to reject. Nothing’s changed. The mandate was to build the walL. Just because the writer suggests his own plan (as if the President would follow it, we’re supposed to believe he’d get applause from the NYT) does not make this unelected newspaper guy correct. Anyone can throw passes into the end zone from their chair. Put on the mantle of that office. Take the daily barrage of hatred excused recently because we all know it’s common for elected people to title a sitting President as an MF. Find another job. This article was penned way before our President spoke. He could have said that the wall was going to be built by China and the NYT would have claimed it was a racist shot at Mexico. You people just don’t get it. We are not confused or befuddled or uneducated or fools. We are patriots who follow the laws and expect others to do the same. Period. “Build it, and they WON’T come.”
@Austin
Aside from all the logical reasons (cost, engineering, property rights), the wall could never be built as he promised, by whom he promised, daylight should have dawned on his true-believers well before this that he was preaching to his chorus.
The NYTs merely did their job, pointing out the fallacies and fabrications of a con man, a snake oil salesman and a 3 card monty dealer.
Cold, hard and clearly to anyone with an open mind to listen and logic to connect the statements.
The Times did have an advantage, having seen his act up close & personal for the last 50 years in NYC. They (and most of the Electorate) knew his game beforehand and tried to warn others, but, well, the Electoral College got in the way.
There was no hit job by the media, merely pointing out to all that "Yes, this is what he said" (as stupid as it may sound) and to anyone not listening at the time "This is really out-there and why".
3
Trump may have won they electoral college but he absolutely and most certainly does not have any kind of mandate for a taxpayer funded wall on the border. It’s not what he promised during the 2016 campaign and he did not receive even close to a majority of the popular vote.
4
@Austin, with all due respect, a mandate in political terms usually refers to support for policy proposals of a candidate who wins election by an overwhelming margin which shows proof of the majority’s approval. Trump’s losing the popular vote by over 3M votes does NOT a mandate make. Also, the “mandate” was to build the wall with Mexico’s money, not billions of dollars taken out of the pockets of hard-working US taxpayers. Finally, I agree wholeheartedly with your last statement that true patriots “follow the laws and expect others to do the same.” I just hope supporters of the president will stand by those words if/when Trump is found to have broken the law and is called to account for his misdeeds. As a fellow law-abiding patriot, I pray they do.
4
In the meantime...with the highest number of illegals coming through airports and the TSA people are calling in sick...we are pretty much opening the door to REAL criminals/terrorists.
Kick 'em when they're down!
10
Maybe not a waste of breath for Trump. According to reports, his address was accompanied by fundraising emails to his supporters urging them to donate money for border security. The fine print in the emails advised that the donations would go into his election campaign fund.
9
another technique of T University? bait & switch - run with the money before you're caught
Mr. Douthat, as a southern liberal (meaning I try to keep an open mind with my GOP family and neighbors out of self-preservation), I appreciate that the NYT publishes voices from the Right, even when you’re woefully wrong like in today’s column.
Other commentators here have pointed out your factual mistakes and misrepresentations, and only you can say if you were honestly mistaken or if in fact you intended to mislead your readers. What upset me the most was your casual description of desperate families attempting to immigrate legally as “hoping to EXPLOIT our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior.” (emphasis mine)
The soulless cynicism and blithe bigotry of this statement is astonishing. It sums up perfectly why many of us on the left have zero tolerance with conservatives who are maliciously indifferent to the suffering of these families and dismissive of the very real persecution and often violence that these poor people are desperately trying to escape.
Clearly, today’s GOP and many of its policy and opinion leaders no longer believe America is Reagan’s shining city on a hill; instead, you’ve become the jeering sycophants to Trump’s bully in the sandbox who refuses to share his toys with other less fortunate kids.
As for the “Christian” Right, they no longer ask themselves “What would Jesus do?” but “What would Donald, Sean, Rush, Ann and Stephen (Miller) do?” As Trump would say, Sad!!
16
"...the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior". That's a really dark view of the motivations of most of the desperately poor people turning up at our border with Mexico. What ever happened to yearning for a better life for themselves and their children?
8
@Gramercy - Talking about courage, gathering up your belongings and children and making the long journey on foot ... wow! More courage than I'll ever have.
5
It doesn't matter to Republicans that Trump lies as easily as he breathes. It doesn't matter that he strung together unrelated stats to make his case, that illegal border crossings are way down, that heroin is not coming in backpacks, that there are zero terrorists crossing the Mexican border or that the illegal who shot the California policeman has been here for years.
He and his supporters eschew facts. They like perceived toughness and cultish beliefs.
A better question for Douthat to ask is: why Senate Republicans won't allow the measure they passed in December to keep government open--before Trump listened to conservative crazies like Hannity--to come up for a vote again.
7
Trump proved two things last nite. He can read just fine. His message on immigration is consistent. FEAR!
3
It's not only the issue that's a loser, but the mechanism of an oval office speech was a big mistake. This type of address to the nation works when the President is about to actually do something significant and different. It shouldn't be used by a President to express his weakness and frustration with the other Party. Very sad.
10
Trump's tactics: See some examples below ...
Hold hundreds of thousands of innocents hostage
Isolate children from their families
Endorse and promote violence against "others" including the free press
Threaten national emergency to achieve unwarranted goals
Destroy public monuments like our national parks
Propose invading other countries to achieve unsanctioned activities
ISIS tactics: See some examples above ...
4
Pelosi and Schumer did not do a good job responding.They should have countered each of Trumps points. Instead they declaimed generalities.
-No real crisis except that created by Trumps orders.
-humanitarian problem created by chaotic orders
-international and US law dictates giving asylum seekers asylum while their claims are being processed.
- no evidence of many terrorists, drugs, disease coming with people walking to this border.
-discuss spending money on expediting processing of people arriving at border and not subjecting them to inhuman conditions.
2
@LB I doubt they were given a copy of Trump's speech beforehand. How could they prepare a rebuttal without knowing what to rebut?
5
@William Menke
Immigration as a solution to supposed funding problems of
Social Security and other entitelments is a giant Ponze scheme -- the mother of all Ponzi schemes.
Some day, all those supposedly hardworking immigrants supposedly contributing to Social Security will themselves be demanding Social Security benefits, creating a supposed need for still more immigrants -- on and on, in an ever escalating number.
And that day will come much sooner than 40 years.
It only takes 10 years to qualify for Medicare,
and only 5 years for older legal immigrants
(e.g. parents with green cards "sponsored" by younger immigrants).
And the children of immigrants qualify immediately for schooling at public expense -- a massively expensive drain on state and local government finances.
A better solution than more immigrants
is to raise the retirement age.
The supposed funding crisis in Social Security and other entitlements is due to increased longevity --
thanks to advances in medicine and public health.
People used to retire at 65 -- after working 40 years --
and live an 5 or 10 years in retirement -- to age 70 or 75.
Now they are living to age 80 or 85 -- a 10 or 15 year increase --
but still retiring at age 65 --
or even 55 in the case of many public employees.
At least some of that 10 or 15 year increase ought to be devoted to working longer before retiring.
Working 5 or 6 years of that 10 or 15 year longevity increase would be perfectly reasonable.
1
@sam finn Better solution is to remove the income cap on Social Security taxes. That would eliminate the problem of funding.
7
Enough of the fantasy
Got a leader in DC
NO TRUMP NO PENCE
NO MCCONNELL
people who reach across to make deals
This is not the sleazy side of the nyc real estate market this grifter is used to playing in
This is our country
Send the in over his head clown home
9
“...the system can adjudicate, process and deport without last year’s performative cruelty.” Mr. Douthout misses a key element here. In The sick Trumpian world view, the cruelty is the point. He & his minions take delight at every dark-skinned individual (or white liberal “traitor” ) who is humiliated or who is the victim of violence at the hands of law enforcement, the national security state, or vigilantes.
6
That bludgeon you dismiss is still carried by the just under forty percent of Americans who continue to believe DT should be crowned king. His sickness is also a sickness of his sycophants.
7
Fraud, deception, dishonesty, deflection, coercion, childish emotion, and fear - lots and lots of fear. This has been Trump's M.O. for his entire life and yet there are lots of people still willing to buy into all of this nonsense - just like the pathetic idiots who signed up for "Trump University."
5
Trump is like a bad version of Wizard of Oz. He is the threatening man behind the curtain, but he also is a less charming creature without a brain and without a heart.
5
@Jean
The Wizard of Oz analogy is good, except that Trump is not the man behind the curtain. Trump is the big talking head, full of fire, smoke, fear and fury. All optics, no substance. The man behind the curtain, the one responsible for the upper class/corporate tax cut, is Mitch McConnell.
3
He’s a broken record; a narcissistic, ignorant idiot who can’t even read a Teleprompter speech that is grammatically acceptable (hence, we are sure HE did not write it).
His substance, of course, was the same drivel he has been muttering for years - hate and fear-mongering. How can any decent person support such an evil fool? I guess that explains everything about the Republicans.
6
This nation is in warp speed decline as it apparently sees no problem with letting tens of millions of Third World immigrants, migrants, illegal immigrants enter and stay precisely when our economy will not possibly be able to employ a majority of them. The prime age workforce percentage of employed persons will continue to fall with mass automation which is already under way. My guess is that our elites in both parties overwhelmingly favor perpetual illegal immigration and open borders precisely because it will destroy the welfare state. America is well on the path to becoming Brazil.
@Peter
Tens of millions? I see you get your facts the same way Trump does - by making them up.
5
Maybe it was a bludgeon but he missed his target. The speech was a big nothing. We all shrugged our shoulders, scratched our bellies, and had dinner.
Given that Trumps business employs low skilled immigrants, both documented and undocumented, do you think he really cares about immigration per se? He is just using it to create a sense of violent threat and appeal to racism, xenophobia, and white nationalism. That’s why he can’t conceivably make the more rational case you describe; it is not his purpose.
4
Trump is an amoral, unethical, narcissistic man.
Who could doubt it at this point?
But he is still President. Furthermore, he is supported by at least 20-30% of Americans. Trump is within his prerogative to give a speech for his priorities, and the public within its right to criticize those priorities.
I would suggest a little perspective, to see the forest and not the trees, and a careful alignment of priorities. Whether yesterday was a good day for Trump or not, it does not matter, he would most likely lose next year, and a 'wall' is a meaningless achievement. Trump is not alone, and the forces that put him there will not disappear after he is gone. There will be other enablers that will do a much more better job at branding the same priorities of the failing Trump administration five years from now.
Personally, I am truly more concerned with the cultural degradation of America and the public sphere as a result of Trump narcissism, than with Trump's do-nothing wall. Political norms could take several generations to restore and finish a wall, mostly there, is meaningless.
3
@A
Bravo sir! I applaud your sober assessment of our sorry state of affairs.
@A
Well said.
One challenge will be to keep the 20% to 30% right wing core from continuing their domination of republican policy and its impact on our governance.
A second challenge will be to contain the self described far left progressives from becoming the mirror image of the right.
“[T]he people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior”?
Wow, Ross. So the vast majority of asylum seekers are basically working a con? All those folks walked a thousand miles in order to “exploit” us?
That’s almost as absurd and unjust a view as Trump’s “they’re coming to kill you!” nonsense.
6
@Robert Killheffer
A con you say? Absolutely not. It’s common sense economic thinking and totally predictable. It is the reason billions of Third World migrants, economic migrants, asylum seekers, illegals, immigrants are sure to come in a constant flood until the entire West is Brazil at best, Mexico at worst.
@ "hoping to exploit..."
The rhetorical violence of little phrases like this weaken your argument.
2
"The people who didn’t want television networks to cede a prime-time hour last night...[Trump]...were implicitly giving [him] credit that he does not deserve. There is a kind of...orator who can persuade in any situation...But that is not our president."
People against networks giving Trump airtime did not oppose it because they feared Trump's powers as an orator; they opposed it because it was a political speech that sought Executive and partisan advantage - the reason networks refused Obama airtime to sell his immigration policy in 2014.
Avoiding the "national emergency" pretext of Trump's address, Douthat admits its obvious political motive, writing, "what we heard from the president was a play to his electoral rump."
National Review magazine, to which Douthat contributes, justified giving Trump airtime, asserting that to o otherwise would be partisan because Obama was granted airtime many times. But this avoids the fact that Obama's announcements had to do with bipartisan agreements, or were standard press briefing in nature, such as responding to the Boston marathon bombing.
Douthat knows why people opposed giving Trump airtime. It is dishonest of him to omit those reasons.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/7/18172419/trump-immigration-speech-networks-obama
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/not-broadcasting-trumps-oval-office-address-is-partisan-bias/
4
You are assuming that Trump is actually concerned with border security and the protection of American citizens. Trump has no such concerns or sensibilities. The “wall” is a prop, a device to enable him to retain power and get re-elected. Nothing more. Nothing less. If this were an immediate threat then why are so many Federal agencies understaffed? Why isn’t the military assigned to patrol less fortified areas? Where are the video clips of terrorists invading? The fact is Trump is an incompetent liar! He cannot handle any real crises and can only conjure up fabricated ones. Trump is actually not functioning as a government official. Like Reagan, Trump is “acting the part” of President. Trump is cognitively unable to focus, concentrate, analyze, and follow through on anything. His prime attributes are: defensiveness, recrimination, bating, shaming, and lying. What other executive functions has he shown competence? Every person (outside of rank sycophants) has departed his administration with a degraded opinion of his intelligence and integrity. Trump is incapable of working effectively with others and, inevitably, neither party is benefited. Trump is a supposed billionaire who only recognizes the concerns of other billionaires. He did not earn his money and has no appreciation of that process. Expecting him to have the vision or sensitivity to care for his constituents is frankly, ridiculous. So please stop saying what he could have said. He’s a one trick pony. One term too?
2
Not bludgeon but a quintessentially NOTHING-BURGER! Nothing new but just a replay of his old hits (pun intended) on immigrants. As if his mother, his first and current wives are not immigrants! Only difference is they’re not brown.
But you’re absolutely correct in saying that this is a play for his base, notably his vocal right wing supporters I.e. Coulter, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hannity. This is where AP’s “it takes two to tango” statement is apropos. Let’s not just blame Trump but his enablers and supporters, too!
1
For US Senate and Congress and the Citizens at large ,there is only one national emergency -A thoroughly low grade and lying through his teeth President ,whose words have lost any credibility .
Every moment he ,along with his low class un scrupulous monstrous team such as Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Sarah H and alike in WH ,he is degrading this Nation with the deep divide and long term possibly irreparable damage .
Wake up America . You are supposed to be the beacon of hope for the rest of world ! You have lowered your standards with this mock leadership .
2
Seems like trumphumpers spend lots of time trying to justify supporting the conman.
1
It still works because IT IS TRUE! Come live in SoCal and see for yourself!
I’m sick of the gop tactics. You either give them everything they want or you are an enemy to America. Why do so many republicans want a dictatorship? How can they even agree in any form that taking hostages to to force the legislature to edict laws is acceptable? I agree if this were Obama he would have been impeached by now.
2
Why exactly are Democrats supposed to fund a wall the Republicans would not find for two years. Why is it a crisis now and not before November elections? If Trump will not negotiate for fear of losing his base, why would Democrats lose their base for negotiating with Trump on wall he said Mexico would pay for. I guess we will all have to suffer because Mexico will not pay and Republicans would not allocate funds when they were in some power of the purse.
5
The mystery is this: None of his rhetoric will convince voters on the fence or the ones that oppose his policies. His base may be energized; but he will not add to his base.
He cannot be a constant liar and build credibility. He cannot be a constant fear mongerer and be loved. He cannot be a constant insulter and be endorsed. He cannot be a constant bully and people give the other cheek. He cannot be constantly angry and people will respond in sympathy. He cannot constantly present false analogies and not be trapped by them. And certainly he cannot do this do a wide audience and cross section of America as in this prime time address on all four networks.
I have no TV and watched this on the NYT stream. This was so pathetic and beyond the imaginable. I cannot picture how he sounds in front of his base. I presume I heard the moderate Trump yesterday.
At least this is what I hope. If my hope is not justified then we do not deserve better. Then good night to America. Democrats need to energize everybody else than Trump's base and the effects of this nightmare can be repaired in 2020 - one by one.
3
The only thing Trump is good at communicating is the racist “IACATBTKY” argument, so it's not a problem of "news consumption" but rather a problem of spreading a racist tinged lie that most of the country rejects.
When the GOP finally admits that "facts on the ground" have are such that the majority of the country wants immigration reform, and not an anachronism built along our border, then Trump will finally match up with the real news that most Americans consume.
Silver tongue orators aren't necessary, but simply rather a good dose of truth and reality. If truthful, Trump could have given the worst speech in the world and he would have moved the needle, somewhere. Many people are sick of the lying and are no longer listening.
1
Long, long ago and far, far away there were two groups who, from time to time, talked to each other. One was called "Democrats," the other was called "Republicans." They were warring factions for the most part. But every now and then they grudgingly called a truce, came together, and listened to one another.
On one occasion, barely within memory of us old people, the two warring factions decided to talk about immigration reform. The result was The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. It was supported by leading Democrats and Republicans and the President. It wasn't a perfect solution. But the leaders of both factions thought it was a good start. You can read about it in this ancient history text.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Immigration_Reform_Act_of_2007
This law could have been the basis for real reform. But, alas, those days are gone. Dems and Reps no longer talk. Worse, they no longer listen.
His speech proved exactly one thing: He knows how to read.
2
Object or not, Trump intends to extort a wall at the expense of the American people. Capitulating to Trump echoes with the same rant-and-rage that past dictators have issued in their determined climb to control by total suppression. The Great Wall of Trump serves to stop all resistance to his intent to be the one and only all powerful and unstoppable ruler of our land.
"... exploit the Democrats’ core vulnerability — their difficulty figuring out exactly what kind of deportation policies, if any, their base will allow them to support."
If not for the corporate media's virtual gag order on an honest discussion of illegal immigration, the Republican's vulnerability could also be exposed. Inconvenient questions could be asked; Who (besides Trump) is hiring illegal immigrants? Why are illegal employers (Trump again) not prosecuted?
Trump and the GOP like having illegal immigration as an issue; a political football to kick around. But doing something effective, like mandatory E-Verify and prosecuting illegal employers, would not sit well with the "real" GOP base; donors.
4
If the Republicans were against the Wall, they would call it the “government wall”.
They would say things like, “the American people do not want a government wall cutting across their own property and preventing them from using their own private land as they please."
They would quote the words of angry Texas ranchers who don’t want a government wall interfering with their ability to run cattle or move about their homestead. They would quote the words of land owners who had been forced to give up portions of their land for sections of Bush's government wall.
They would be screaming about how the “government wall” was the first step in the plan by the globalists to corral Americans inside the United States and make them subservient to a New World Order global government
They would compare the “government wall” to the walls around the Warsaw Ghetto and to Hitler’s concentration camps.
They would scream about how America stands for freedom, and a free people should not be locked inside their own nation behind a 30-foot concrete wall topped with concertina wire.
They would rail about how a wall makes the United States look as if it was run a cruel tyrant, as if it were a nation like North Korea or the former Soviet Union that would kill anyone who tried to leave.
The Republicans would do a bang up job of arguing against a wall because they are really good at hysteria.
1
What Douthat completely disregards is that Trump was not merely speaking on behalf of a policy he thinks should be enacted. He undertook the demonstration of an existential threat so severe that it justifies closing the government as the bludgeon needed for getting his way. Since that is so blatantly false, he boxed himself into a corner that no rhetorical improvements could help him escape.
And, Ross? It's "different from," not "different than." 'Than" compares degree; 'from' compares kind.
3
The president's remarks last night were less compelling than a TV pitch for a food processor (and far less compelling than Dan Akroyd's Bassamatic pitch). His rhetoric is only demagogic fear mongering and it is only effective live, whipping up the kind of people who are afraid to begin with - his base. He is a small, failed man leading a great country to a smaller, failing future.
7
I thought this was a very well thought out and important editorial. Thanks. Even if Trump did not make the two pronged case, Republicans in congress could. This is a very good bases for an important debate.
If Trump had made the argument you are suggesting, then we wouldn't have had a government shutdown, since it is the argument that Democrats are already making: we need continued and enhanced border security (not a new wall), and we need to deal with the new challenges of family migration in a serious and humane way. We might have even gone beyond that with a rational president, and included a way for the Dreamers to be given permanent status here and a clear path towards citizenship. But, of course, we don't have a president who seriously thinks about the issues and can adapt to new circumstances.So it's all wishful thinking.
11
A lot of folks, Mr. Douthat included, often slip the shop-worn bogeyman of "mass immigration" into their rhetoric.
I have never met a fellow American who is in favor of "mass immigration" or "open borders," etc.
Instead, America is built on immigration -- we simply must define how that best works.
We know that most illegal immigration occurs when people overstay their visas. Okay, let's track people with visas and expel them if they overstay.
Most illegal drugs arrive at our ports of entry, not over the southern border. Increased surveillance of this smuggling mode is in order.
People who arrive at our borders have the right to apply for asylum. We need a plan to deal efficiently and humanely with these people. I'm confident we can figure that out.
Meanwhile, our foreign policy, built on persuasion, funds and the perennial carrots and sticks, must focus on political and economic reform in the countries that people are fleeing for good reason.
Comprehensive immigration reform that provides rational plans for dealing with these issues is long overdue and must include a fair, rational path to citizenship that recognizes what legal immigrants have had to do to gain citizenship.
The plans and funding for a border wall have yet to be aired. So far, I hear 200 miles of wall for $5.7 billion -- that translates to a decade-long boondoggle for the 1,000 miles remaining at over $30 billion. It's only one man's pipe dream for re-election and escaping prosecution.
14
Unlike many of the commentators who support Trump ,I have lived in California for decades.There is not now and has never been a crisis on our border with Mexico.I do have to confess that my distant relatives were immigrants.....coming from England around 1725.They had no papers but,over the years,managed to contribute to this nation.
However,in California we do have an immigration crisis......a decrease in agricultural workers.For the first time in my life, I have seen "help wanted" signs in front of peach orchards.The farmers here couldn't get all of their crops harvested.It is amazing to me how my Republican friends, who have both employed and lived among Mexican immigrants, are all of a sudden afraid of them. Trump has managed to create fear and anger among them with no basis in fact
There is a healthcare crisis in California.Recent immigrants and economically disadvantaged whites are unable to afford it.Republican governors(Pete Wilson,George Deukmejian) cut community mental health services to the bone.These cuts have come home to roost.... being the main cause of the homeless problem.Having worked in mental health.I can say that at least 60% of the homeless today have a serious mental health problem which predates their being homeless.There is simply no way to care for them.Republican policies have put these people on the streets and now they want to demonize them.
I haven't even mentioned the effects of climate change in this state.Oh wait,,,,it's a Chinese hoax.
22
Well said! Our mental health institutions have been destroyed. It’s been a crises for decades.
7
I disagree with the opinion that two years later the immigration rhetoric has changed and put Trump at a disadvantage. If anything, it has put him at an advantage--nothing like thousands of people marching to the border to get across to Americans the need for a wall. What he did not do, for, alas, intelligence is lost and nonexistent in this brash dogmatic person, is take the opportunity to truly lead on this issue which is only certain to get worse. A true conservative trying to do the right thing would have used that caravan and the ensuing housing of immigrants as a starting point: build a partial wall but not before we have addressed the infrastructure needed to humanely house asylum seekers; to build a rapport with the Mexican government to prevent caravans like this one to gather steam and miles as it moves forward; to invest in the countries most at need of US aid to make their homes better places to live in(yes it will take an historic decades long concerted effort;) to tackle comprehensive immigration reform now, allowing DACA and folks who have lived here 20 or more years amnesty. Simply advocating to build a wall is like having George trying to keep the dragon way knowing that the dragon will not be stopped by this wall--why not coax the dragon to go back where it came from by making its origin a more inviting environment?
...
5
It would require Americans to admit we are causing the problems. Legal Americans who buy drugs are fueling dangerous criminals south of the boarder with around 30,000 murders a year. If you restrict demand it becomes more expensive a yet more reason to become more protective. We have lost the war on drugs.
When we can finally admit we are the cause of much of the problems south of the boarder we can do something. We are the ones creating the crime by legal citizens buying illegal drugs for recreation and self medicating.
5
@A D
Assuming you are a conservative, thanks for your reasoned remarks. While I disagree that "nothing like thousands of people marching to the border to get across to Americans the need for a wall" your deliberations are what I expect from any reasoned political debate; and reasonable people can be persuaded either way.
1
We were treated to Trump the Robot last night as opposed to Trump the Twitter Critter thanks to the news media. They wind him up and have him practice all day so he can deliver the speech the grown ups want him to. I forgot, there are no grownups left. The Democrats fell into the trap though and instead of ignoring Trump like they should have they weren't much better.
Meanwhile this shutdown is creating allot of damage to the American people. It's a trickle down affect with those at the top feeling the worst effects. Sound familiar but in reverse. The Republicans like trickle down economy as proven in their last tax cuts for the rich. I'm assuming they like this shutdown since it has the same awful affect on us, the people.
This will set those in the line of fire back financially for years in some cases and the commerce that depends on them for a living. These are the middle class that the Twitter Critter and his Republican cadre are trying to eliminate. These minions of Trump don't want people to have affordable health care either. They are trying to stomp the last breath out of environmental controls put in by Obama. But why do they care. They think they can buy anything. They are the privileged and nothing can touch them. Wrong. There will always be someone more powerful until there is nobody to care.
1
One of the biggest reasons that immigration rhetoric doesn't work today is because the economy is doing well and unemployment is at all time lows. People aren't scared of losing out on a job to an immigrant if they are secure in their employment and know that they have multiple options to turn to should their current employment situation sour. Sure some people will be swayed by charges of criminals, terrorism, and drugs being rampant among immigrants, but most of the hate was rooted in the unjustified fear that 'immigrants are coming to steal our jobs'.
1
Yeah but the rust belt hasn’t seen the economic growth. They believe the government is lying to them because globalization has put massive downward pressure on job creation and wages. The rust belt is hurting and Trump played the demonizing race card of all petty tyrants before him. It unfortunately works very well.
3
Fate did not hand Trump this humanitarian crisis; Trump did all he could to turn these circumstances into a full-blown humanitarian crisis.
13
That 10 minute infomercial we saw last night was less an address to the nation and more a free (to Trump) campaign kickoff for 2020 aimed squarely at his base which is too dim to understand that a wall is a waste of money when most illegal immigrants arriving since 2016 are here because they were admitted to the US legally and have overstayed their visas, and Senate Republicans who appear to have consigned themselves to the last class of rats scheduled to disembark from the sinking ship of state they have fecklessly enabled.
8
"the dominant images from the current border crisis are pictures of exhausted parents and frightened, incomprehending kids."
And what they are frightened of is us. Go America.
4
Sadly, the majors all gave Trump a free, primetime, unfiltered campaign rally.
I did note a lot of snuffling. (LEH!)
3
Anyone who didn't think that Donald Trump was stuck in some kind of a time-warp had a chance to see it for themselves last night.
Of course anyone who has been paying attention to the racist drivel coming out of his mouth even before he got into the White House knows that his clock is still set to the halcyon days of the 1950s & 60s when white men ruled and Blacks knew "their place.
It wasn't really necessary to tune into his prime time message because his message hasn't actually changed.
7
Trump like at times Reagan before him sounds senile indeed more so in part for the reasons Ross writes. We elect near senile Presidents which shows that the job cannot be as demanding as American myth stipulates.
3
He's at his most disordered when he's either on the road or just back from it. He'll be all over the place at McAllen today - just listen.
Whether at Mar-A-Lago or Bedminster, Our President should pick a bed and stay in it. With nothing on the agenda as sundown approaches. The nation's health depends on this sick old man's staying as lucid as possible.
1
@Lorem Ipsum
I believe that a certain minimal test for competence should be given to people running for high government office. I seriously doubt Trump would pass a citizenship test!!
I think that Mr. Douthat hit the nail pretty squarely here. Meanwhile, we have Trump swinging wildly at the square-headed nail that he set at the foundation of his base 3 years ago. He keeps his message simple so that his base can easily understand, freeing them to have more TV time. The KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid.) of death.
Ross D. is also correct that the Democrats are having a hard time triangulating, and formulating, towards the right message on border control. They do need to show more substance and conviction in their arguments against Humpty Trumpty's Greatest Wall. The American people are learning to sniff out "triangulators", and want less "overproduced" truth from their politicians. Come on 11/2020, you can make it.
1
And this column is a waste of time. The GOP doesn't care and Trump doesn't read.
6
@JL
But that doesn't meant the rest of us don't care and don't read.
1
A "rash of Islamic State-inspired attacks"? Certainly a very minor one, compared to the leprosy of home grown White nationalist attacks during the same period.
5
So the Trump base is frightened and ignorant and he needs to find a new way to exploit that fear and ignorance. My version of your column is a lot shorter.
3
I am a "liberal".I analyze the immigrant problem as one in which we have many who want jobs and are willing to come across illegally. These folks, right or wrong are illegal and we must enforce our laws as written, Then there are the many seeking asylum and present themselves at the accepted ports of entry. Yes they need evaluation as per the laws. Also, we need to be humanitarian and assure families stay together and we must have more efficient ways to speed up the evaluation process. We need to accept those already here since it would be billions of dollars and years to deport them. We must realize that a big part of our economic success in the future depends on a young work force and that this is already 40% immigrants and growing as our population decreases and we become more addicted to drugs.
2
It's not just those "deep in the Trumpian bubble". It is the entire conservative republican party. The cry baby would be long gone if it weren't for conservative republicans such as Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, John Cornyn, Mark Meadows, etc., etc. The duplicity of conservative columnists is remarkable. Trump and the existing republican party are the logical outcome of conservative dogma. When it comes to business, "freedom" means the ability to launder money, conspire with the enemy and deceive voters to achieve your ends. All done while teaching Sunday School and lying to our children.
10
The president's problem is he has no credibility.
In normal times, a normal president making an oval office speech would be powerful - last night, it was just a subdued version of the lies he insists upon repeating.
The president who cried wolf is not going to be able to convince rational Americans there's a crisis.
8
I believe the reason the Republicans block any meaningful immigration solution is that a fight over immigration is useful to them. They need emotional issues to keep their base voting against their own interests. I see immigration as a replacement for issues like abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools that don't work so well anymore for them. Meanwhile they are busy at their real agenda which is to make the rich and powerful more rich and powerful. The rest of us be damned.
16
I have no problem with your making the argument Trump could have walls and fencing and other barriers very much included
"First, Trump could have argued that 15 years of increased spending on border security — walls and fencing and other barriers very much included — has played a big role in reducing the old kind of illegal immigration, in which single young men cross the border looking for work" and "Then, second, he could have explained the new challenge of family migration, admitted to mistakes (I know, imagine that) in the child separation policy of 2018, and emphasized that he’s asking for more money and various legal and administrative changes to ensure that inhumane conditions can be improved, that families can be kept together, that the system can adjudicate..." I may not agree but I can respect discourse and presentation of supporting details in an argument. However, I abhor when you play the blame game. "adapt his tough-guy proposals to this complicated new reality, and in the process to exploit the Democrats’ core vulnerability — their difficulty figuring out exactly what kind of deportation policies, if any, their base will allow them to support."
If Trump should be expected to evolve, then it is fair to allow other individuals or groups to also evolve. Statements like this dismiss differing viewpoints and serve to encourage divisiveness
The reason Trump’s TV rhetoric no longer works is because he has lost all credibility. He is a proven habitual liar, untrustworthy, and unable to protect the citizens of this country with any modicum of intelligence and thoughtfulness.
The truth is that the real national crisis that we have here is Donald Trump himself.
If Mr Douthat had understood this , he would not have needed all the words he used for his op-ed , but then again, he wouldn’t have an article .
4
Maybe they are not hoping to “exploit our asylum system and disappear into the interior with their children”, but are actually hoping to apply for asylum and be treated with compassion and in accordance with US laws.
4
Mr. Douthat, you seem to be advocating for an updated anti-immigrant argument to suit the reality of 2019, because the one for 2016 is no longer viable given the facts.
Are you suggesting we make policy according to the weather?
The larger problem with any given conservative position on immigration is, it always assumes we are at the beginning of a long trend — before it gets “really bad”. It makes the convenient argument for the present; in doing so, it betrays it’s xenophobic, knee-jerk, tribal, primitive, lizard-brain origins.
You said yourself, the underlying features of 2016 did not constitute the beginnings of a trend. Why would it be true in 2019? Are we about to see all of Honduras pack up and camp out at our border? Doubtful. Even the term “wave” implies threatening regularity. It’s not a wave; it’s an instance. It’s why we have asylum laws — so that we can be a moral nation in such instances.
The part that makes me really gag: if these 5,000 asylum seekers (a tiny number, for the record) were, for example, Dutch, you, Ross, would not be writing any article at all.
5
People who stay in this country illegally like those who overstay their visa for whatever reason should be fined for every day that they overstay. This is just like in most countries I've traveled to. In Thailand it's 1,000 baht per day. Don't lock people up and treat them like criminals and then deport them. This costs us money. Fine them. Maybe we'd be able to pay off some of our debt. They don't have money you say? Then lock them up until they can pay. They were probably working here making money. They'll find money from someone, family or friends.
3
I'm a strong liberal voter but I'm fine reducing immigration and generally hostility to immigration if it prevents another right wing president like Trump from coming to power. Gay rights, fighting climate change, fair pay, single payer, etc etc etc - these things affect me directly and my family directly daily. They are too important to risk sacrificing for some stranger 2000 miles away. We now have a right wing Supreme Court locked in for a generation. This was not worth the Democratic Party's immigration/illegal alien platform.
2
The facts on the ground were no different two years ago then they are today. The entire immigrant problem that Trump campaigned on never existed in the first place. The difference today is that fewer people believe the tremendous lies that Trump spews constantly. Oh, he still has his 35%. They will never desert him. They will be more loyal to him than all of his ex wives put together. But there is about 5 to 10% of the voting public that originally fell for it and figured out that they have been conned.
If Trump ever read children's stories to his kids, he might be familiar with the fable of the boy who cried wolf. It's a great teaching fable. One would assume that all of us have it implanted in our brains by osmosis, but we are talking about Trump here. His world consists only of himself, his ego. People like that are incapable of learning anything and Trump demonstrates his incapability each day.
Trump and his Fox News echo chamber keep crying wolf about the impending doom of the brown skinned invaders and the world still is humming along. Hopefully, his cries of false threats last night pushed a few more to come to their senses.
667
@Bruce Rozenblit The Emperor's New Clothes is also a fine teaching fable. Maybe some junior Republican Senator can jump up and shout that Trump has no clothes on.
18
@Bruce Rozenblit
Well-said, @Bruce Rozenblit.
"They will be more loyal to him than all of his ex wives put together." is rich.
9
@Bruce Rozenblit
trump doesn't read
2
Outstanding analysis. One of Douthat's best. As such an insightful thinking conservative, it must trouble him to imagine that many voters likely will conclude that Trump represents the conservative solution to our national issues and will send their votes to someone from the other side of the spectrum in reaction to his record the next time they have a chance to vote.
1
The facts of a global economy, rising inequality, and a changing planet are very complex and multi layered. They require an ability to take the long view, not short term reaction. New ideas need to surface. Courageous smart people are needed.
Trump and the Congress are clearly in over their heads, most are just performers or power junkies (Trump and Mitch) so we use them all as theater, entertainment, sport.
So where do we turn, who can you trust to competently address problems that impact Repubs and Dems the same, even if they don’t know it?
1
Those are persuasive arguments for a revamped immigration policy. Except Donald isn't arguing for a revamped immigration policy. He just wants an edifice that won't affect immigration policy in the slightest.
2
Mr. Douthat states that migrants at the southern border are "hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
Does he really believe that these folks just want to stick it to the US? It is more likely that they just want to be able to build a safe and prosperous life, like most of humankind.
7
Why does Douthat say that asylum seekers "disappear with their kids into the American interior"?; we can look up the attendance rate at asylum hearings, it's not that difficult.
We could have an orderly system where immigrants come in, are issued IDs, we can even fingerprint them, then let them in. They'll find a family member or a sponsor, a safe place to stay.
It's what we did at Ellis Island. All of our grandparents just showed up at the border. Everyone was allowed in. The US economy took off as a result.
683
@PNBlanco
They were not all allowed in, as anyone with a communicable disease or mental deficiency was sent back. There was a need for labor and lots of small farms.
32
Trump and his gang only want Caucasian Western European immigrants to come to the US. All others need not apply. This is not, however, Trump’s private country club and it’s about time Congress, who represents the rest of us, recognizes that in our country of immigrants, there’s no legal language, color or religious barriers to immigration.
What Trump et al are doing at our southern border is inhumane and in opposition to our Constitution.
101
@PNBlanco The world has more than 7 billion people now comparing that to the 1800's is useless. And yes, more than 40 percent disappear and do not attend their hearings. We are at 22 million illegals now. Where do we stop? When LA looks like Mexico?
15
At what point may McConnell be impeached for dereliction of duty? Is it not a high crime and/or misdemeanor to leverage his responsibility to put bills on the floor in favor of what the president will or will not sign? That dangerous precedent need to be stopped with a swift kick.
9
Trump's immigration rhetoric DIDN'T work in 2016. He lost the popular vote by almost 3 million. He still won in the electoral college. So he is president not BECAUSE of his rhetoric but IN SPITE of it. Looked at that way, we shouldn't be surprised it doesn't work.
5
This was more than a bludgeon. As Lawrence O'Donnell said, this was an opportunity for free 2020 campaign fundraising. Trump administration sent two emails to supporters, one before and after the address, requesting donations for the "Official Secure the Border Fund." So a fundraising ploy that we all paid for.
6
Denying the reality of our system based on the electoral college will not help anyone. Overturning it would require a vote from a large number of the same red States that benefit from the current situation. Even worse , we could call for a constitutional convention that would throw out everything and start over. Good bye to the bill of rights, habeas corpus, The separation of powers and so on.
This is the system we have.The challenge is to extend the promise of America into a lot more places.
Ross, this quote from your column "the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior" seems a bit overwrought, and probably not very accurate.
Given a choice, most if not all of the people currently lined up at the border would welcome the chance to be hard-working contributors to society in America, as the stats would suggest most of the Latin American immigrant community in the states are, in fact.
7
Mr. Douthat and the media focus on Trump, his wall, and the shutdown. The last is the only important part of that triplet, but the underlying issue that prompts the “crisis” is well and truly lost.
We have a legitimate border problem because of who is coming and why. Families do not routinely decide to brave a 1000+ mile journey through dangerous territory to seek asylum on a whim. They are pushed by poverty, crime, and violence. The civil strife of Central America is fueling the flood of refugees. The “problem” will not be solved until those issues are addressed.
These are not just problems located in Central America, but our own backyards. We have been waging the wrong war since Nixon was president. Rather than address the issues of drug addiction as a public health problem, we have criminalized it. The economic result has made the price of illegal drugs rise and move off-shore where criminal organizations now benefit from exporting to the US. As they struggle among themselves for primacy, their own neighborhoods have become war zones. The people living there, faced with lethal danger at home, decide to take their chances by going north.
Solutions will not be easy by themselves. Even harder is convincing the heart of America that we really have a humanitarian and public health crisis. Trump is a tired general still fighting the war before the last war. Mr. Douthat would serve us better by talking about those twin crises than rehashing Trump’s rhetoric.
788
@David Potenziani
The problems of South American countries are in a large part the result of America's Monroe Doctrine, and Cold War policies of replacing democratic leaders with despots who would do what America wanted. So a country founded on immigration and one which decimated its indigenous population should have some pity for others in similar positions today.
105
@David
One needs to look a bit deeper than simply “what America wants.” United Fruit and similar corporate entities over many years worked assiduously to prevent the development of any sort of civil society in Central America. Hijacked by local Oligarchs in league with American corporations El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras devolved into rogue states. The drug cartels aren’t any different than the local Oligarchs or the corporations. They’re simply a lot more violent. Is anyone surprised that ordinary people flee such conditions?
116
@David Potenziani
Thank you for this comment. It is correct.
22
While he's no Mark Antony the reference is still apt in understanding the visceral rejection of his agenda by the majority of the country, irrespective of any potential merit it may contain.
Trump's displayed personality thus far embodies the rawness of Brutus and the authoritarianism of Cesar. It's bred understandable distrust and a miasma surrounding his entire administration which, even if he were to shift his oration to a more balanced form, prevents sensible people from giving him a presumption of regularity. And without this presumption he (like anyone else) cannot succeed.
The fault is in himself, not in his stars.
3
If Trump really wanted to run this country like an actual business, on an issue like border security he would solicit studies of the issues, gather real alternatives, and do a cost/benefit analysis based on the facts. But this is Trump, and he never even ran his own businesses in that manner. That's why he oversaw so many bankruptcies. That's why Americans will never see a return on our investment with him in charge.
1157
@KenF
In January 2018, the white house issued an order on immigration that included the following order that the Secretary of Homeland Security "[p]roduce a comprehensive study of the security of the southern border, to be completed within 180 days of this order, that shall include the current state of southern border security, all geophysical and topographical aspects of the southern border, the availability of Federal and State resources necessary to achieve complete operational control of the southern border, and a strategy to obtain and maintain complete operational control of the southern border."
Has anyone ever seen such a report? I suspect if it exists, it doesn't support the president's rhetoric.
174
@KenF
We know how Trump deals with this in his real businesses. He hires undocumented workers and hides them from the government he is supposed to lead.
78
The canard that, for the most part Republican, politicians want to run the government like a business needs to die. As a CPA, I have yet to meet a successful businessperson who chooses to reduce revenue.
98
..."he could have said"..."in order to make sure the old rates of illegal immigration don’t come back"
In other words, Conservatives really want him to keep fighting yesterday's fight, they just needed him to say it better.
Don't get me started on how going back to a system "in which single young men cross the border looking for work" becomes a national emergency requiring troops and rejiggering of the defense budget.
How about moving on to something real? Or using the $5B to send the Statue of Liberty back to France. Conservatives are clearly done with it.
1181
@WJL
And who is employing those single young men? How about we start there instead. Oh right, because that would cut into someone's profit margin if they had to pay higher wages.
106
@WJL
" Conservatives really want him to keep fighting yesterday's fight".
Isn't that what conservatives do, fight yesterdays fight? They certainly don't look forward, that would be progressive.
91
@Pat A developer guy named Trump, that's who's employing them. It's well documented.
89
If I'm a smart terrorist, I come down through Canada. No real border security to speak of - a few checkpoints on interstates that aren't much more stringent than a toll booth.
.
For example, book a fishing junket to the Winnipeg area, come down into the states any number of ways, including unguarded, un-watched roads that exist now.
.
Are we going to build a wall on the entire Canadian border? No? Why not?
5
@mcomfort
The Great Lakes. Any terrorist can jump in a small boat and land in any isolated spot in any northern state from Maine to Minnesota.
2
@mcomfort G
The US and Canada do, in fact, pay close attention to who is crossing the border and when, whether it looks like anyone is watching or not. They're just not as obvious about it as we are at our southern border with Mexico.
@Mike McGuire -- yes, the USA and Canada do pay some attention, but it's entirely ridiculous of you to argue that border security along our northern border is comparable.
I traveled for years through Canada and Alaska, back and forth to the lower-48. I always did so legally, but it is obvious to anyone who can handle a boat, even a canoe, that there are endless easy crossing routes.
Also, pssst ... look at the border between Canada and Alaska.
"Then, second, he could have explained the new challenge of family migration," But who will, or can, explain that to him?
I wish just once one of these so called conservative pundits could write a couple words without "Democrats’ core vulnerability — their difficulty figuring out exactly what kind of deportation policies, if any, their base will allow them to support..." being a part of their screeds.
I remember back in 2013 a bipartisan immigration bill was sent from a Democratic Senate to the republican controlled house and it was promptly disappeared. Whose base won't allow compromise, Douthat?
We the people seem to have become awoke and I don't think that awokeness is going to disappear in the next two years.
Republicans need to learn the art of the deal and relearn the art of democracy.
1
You seem to say that those who didn't want Trump given prime time TV to speak thought he might actually make a convincing case for his demands. But I just thought it was a total waste of time (not to mention a further debasing of the presidential tool kit) to allow him such free access to the public.
4
Somewhere in the White House, "...Great speech, Mr. T , You're the best! Right on target! Spot on! Nobody could have done it better." You got an easy six years coming your way! Putin called to say you hit it out of the ballpark. There's a letter from Kim on your desk with a big heart drawn on it."
7
@carlo1
And 40% of the country totally support every sentence, even if contradicts the sentence before it. 53 GOP senators come to mind.
1
When Trump is against the wall, he plays the victim card. The man is simply using whatever means available to him to prove is narrative, even at the expense of facts or truths. Some people see his behavior as passive aggressive, pointing the blame anywhere else. Watching him twist uncomfortably last nite was sad as he used shop-worn fear mongering. How many times have relatives of gruesome crimes have asked him not to exploit their tragedy, to advance his claims. I think the vast majority of people understand this Willie Horton tactic, which was one of the single biggest regrets of George H Bust legacy, won't work anymore. The blame game is over and so his time. Sad to see the POTUS act this way.
5
Here in Arizona, the immigrants coming to kill us pretty much disappeared when Gov Brewer and Sheriff Arpaio left office.
14
@Rayme Good one! Thanks for the giggle!
2
He cannot "... emphasize(d) that he’s asking for more money and various legal and administrative changes to ensure that inhumane conditions can be improved, that families can be kept together, that the system can adjudicate, process and deport without last year’s performative cruelty." because he is demanding a wall. he cares not a whit about human suffering. Ross, you're back to fantasizing what a caring human being would do. Not relevant.
5
Essentially you are suggesting how Trump could have put some shine on his muddied boots? The entire Administration should wear a uniform with the back printed with the infamous question, " I Don't Really Care. Do You"?
7
@rhdelp
And Trump's base will support that, too. 53 GOP senators are all in!
There is always some falsehood hidden in Douthat columns. Here it is that this kind of speech worked two years ago.
It worked on at most 40% of Americans then, and even fewer now.
When it comes to fear of foreigners, W helped his (and his daddy's friends) the Saudis after 9/11 by implying that the problem was Iraq and Saddam. It was Saudis all along...including Bin Laden and virtually all of his financial supporters.
Trump is taking the misdirection even further. Crime comes from Mexicans. What a joke. Absolutely airtight scientific data show immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than citizens.
If anything, we are lucky our stream of immigrants are from Mexico, and not the Middle East (like Europe).
Let's negotiate with Trump. Offer him financing for his Moscow Trump Tower if he will go live in it for the rest of his life. Let him know he will be subject to arrest if he ever returns.
Eventually he can be buddies with Assange, joined by their mutual hatred of Hillary. In 2030, what will we call Putin, Assange, and Trump at a party? Three Amigos. Both MBS and Assad will be feted as their guests of honor.
5
Will SNL's cold open this week be simply Alec Baldwin reading Trump's speech verbatim? Perhaps with an ever growing Pinocchio nose in the corner?
3
Rules for the Republican commentariat:
1) Gather the facts, discard and replace with this week’s Party Talking Points.
2) Make a mild rebuke of Trump, follow immediately with a strong, lie-based attack on Democrats.
3) Pretend the Republican Party doesn’t own this disaster of a “presidential” administration.
4) Spin a ludicrous alternate reality in which Republicans have effective leaders and have shown an ability to get things, other than tax breaks for the donor class, done in Washington.
5) Repeat.
7
@Renee Margolin
Do not tell Ross how to do his job, and he will not tell you how to do yours.
@Renee Margolin
Why wasn't this a NYT Pic?
Dear Ross,
They made me give that speech. I didn't want to do it but they made me. It is their fault, not mine. They're making me fly down to the border tomorrow and I think it is a waste of time. But, I have to do it. Have to.
Ho about we make a deal? You write me a speech I can give at a rally instead? I love doing those and the people love me back.
Best,
Donald
3
I think most people understand that a physical barrier is a symbol and a political weapon more than an effective and permanent solution to illegal immigration in all the ways it takes place, as even Sarah Huckabee Sanders was forced to admit, by "land, sea and air." The danger of building it would be that nothing else is done while more would overstay visas, enter by seaports or come ashore in open boats. Certainly, the billions spent on building and maintaining the wall would make it less likely that any Congress would appropriate billions more for other interdiction and law enforcement. At this point, it's time to look at the reasons people enter illegally instead of through the immigration system. Number one is, a higher standard of living. They can get jobs here. How? Maybe with former presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the Senate, Republicans and hopefully a few Democrats will look at that part of the problem. If it is against the law to hire undocumented residents, that law needs to be enforced with severe penalties for employers. If documents are being forged and identities stolen, do something about that. Nobody should be above the law.
2
@abigail49 You will be waiting a long time if you ever expect to hear any Democrat support and/or endorse any law, policy, or proposal that would actually make the life of an illegal alien more difficult or God forbid, send them home.
Even if Trump dropped his border Wall idea and said he wanted to focus on internal enforcement of visa overstays Democrats would fight that with everything they have.
Democrats may still claim to be against open borders but in practice they support the concept because they never ever ever want to send anyone back to their own country.
1
The address fits a pattern within the Republican Party. No matter the results of an election, they won't change their tactics or their message, which is the characteristic really of an insurgency or a faction. A rational president and party would have noticed that they lost 40 seats in the midterms on the very losing message that Trump delivered last night and changed its rhetoric and agenda accordingly. But the GOP is no longer a conventional political party that conforms to the norms and traditions of democratic rule. Trump is the party. That Republicans have clung to power this long has exposed alarmingly the weakness of our own commitment to democratic ideals. If Trump were a halfway competent administrator, he'd be a dictator worthy of the Soviet eastern bloc.
2
Trump greatly exaggerated the brutalities happening in the US by illegal immigrants but pretending these tragedies don't happen at all isn't going to cut it either. The one person I felt reassured by last night was Nancy Pelosi. She is the only one I thought offered realistic tools against a real treat. As a Texan married to someone whose mother was a Mexican immigrant, I am aware of truly horrific stories that happen at the border and in Mexico. The ones who need targeting are the cartels and coyotes. For some reason, I am hearing nothing about her suggestions - only neither side offered solutions. This is untrue. She proposed more infrastructure, scanning tech and more manpower. ICE should not be disbanded but used with laser precision against the real criminals that threaten both Mexico and us. A wall proposed as it is would only exacerbate the misery as the cartels and coyotes have resources to get around it the average person does not. We need to bring those guys down - not regular folk applying for asylum or work. Working with Mexico, we may at least stem the tide. To me, these people yelling for the wall want to punish everyday people when the real nightmare needs an elite force with advantaged tools, flexibility and laser focus. In other words, a wall like this is a passive response to a dynamic problem.
7
@Night Well said!
1
@Night
The Times mentions the role of organized crime in illegal immigration in passing, but it's mostly an under-reported story that has considerable bearing on the polices we choose to deal with immigration.
1
Leading up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 relations between the US Colonies and England had been worsening for decades.
As has so often happened during times of extreme duress, a person of stature has risen with leadership qualities far better than average and George Washington led the colonies to freedom from English rule.
The leadership quality of those serving our country today has been slipping for decades and it is again time for someone to rise above the rest and lead us back to greatness again.
This article is the closest Douthat has ever come to criticizing Dangerous Donald. If this apologist for Trump can even mildly criticize our “president,” we’ve come a long way baby.
1
@Mark That's so profoundly untrue it could only have been written by someone who has never even laid eyes on Mr. Douthat's work.
1
What a dreadful column. While not completely abandoning his criticism of Trump, Douthat nevertheless has edged back into the realm of most Republicans, that of using half-truths to camouflage abysmal policy objectives, like a cat working hard in a sandbox.
Douthat has a fiery intellect. He is sharp enough to know that the arguments in favor of the wall, the immigration "crisis," and every aspect of the shutdown are all brazen attempts to manipulate the public to achieve one purpose: Trump is desperately trying declare a win of some kind, no matter how puerile and malevolent. That's it. Nothing more to see here.
Douthat knows what is going on here. I sincerely hope he goes back to writing clear-eyed criticism rather than columns like this apologist drivel.
3
President Trump must control the border as he thinks best. If Congress fails to pay for the tools, there is a crisis that cannot be comprimised easily. Expanding the wall or fencing is necessary to chanel the migrants and border guards into managable border crossing work areas. Democrats don't want to alllow Trump to do his job and have enough manpower left over to expell those who don't belong in the U.S.
1
@Eugene Patrick Devany The great flaw here is that there is no crisis.
Not only has illegal immigration been steadily declining for years, the majority don't even come in through the border.
Moreover, to reduce something as complex as border security to the existence or nonexistence of a wall promotes the excluded middle fallacy: the idea that one must *either* support a wall, *or* deny the importance of secure borders. The truth is, the overwhelming majority of those who oppose the wall still want secure borders; we merely disagree on the efficacy and ethics of certain methods and policies promoted by President Trump regarding how to achieve it. We also disagree with his hysterical promotion of a nonexistent "crisis."
1
@Eugene Patrick Devany
So, you are one of the remaining few who actually believe trump has a "great mind" and knows more about everything than those who devote their lives and intellect to each subject. Trump knows more about military history and strategy than all the generals? Trump knows more about immigration than all those who have devoted their lives to this? Trump did not even seek advice from anyone in his administration. Perhaps you are right - he is so brilliant - a true genius - that he should just fire everyone in any leadership position in the government and make all the decisions based upon his keen and curious intellect. Yes - that must be the answer. Glad I moved from Long Island when i did.
@Eugene Patrick Devany What he thinks is best is ill informed and delusional. So no they don't have to go along with them.
First, President Trump's 10 minute Oval Office spiel was one big lie. Second, Vice-President Pence's support for a wall was another big lie. Third, the Dem's response to Trump's speech was inadequate and confusing. Fourth, nothing material will occur until Special Counsel Mueller's findings are released. Fifth, when they are released, hopefully in the next several months, I think the president will have no choice but to resign. Last, I'm wondering how President Pence will govern given his support of Trump, but he'll only be around until November 2020. Gag!
1
You are missing the real point - WHY these people are coming to the US. That caraven wasn't made up of "young men seeking work"; it was families with young children frigthened out of their minds by the gang violence and political threats in their home countries. Just read any of the reports of people we've deported back there who were quickly tortured and killed.
The way to solve the real humanitarian crisis is to improve the situation in Central America, and to care for the refugees while doing so. Instead, Trump has threatened to withhold aid from those same countries, which will only have the effect of driving more refugees to our borders.
These are not people coming here to "steal our jobs" and "kill us." These are people who love their homes and want to stay there - but can't right now because they face death if they do. Refugee status is not immigration; it's granting them safe harbor until it's safe to return home.
4
As a regular citizen, building a green economy is the best and most urgent need for national security. First things first. A wall is ridiculous in this day facing much more critical environmental problems. A wall is an unnecessary environmental disaster; we don't need to burn fuels and use resources for something that is absurd. The so called President is incapable of understanding any of what is truly relevant. He's totally deluded and incompetent. 800,000 Americans are having there lives turned to living on the edge. I really just needed to write the words that have been written over and over. And still, we wait, how will this end.
2
"The people who didn’t want television networks to cede a prime-time hour last night — or, as it turned out, a prime-time 10 minutes — to the president of the United States were implicitly giving Donald Trump a credit that he does not deserve." No, Mr.Douthat, we were not giving Donald J. Trump any credit for anything. The truth is, he's boring as all get out, can't read a teleprompter decently to save his own life, and spits all over the place as he's slaughtering words larger than five letters and two syllables, and I truly do not want to hear it or see it on my screen. Period. Joined by millions of others Americans in my view on Donald J. Trump and his "speaking" lack of skills. Period.
2
At least it put his rapid mental deterioration front and center. There can be no denying this: Our president is infirm.
1
Compare his whining to the banned Obama speech from 2014 - the difference is vast. Obama gave clear direction, suggestions, details.
1
Donald Trump is the least credible human being in history. Why bother watching? Habitual lying has consequences.
4
No matter what he does or says, the same forty percent will support him. Most of the rest will not. And there is some percentage that just doesn't care. He is wasting his breath. We are wasting our time parsing every speech or tweet.
2
Meanwhile, Hothouse Earth approaches.
The single greatest crisis in human history.
And it's coming much sooner than you think.
1
What about the Black Plague? That was pretty bad.
There IS a crisis of illegal immigration on the southern border. I lived near San Diego for a number of years and there are whole towns of Spanish-speaking people most of whom avail themselves of healthcare, schools, and welfare to name a few of the myriad programs of American largesse. Democrats need to temporarily swallow their hatred for Trump and help out for the good of the country. Then they can address their hatred by trying to beat him at the ballot box in 2020.
So Trump's recycled bigotry and scare tactics -- always based on lies and exaggerations from the first time he rode down his escalator in front of an audience he had to pay to be there -- don't work. Having rallies where you shout 212 times about Mexico paying for a wall, with the back and forth of fervent chants is very different than speaking to a skeptical and disbelieving (and absent) national audience. Who'd a thunk it?
Not mentioned here is the shutdown, now in its 18th day, that is harming 800,000 civil servants more each day. They take lower salaries than they would often in other non-public jobs, have been trashed by years by Republicans, and now are treated as collateral damage. Yet their jobs contribute to an effective government. They are experts and professionals who deserve our gratitude and respect. We do not want them hurt any more than we want the immigrants and their children hurt.
Trump's delicate sensibilities may have been bruised by no one believing his several thousand lies. But real people, real families are being hurt.
End the shutdown. Forget Trump's stupid wall. Pass the Senate's own bill, and even better, pass the 2013 bipartisan immigration bill.
From the moment trump floated down his gold plated escalator in 2015 the guy has been vomiting lies all over the place, every day, nearly every waking hour. Back then there were tens of millions of Americans who believed him, like a puppy loves her master.
Now, 3 years later, incredibly, there are still at least a few 10s of millions of people who refuse to open their eyes and mind to any truths that don't comport with their view of their world - no matter how deceitful their (fake) heroes might be. These are simply lost souls, no different than trump and his enablers - lost souls who have no business leading a kindergarten class, much less our complex and changing nation and world.
If last night's trumpian performance did not convince his base supporters, we have to offer them compassion for their self-inflicted ignorance and lost souls. They're gone.
With the future of our nation, and the well being of all life at stake (climate change, incivility, military conflicts and other serious challenges), along with the very real huge opportunities to build a future for all people and life, trump is the worst choice possible for POTUS.
His clear and present lies are so obvious and pitiful. You have to be deaf, dumb, blind and in a coma to not see this. He and his "advisors" & enablers had to know that ever fact checker would ride every word from his mouth last night. And he simply lied for 9 minutes, assuming his "base" would continue the applause, as I'm sure they did.
1
No doubt the "brilliant" Stephen Miller had a big hand in last night's coma-inducing speech.
1
"It was almost certainly just a waste of breath?" "Almost"?? Come on, Ross! Be brave! Try "It was a waste of breath." Which is already a colossal understatement.
2
At our nation's founding, we had been bringing human beings here against their will for 150 years or more, and selling them like property. That continued for another 75 years after the Constitution was ratified.
Without those humans we call illegal, who will pick our crops, slaughter our cattle, clean and cut our poultry, build our buildings/roads/bridges, manicure our championship golf courses and our pristine gated community lawns, cook our food, wash our dishes, or change the diapers and the beds in hospitals and nursing homes?
Given the general lunacy/illegality of the Trump presidency here's a suggestion for government representatives, maybe even legislators (given the inadequacies of impartial representation...)
1) set up a state-specific straw poll website for every Trump issue, from his business and personal background to his time in the White House
2) invite all and any (legitimate) registered voters to click yes/no, agree/disagree etc.
3) publish results
Result: a sentiment index that reflects what Americans actually think and believe.
Now imagine you have this available every day, real-time, at any time; 245 million (eligible voters as recorded by the Census Bureau) casting their thoughts on key topics.
Conclusion:
Graphic proof on a bunch of stuff that media or government can't alternatively represent.
Contact me for elaboration.
Q.E.D.
“...we would build on this success “
Trump would and could never make this statement. This president is incapable of admitting that anyone who came before him had any success. Instead, he claims, among the litany of other pointlell lies he told, that ‘some’ of his predecessors have said to him that they should have built the wall, thereby admitting that Trump is right.
What is breathtaking about that statement is that he seems not to realize tha it is so easily checked and was. No other president supports the stupid wall ... and it is profoundly stupid. If he absolutely has to spend $5B, let him give each state its $100M share and have them spend it on necessary infrastructure projects in their states. That way he could deliver on another election promise, albeit one not quite as appealing to the Coulters, Ingrahams and Limbaughs of the world.
1
Trump does not want to reduce illegal immigration. He deliberately exploits slave labor for profit at his businesses. The Republican donor class does not want to reduce illegal immigration. The agriculture, construction, and meatpacking industries are addicted to slave labor.
Trump insists on a wall precisely because he knows it is the most ineffective means of curbing illegal immigration: half of those here illegally came here legally and overstayed visas. A wall won’t stop them. And yes, there are shovels, ladders, bolt cutters, boats, and even—gasp!—aeroplanes in Mexico.
The wall is simply an excuse for firing up the white supremacists who voted Trump into office and bashing Democrats as “soft on crime”—all while maintaining the ability of criminals like Trump to profit from illegally exploiting slave labor.
1
My wife cried when Trump became president. I told her, just wait, it won't be as bad as you think.
Wow, was I ever wrong! Until Bush Jr's second term, I was a staunch Republican. Now, I will NEVER vote Republican again, until Trump and McConnell are gone...... and maybe never.
The tRump presidency has been worse than a disaster. I hope and pray that we somehow survive it.
4
Dems can't figure out what they want? How then do you explain the bipartisan 2013 bill that REPUBLICANS refused to take up in the House? It was moderate, it wasn't perfect, it was a good start. It died from opposition by the same right wing extremists that are preventing Trump from negotiating in good faith.
2
I'm not sure it's possible to say "Trump" and "good faith" in the same sentence anymore.
What troubled me about last night was that Pelosi and Schumer did not take the opportunity to show the American people why immigration is necessary to grow the economy. Immigration provides workers in a time of population contraction. Who is going to pay for Social Security as our population ages? Who is going to pay for the opioid crises? Moreover, who is going to provide the labor necessary to fuel business growth?
2
I think you're wrong. Granted, no one believes his terrorism and crime rhetoric, but people do fear the economic costs many poor people bring. It isn't 100 years ago, when standards were much lower in terms of services immigrants, documented or not, receive. And I believe many people won't admit this, as it makes them seem inhumane.
Negotiating in public is a sign of desperation and incompetence, especially when the President abuses the privilege of the Presidency to deliver his lame brained, lie based, sales pitch to the public from the sanctity of the Oval Office. Along with the rest of his lies, he has proven himself to be anything but a master deal maker and more of a two bit gangster running a three fingered extortion racket with the government as his hostage.
Last night, my wife asked me if I was going to watch Trump's address to the nation. I told her that it was probably going to be the same passel of fear-mongering, distortions and lies he's been using all along, and that I could read the transcript and hear his voice in my head.
(Yes, I have an excellent ear for voices. When it comes to Trump, this is a mixed blessing)
I am thoroughly unsurprised that he has once again sunk down to my expectations. After this speech, I'll be surprised if all of the networks run his next one without some form of coercion.
2
This entire topic distracts from the situation that we have a president who has been either beholden to a foreign leader or who is easily manipulated by foreign strong men. Additionally the president has engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, as have his staff and campaign.
Sure we have to give a few moments to the crisis Trump has created with the wall, but please don't let him change the theme.
2
Trump did not change anybody’s mind. He poured old wine in new bottle. This was first prime time speech from Oval Office and it will be noted the worst useless speech in the history. The problem is that he listens too much to FOX TV and right wing talk shows. Being a president, Trump should have better advisers than Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Kellyanne and Bill Shine to make policy for this great nation, only super power in the world.
1
This leftist never favored open borders, but the idea that terrorists are going to flood in is just fear-mongering for the fearful and racist Trumpian base.
You want terrorists? 2017 in Charlottesville, marching with Nazi flags and beating up people of color. American born and bred.
When someone on the Left like me agrees with Ross Douthat, you know the end is near for Trump. How near? I do not know we can endure two more years of his misrule and profligacy with our tax money, but an election is probably the best way to insure a peaceful transition. I fear something too: those Nazis who love what Trump is going to our nation.
3
This president does not have any wish to win over voters, and of course is incapable of adapting to change. He needs his "enemies" to lose, and he wants heads on spikes. Persuading and compromise are effective for governing, but this guy has no interest in that either. To quote Conan The Barbarian, his only desire is "to crush my enemies, and see them driven before me". A cartoon president, for whom a "medieval wall" makes perfect sense. I'm sure he wishes he could have had Schwarzeneggers film career, rather than his current job...
1
And yet he still has 60 million supplicants who follow his words! Mueller, please render him speechless, behind the tall walls of the slammer!
2
The Trump Presidency is treading water in a sea of lies and hatred.
3
Really Ross? You really believe Stephen Miller could write that nuanced a speech? You’re dreaming.
2
It is imperative that a correction be made in your paragraph 4 litany of bad things that supposedly didn't happen since Trump took office. According to the FBI's UCR program, Hate Crimes have surged.
Is anyone surprised?
4
I was surprised and pleased to read in Huffington Post that Smith on Fox did real time fact checking and called out some errors
2
Americans want it both ways. Hire cheap illigal immigrants to pick up fruits and berries and at the same time send them home. The immigrants would never come unless they knew that there was jobs waiting. Why not punish the farmers and the companies who hire illigal immigrants? That would stop the flow of illigals almost immediately and would be cheaper than the stupid wall.
2
Last night, racist uncle Donny told us we are all going to die unless we move into a walled fortress like he saw on Game of Thrones. Unfortunately this is NOT hyperbole. What Americans saw was a TV show they cannot turn off, that they are living not just watching.
3
An impoverished woman in a foreign country bet on her kid's future and set out with them on a difficult journey to a new country. According to your version of our Grandmothers' stories, she sought to disappear like a rat in a sewer. How about you tell her story? Find out what she is fleeing and what she is hoping for and how that doesn't jibe with how you feel about immigration policy? Nah, you just wrote a better speech for Trump.
1
I could take your columns a lot more seriously if you didn’t throw in gratuitous anti Democrat comments to appeal to your “base”.
1
Russia is our enemy, and Mexico is not.
We need a wall around the Trump family, called jail.
7
Diminished return you say!
Sure
2
It was a campaign speech, given by a lame duck President.
2
In Trump's blundering response to a self-created crisis, we are getting a pretty clear picture of just how stupid and self-centred the President is -- regrettably, VERY.
It's always all about him - his wall, his ego, his inability to take advice, his inability to choose good advisors, his pathetic need to double down on his mistakes for fear he might appear weak. Marco Rubio had Trump pegged -- pity the GOP didn't listen to him and Rubio apologized for one of the most insightful observations he's ever made.
Trump is an ineducable weakling, bullying his way through life. The country will pay for it as long as he remains in office. Hopefully, not much longer. When he declares a phony national emergency in a dictatorial abuse of his executive powers, maybe the GOP will agree to impeach him.
1
Maybe, but it still won't be my idea of a Grand Old Party, the way you keep insisting it is.
Tell me what's G about this OP of yours. And be specific.
Yeah, he kind of seemed like Darth Vadder tell us that the Death Star was on the cusp of destroying Remulon, if only the Democrats would vote for the funding. Gosh he gives me a fuzzy feeling, he sure is the Feel Good president, isn't he, aren't we.
1
What a smack down he got from Pelosi and Schumer.
Loved it.
2
“skeptics of mass immigration”
Ha. Douthat came up with a fancy way to say “yahoos”.
1
Did not watch, refused to give this bozo any more time than necessary. However, seeing snippets after the fact were unavoidable given the news reporting afterward. What was the most annoying was the fake empathy suddenly on display for the poor asylum seekers -- suddenly they represent a humanitarian crisis, abused and neglected, and at the same time crooks, scammers, drug addicts, rapists - which is it? That fake attempt at empathy and compassion -- the most disturbing of all.
1
“It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans.”
What in the world is he referring to? He said this in the first 30 seconds followed by a sentence on drugs.
His snipe at people who live in gated communities and who have “walls” around their properties to keep riff raff out is just another one of his insipid confabulated protestations. He lives in a building with doormen who serve as “border agents” for him.
Following his logic the border should be a fence, barrier, wall of doormen.
He has taken a serious issue and morphed it into a mockery. He can’t even take credit for his own televised TelePrompTer reading claiming that he was voicing the ideas of border law enforcers.
The only news from his 8 minute debut in the Oval Office is that he can speak his nonsense in complete sentences when he is beamed out of a TelePrompTer.
8 minutes - the maximum amount of time our so called President can refrain from going off the rails into ad lib and standup comedy.
President Trump - Our 8 minute man!
2
Trump doesn't want a wall. If he really wanted a wall he would have taken the $25 billion offered a year ago in exchange for affirmation of DACA. Instead, he turned down the money so that he could continue to incite his base. Best deal maker ever doesn't want to win. That would require follow-through and management. He does, however, want the ability to stand in front of a horde of admirers and bring them to the point of riot. It is the only way he feels loved.
2
Ross, one cannot agree with all of Trump's pathological obsessing over demanding huge amounts of taxpayer monies to manufacture, install and then maintain vast 700 plus miles of a border wall without also questioning why he holds such singular personal voracity over the installation of a stupid damn wall to keep out horrifically poor Latino peoples fleeing their hideously violent, corrupt homelands.
I believe the real answer is the one Trump won't admit- pure, simple ethnic racism, which connects deeply to his refusal to pay, contribute his and his dynasty's fair share of taxes. Some might say he's bringing us all down about walls to satisfy his base. Perhaps so- a base that also wants a free ride from the IRS.
We are already well aware that as of right now, Trump pays nada, since we have no proof he paid anything at all, sans those tax returns to check out.
My suggestion to Trump is this- you want a five billion dollar wall built?
Pay for it yourself. Might make up for the fifty plus years you've managed to avoid contributing your part. I know I already have, and do.
3
The US has a humanitarian crisis at the border with Central American families seeking asylum and the US is purposely providing too few resources to process refugees in the hopes that they will stop coming.
A wall won't protect the US from those that present at point of entry. A wall won't stop them from coming or keep out the Truck that drive through our big beautiful under staffed entry points that need more people and technology.
We may need a few miles of more wall but what we really need is comprehensive immigration reform and more money for border security.
Nancy is trying to do exactly this.
2
How about the approach that ultimately ended the 2011 debt ceiling crisis? A bipartisan border-security select commission, like the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, charged with drafting comprehensive immigration legislation that would be guaranteed a vote in both houses of Congress. Yes, the debt commission failed (Paul Ryan and others on the commission now regret their role in that). But it would get us beyond the silly "wall" gridlock and put the focus back on what we really need- comprehensive reform.
Donald Trump has hired undocumented immigrants to work at his properties. Those supposed security threats have even attended to the President personally in his private quarters!
Donald Trump repeatedly gets away with hypocrisy by making sure he accuses others of it first. For some unknown reason, this tactic succeeds again and again.
Democrats should not be afraid of engaging with Donald Trump on his own terms. They should invite the undocumented Trump workers to the Presidential state of the Union. And Stormy Daniels. They should ask him what he's hiding by refusing to release his tax returns and tell his supporters that his unwillingness to release them suggests he is guilty of something. They should do everything they can to make his supporters understand that they have been duped.
5
Could we also broaden our definition of "security" to include an examination of the foreign policy which continues to support corrupt and violent political regimes in Central America? How about a Marshall Plan for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador? If those countries could realize the economic growth that Mexico has seen over the last two decades then we might see a decline in migration from those countries. People don't just one day pick and leave their country of origin without good reason.
1
This column is too complicated. The situation is much simpler: everyone knows, even his supporters know, that Trump is a continuous liar, so nobody cares any longer what he says.
Indeed, Trump's heavily sedated 10 minute ghost-written speech was pure hypocrisy, interspersed with a false humanitarian gesture of contrition of an outstanding abuse he himself created...out of his usual cruelty...and absolute lack of feelings for the least among us, all in the interest of his own egotistical pleasure. Trump, a deeply flawed poor rich thug now abusing his power, has no remedy; he does not know how to behave presidential (not only protect the country but be of service to all, not just a credulous base that refuses to think for itself. Can you name anybody holding public office that is this irresponsible, this unscrupulous? Didn'y think so.
2
The little boy cried “wolf.”
America yawned and changed the channel.
Everything you suggest is well beyond the scope of this "president". I would suggest that all of his breaths are wasted.
I doubt anyone feared his rhetoric would be effective - we just don't want anymore of our lives infected by his noxious existence.
"A more supple strategist and orator than our president..."
Seriously? Trump asked congress for something stupid, and when he didn't get it he did what any self-respecting, spoiled-rotten toddler does when it doesn't get something stupid it asked for: he threw a hissy fit.
If overthinking is the dread disease of pundits, then this article is Exhibit A.
1
If there is so little room in the country to accommodate any more immigrants, if all of us immigrants and children and grandchildren of immigrants want to slam the door shut behind us, how about we end immigration from Nordic countries or Europe in general? Or do we have here just your basic 'white guy' argument against those crossing our southern border?
A waste, certainly and totally.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
His rhetoric is a bludgeon. It pierces the being and leaves only fear, anger and ruin. He is soulless.
1
I was almost persuaded and then stumbled at this description:
“...a crisis of families and children, in which the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior.”
“disappear with their kids into the American interior,” sounds like code for “enemies within,” or more apt “the 5th column” - that racist gobbledygook used to demonize Asian immigrants who would “undermine” and “pervert” the American system from within. That turned out well, if you think internment was an honorable chapter in our nation’s history.
Muscular writing is one thing, but there’s a xenophobia in this that feels wrong. Why do Americans of European descent so easily forget that they too came here for reasons typically tied to flight from some impossible condition in their country of origin? Environmental devastation, famine, persecution for being the wrong religion, or just the plain impossibility of making a better life and desperately wanting one for themselves and their offspring.
Did the Irish, Jews, Swedes, Danes, Poles, Italians “exploit” systems in order to disappear into the American interior?
Immigration is complicated. Don’t muddy the waters further with invective gussied up as persuasion. A pig’s a pig, even if you pretty it up with lipstick.
Oh well, our president is not charismatic, but at least he is honest about the debate. The opposing side, and this paper, know of only “immigrants”: people arriving to our country by any means. So, for example, when a Mexican police helicopter accidentally crashed in the US, why, of course, those Mexican police officers were “immigrants”.
Bull-in-the-china-shop Trump, and his supporters, make a distinction apparently too subtle for Mr. Douthat or this paper, and feel that people entering our country can be broken into two groups: those arriving legally, and those arriving, or remaining, illegally. Although the difference is lost to Trumps opponents, Trump supporters are opposed to people arriving or remaining in our country illegally.
I have heard of no Trump supporter quoted in favor of stopping legal immigration; curtailing it for practical reasons, perhaps. On the opposite side, I have heard no Trump opponent express a desire to put a limit or qualifier of any kind on the numbers or types of people entering our country legally or illegally. They are the dishonest ones in this debate.
1
We should give Trump $5 billion for his Wall. As long as we get $10 billion for a Canadian border wall to keep out all those scary white immigrants.
The reporting and discussion in the media of this contentious issue—the “Wall”—is focused too much on the politics and not enough on the analysis of our border control budgets, objectives and outcomes, and whether or not there are options to address the challenges of Central American migration at their source. The commentary and reporting often seems to be a context free free-for-all with the American taxpayer left out of the loop and the dire conditions migrants are fleeing left out of sight. We need to do better.
I agree with Trump. This is a crisis. It’s a crisis of faith in our democratic institutions, in compromise for the good of the country, in our republic’s foundational beliefs in the universal natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which are enjoyed by all Americans, and just as importantly, by those Central Americans drawn to a better life in our country.
What is so amazing about the escalation of the border-wall situation is that there is almost no discussion-- from either Democrats or Republicans-- on the premises that underlie our misguided immigration policies. There are people illegally entering the country, that is true. But what principles guide our immigration laws? Why should those laws be the product of "anxiety about immigrants"? Even a cursory review of the economic literature will review how problematic is the claim that illegal immigrants are bad for the economy. Likewise, no evidence exists to support the idea that illegal immigrants are any more a security threat or a safety issue than Americans themselves, or than they have been for the previous two decades.
If legal immigration, on the other hand, is based on the long-cherished idea that people coming in should enter a melting pot-- in other words, to expose the American cultural ethos only to gradual change over time-- that argument should be made and tested. But the idea of a "wall" looks far less attractive in the context of that argument than under the other baseless pretenses.
1
A lot of Americans aren’t smart enough to parse the rhetoric from the fact. They use TV for their primary source of information, which is already summarized and depending on political affiliation it will skew their worldview.
1
I can’t blame Rosenstein.
He was listening to the strains of “Nearer My G-d To Thee” playing in the corridors of the Justice Department and understandably decided to jump on one of the last lifeboats heading for shore.
2
You write: "In fairness to Trump, the immigration bludgeon was effective once..."
I do not think this is accurate. The Dems had a seriously flawed candidate, the legitimacy of the election has been called into question, and he lost the majority vote in the nation. He won because of our cock-eyed Electoral College. This is not a simple argument of base support.
Now we are stuck, for the moment, with his continuous lies. We expect the man to lie. The problem for Trump is Trump. He is pathological on several levels. He wants to fight, just to fight.
For the health of the nation, on several levels, he needs to be gone. For the health of the nation, we should not worry about what is in fairness to Trump.
3
How many?
How many people should the USA absorb every year?
Come on now, you pro-open-borders types:
Cough up a number --
a hard number;
How many people every year?
Total, overall -- all categories combined.
You can't manage to cough up a hard number?
And then actually take whatever measures are needed
to seriously enforce that number?
That makes you de facto pro-open-borders,
whatever your pious disingenuous protestations to the contrary.
My proposed number:
one million per year --
total, combined, overall.
Already, every year, we are granting
one million "green" cards,
the right to legal permanent residence,
already more generous than any other country grants.
Problem is, that's not good enough
for millions of illegal aliens -- and their "advocates":
At least 10 milliion people (the low estimate)
or maybe 20 million (the high estimate)
are now already here illegally,
and the pro-open-borders crowd
want to legalize their "status",
which, of course, will encourage even more to come illegally.
Well over 7 billion people in the world,
rapidly closing in on 8 billion.
The USA has 330 million people.
That's plenty.
How many more do you want?
You want us to be as grotesquely over crowded as India?
Bangladesh? Indonesia? Nigeria?
No?
Then let's have a total overall combined limit on immigration,
and enforce it -- seriously.
Divide it up however you want --
"merit", "work","family", "asylum" --
whatever --
just so long as it all fits into the overall combined limit.
4
If we're "grotesquely overcrowded," it's with the willful ignorant.
Help a country out, Sam - have a exit strategy.
1
@sam finn -- this stupid wall has nothing to do with reducing illegal immigrants. 2/3ds of them come in on tourist visas and simply don't leave.
Ask yourself why those opposed to the illegals do not strongly support universal E-verify?
Ask yourself who employs them?
Ask yourself what constituencies depend on the illegal hispanic immigrants?
You make a valid point on the abrupt end to non- white “terrorist” activity after Trump’s election. The deaths at the hands of white “shooters” increased and the President condoned the violence by whites at the Charlottesville rally. Drug use in the use is stimulated by overprescribing of opioids for pain. Drugs in medical parlance are “recreational” and we blame the suppliers not the users. Only 10%!of vehicles are inspected at the border - no wall needed. Ask the Border Patrol why the screening facilities along the Intersates are closed? Surely there should be increased not decreased screening!! A wall, a fence, a barrier? Address all issues not Trump’s old man memory prompt.
1
Douthat writes "..hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior." Speculation or is there evidence of this? (If the latter, you should cite it, if the former you should not have included it.)
3
Let's talk a little about the delivery too.
For a guy who is supposed to be a "TV guy" his delivery is really bad. He constantly struggles to form his words properly and looks uncomfortable/stressed, not to mention deeply and distressingly angry.
This is NOT what people typically want in a president. Why his "base" finds this OK is a puzzle to me.
3
This address was nothing more than a play to Trump's base "base."
These folks who often expound their Christian values show little in the way of mercy, forbearance, and charity.
Their hero, Jesus Christ, would be walking with the caravan not standing guard with the border patrol.
They dislike immigrants and minorities, the hate Obamacare even though they reside in some of the least healthy places in America, they love their guns, and care little about the environment.
What to do with these people? Simple. Get their leader out of office and they will go back to leading their narrow lives in their backwards communities and sitting in their town cafes grumbling.
3
I'll remind you, Ross, of the day that trump started his campaign.
One of his minions went to a local actor's employment agency and hired - for $50 bucks and a tee-shirt - actors to hold signs and cheer mightily as he announced his run for president. That was his first time spewing out his poison.
Fast forward: November 26, 2018. FOX news sadly informs him that they will no longer carry his re-election rallies live and in full.
The ratings are in the toilet.
In the November elections, the Republican Party had taken a viscous shellacking.
I see last night's "speech", where he huffed and puffed through 10 minutes where he was obviously NOT having a good time! - spewing out his laundry list of blood and gore and fake-numbers, I see that as his new method of fund-raising.
That's because he was fund-raising.
Right before the speech, an email went out to those on his mailing list, begging for money for the "Wall". And, then, right after his speech, another email went out to the ones who had not donated, asking why they had not? (*)
That's why there was nothing new last night.
It had nothing to do with an "emergency".
It was just his usual stump-speech - minus the chant: "And WHO is going to pay for my wall?"
(and the crowd shouts back) "MEXICO!"
*( Source: "The Last Word", last night, Lawrence O'Donnell, host.)
What a scam last night was.
We all got suckered into attending one of his 'rallies".
A "new strategy"?
Yeah. Sucker the tv stations.
Not ready for Prime Time!
7
Congress has the power to open government over a Trump veto. The Republicans lack the backbone to do it.
Call your congress-members and tell them that you will hold them responsible for this shutdown. They work for We the People and not for Trump and his conservative tv/radio masters.
Congress: 202- 224-3121
5
If they can get you to buy a wall that you don't need, they can get you to buy anything else they want to sell you.
It's just like religion and their concept of "blind faith". If they can get you to believe a little man lives in the clouds, they can get you to believe anything.
1
Surprised to see THIS columnist critiquing Donald's oratorical skills ... while suggesting that it's the packaging that's shoddy!
Surprised, because
(a) Ross obviously lives in/near NYC and has a better grip on facts & reality, ... BUT how on earth can he overlook the fact that 40% (maybe, a little less - one can hope) of voters STILL blame their plight ("I was making $40/hour, with overtime") on immigration and the "darkening" of America. [Maybe, we should be grateful that Trump hasn't yet pivoted to overtly racist rhetoric, targeting our mostly non-white underclass, here 20-200 years at this point!]
It's a truism - but worth remembering - that every speaker has some audience member in mind. In asking "his people" to "hang in there," we may critique his speech 100 different ways, but you gotta know your enemy - like Churchill, when you only have words to work with, those are the cards you play!
(b) REALLY - looking at it from a random Michigander's p.o.v. - which is worse:
* single men, entering the US illegally; or
* women & children ... entering & going underground?
Ross acknowledges almost grudgingly what even liberals KNOW is true - for every "asylum-seeker" that plays the game out in court, 10-50 just try to "blend in," and - face it - it's a lot easier to succeed at that than it was for an escaped slave to make a new life "up north."
The women DO take away some jobs... and/but their kids will take away many thousands more. DJT isn't running on fumes quite yet.
1
Trump's propaganda "worked" in 2016 because of the prevalence of whiny, fearful, ignorant reactionaries in this country. The nonsense was just as "ginned up" by Trump/Pravda then as it is now. Any reasonably intelligent ten year old could see that.
Folks like Douthat and McConnell and their minions will now start to question their demonic "bargain" in installing and supporting Trump, since it will cost this country so much and, ultimately, even threaten to harm the 1%. (It was harming ordinary people from Day One.) Trump's colossal incompetence will bear poisonous fruit. His mental derangement will create self-generated crises and damage.
As Trump veers further and further from sanity, the most dangerous person in the US, increasingly, will be McConnell. Will he (and his band of Republican senators) continue to prop up the madness, or will he (and they) finally start serving the US and its citizens?
4
Mr Douhat is right that presidents "that presidents have to deal with changing circumstances and cope with unexpected crises."
That is exactly what Donald Trump is doing and has been doing for the past ~2yrs.
The changing circumstances and unexpected crises are the developments in the Mueller investigation. As each new indictment, each new revelation, each new court ruling (the mystery corporation that now must comply with Mueller's subpoena), Donald Trump deals with the situation.
Trump deals with the situation in two ways:
First, he deflects to another issue, sometimes, not always of his own making. He does this to drown out the noise and to look as though he is a leader.
Second, he appeals to his core supporters both in Congress and in his dreams in the streets. This is the more dangerous because when he does so he claims that he, Trump, is the only person capable of saving them from the Congressional swamp creatures and the liberal democrats who support baby stealing, momma raping illegals. This was the core of his speech last night. Unfortunately for America, there are millions who buy this con.
Trump knows that Mueller knows and that soon all of us will know. Everything he does is in anticipation of his day of reckoning and every action he takes is to delay it.
So Trump is dealing with changing circumstances and unexpected crises the best way he knows how: lying, deflecting, and obstructing.
1
“So what we heard from the president was a play to people deep in the Trumpian bubble . . .”
Bingo! Trump’s “address” demonstrated once again that he’s a one-trick pony, without the insight, charisma, or political skills necessary to expand his base. And he knows it. Absent some new crisis that he can exploit—something we should all fervently pray doesn’t happen—his base will hopefully fragment over his incompetence.
3
Ross, he couldn’t make make those two adaptations because he is incapable of grasping any of the pertinent realities of the crisis. His is an ego driven campaign inspired by ugly beliefs and self serving intentions, nothing more. Don’t you know you can’t turn a frog into a prince. He couldn’t care less about the plight of these refugees or the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are fretting over their mortgage/ rent bills coming do... just his own feelings, his own sorry, sadly empty self.
3
Ross, in the phrase "pictures of exhausted parents and frightened, incomprehending kids" you neglected the phrase "sometimes dead" before the word kids.
3
There's a piece of this that never seems to be addressed. According to our president, there is a "crisis" at the border. Our security is at stake! There are murderers! rapists! and drugs and weapons pouring across the border at this moment! It's a national emergency, and he can call it such if he so desires.
But A - there is money sitting around from the last accommodation for his wall that is evidently not being used. Shouldn't we be doing something with this "right now"?
And B - if he got his 6 billion tomorrow when would the wall that would save us be completed? 2022, 2025? What about all these criminals pouring across the border in the meantime? How will the "crisis" be eliminated before then?
Oh and am I still paying for the military to be hanging out down there playing cards and missing their families?
4
Bubbleheads and Bobbleheads, the remaining Trump Fans. A very simple, accurate and cheap I.Q. Test.
Seriously.
2
Simply put, Trump doesn't want those people living in his buildings. There is no compromise he will accept, since those dirty, germy people are lowering the value of his properties. He has no other arguments or reasons for his demands.
I have nothing pertinent to say about Mr. Douthat's argument, but I just wanted to let him know that I appreciate his having been able to work in an allusion, perhaps tellingly, to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland."
I think this amounts to:
1. 45 hoping he can get Limbaugh and Coulter to like him again.
2. A way for him to distract from the Russian collusion that is slowly showing itself to be tied to him and his gang that couldn’t shoot straight. (Check out the story about Manafort yesterday.)
2
What CEO would shut down his company if there was a problem that needed to be negotiated?
The CEO of the White House just did that stupid move.
End the shutdown. No excuses.
The CEO of this nation is making 800,000 Americans max out credit cards and get charged interest rates since they cannot yet pay those bills for food, medicine, etc. He has people unable to pay rent—jeopardizing themselves and the economics of people who rely on rental investment income.
Just end the shutdown. Now!
Period. No excuses.
5
Ross is wrong yet again, imagine that!
Trump did not waste his breath last night, because his voters swallowed his racist rant hook, line and sinker. That is why he gave the speech. He fed his apparatchiki fearing the coming Mueller investigation.
"inchoate anxieties about immigration"
Please Mr. Douthat, let's call things by their name and use much less ink in the process: in this case it's called racism
1
Mr Douthat is so reasonable in tone. It’s a shame he has no home in the GOP and no ear in the White House.
2
To Donald Trump:
"You're just wasting your breath.
And THAT'S no great loss, either.
- Groucho Marx
2
All this, and meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mueller keeps grinding away. Tick tock, tick tock....boom
2
Oh so many thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Douthat.
(1) The Trumpian bubble. My! What a horrifying phrase. A quote from the Bible flashes into my mind--sorry! "They have eyes but they do not see. Ears but they do not hear. Minds but they do not think."
Well--no offense. I'm not saying these people are unregenerate or reprobate. Oh no. Not this child.
But it seems sometimes: human thought does not occur in these people. A Russian super-conservative from the 1800's made this remark about an adversary:
"There is nothing in his mind but three roosters all crowing lustily at the same time."
I'm not saying--God forbid!--ALL Trump supporters are like this. But SOME are. I'm sorry but they are.
(2) The wrong enemy at the wrong time. Interesting:
Churchill says the same thing about Cromwell. Back in the 1650's. He was repeated warned--France is the up-'n'-coming enemy. Not Spain. But he wouldn't listen.
Just like that confounded WALL. Built to counter non-existent perils. When the real perils are--where and what?
Something different. Somewhere else.
But face it. The WALL was always and only--
--show-biz from the get-go. Red meat flung to a snarling and famished "base."
(3) Some US presidents really WERE "silver-tongued." I think of FDR with his immortal Fala speech (1944) in which--oh so delicately, so politely!--he pours ridicule on his Republican foes.
Silver-tongued? Donald J. Trump?
Not a chance!
1
The news media exacerbates the catastrophe that is the Trump presidency by it's implicit false equivalency. By covering his every tweet, and giving a serial liar a platform to spew whatever distortions and falsehoods occupy his solipsistic brain at the moment,the news media is abnegating it's journalistic and editorial responsibility, and severely damaging the American political system.
1
Would some analyst please point out the most obvious absurd flaw in Trump's argument: that building a wall is an act of compassion. It's as if Trump is FDR, offering a fireside chat in which he argues that thousands of desperate Jews are fleeing Nazi Europe, putting themselves and their families at risk of death and destruction by crossing the Atlantic in overcrowded boats vulnerable to being sunk by German submarines. So we are going to do the compassionate thing: send them back to their home countries. In fact, that is what we did. And that is why, after Europe, the Western world agreed on liberal policies that permitted desperate immigrants to seek asylum. That is why we permitted Mexicans and Central Americans to wade across the Rio Grande and seek asylum. And it this system that Trump and Steve Miller are trying to sabotage. History reveals the cynicism of Trump's "heart and soul'' rhetoric.
4
2018 Midterms was just a "down payment" on the GOP`s future.
The "balance" due, is coming soon.
2
"...it was almost certainly just a waste of breath."
Almost everything that trump says is!
(Then again, Douthat bloviates a lot too.)
2
You waste your time fantasizing about some possible semi-normal action this corrupt, incompetent administration might have taken to change an outcome. You would better spend your time focused on something useful like building support for removing this administration from power now or in 2020.
1
There is only one biological DNA genetic evolutionary fit human race species that began in Africa 300,000+ years ago. But about 2-5% of Asian and European DNA on average is extinct Denovisan and Neanderthal. There is none of that DNA in Africans.
Trump appears to have a much higher than average component of Neanderthal DNA. Perhaps born of his inheritance of his Daddy's money,power and privilege.
Trump looks natural with a bludgeon aka club. Trump would look great as a man with an animal skin outfit lurking at a cave entrance. Trump as " Fred Flintstone" seems most applicable.
@Blackmamba -- amusing, but hey, this is a casually-racist argument you probably don't really want to make.
Nothing about Daddy's money, power and privilege managed to give Donald an extra boost of either Neanderthal or Denisovan genes -- it doesn't work that way.
There are plenty of smart white guys -- Trump just isn't one of them. Donnie never was that smart, but there's pretty good evidence he was smarter when he was younger.
The Trump we see today is some combination of personality disorder and suffering mental decline, possibly some early dementia.
He is the ultimate Dunning-Kruger president, for the Dunning-Kruger faction of white people, and a few very opportunistic or pathetically self-hating non-whites.
Unlike W. Bush who was too stupid to place a real weapon of mass destruction in Iraq to justify his war, I fear Trump is a bigger conniver, who will not hesitate to produce a Mexican or South American terrorist to stage a major attack here. I think Trump's narcissism, ego and authoritarian emotions are stronger than W.'s, and when Trump's back will be up against the prosecutor's wall, he will lash out believing that he will get his wall after such an attack. He would love to take the bullhorn and stand on the mountain of ruble to support his anti-immigration points. After that incident will the Democrats give him his wall? You betcha.
The wall is nothing more than a physical manifestation of the racism of the Republican Party.
3
Ben Franklin once said: We are all born ignorant, but we must work hard to remain stupid.
Not saying the 35% of die-hard Trump supporters are stupid. Well. . . How about mis-informed, or how about living in their own reality. How else can you account for their loyalty?
They fervently believe Donald Trump:
1) Feels their pain;
2) Has their best interests at heart;
3) Will provide them with "excellent health care" AND at a lower price!;
4) Knows more than the generals;
5) Knows more than anyone else about anything else;
6) Is allowing them to sleep better at night since he has removed the threat of nuclear war with North Korea after one meeting with Kim Jong-Un;
7) Uses chaos to determine policy for the country;
8) Is a "successful businessman." (A twelve-year-old would be a business success if s/he had a $413 million credit line from their Daddy.)
Ben Franklin was spot on. You gotta work hard to remain stupid.
6
“...the spike in violent crime after decades of decline,”
The NYPD publishes all of its crime statistics online on a monthly basis. Those statistics give the lie to this hoary old claim from the Dumpster Fire and mindlessly parroted by Father Doubt That.
1
@Paul -- and let's say the obvious: the Bronx and Queens have some of the highest fractions of illegal immigrants anywhere in the USA. If illegal immigration was the cause of violent crime I'd get killed every time I walk to the subway on Queens Blvd.
(It's know as "the boulevard of death" ... but that's due to cars hitting pedestrians, and all too often the victims are elderly immigrants not savvy or fast about getting across 8 lanes of traffic.)
The sad, amazing reality of the IACATBTKY noise is obliterated in this thoughtful article about the reality of the workers and the families who employ them to do the necessary work of farming: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/
As a bonus, it uncovers the hypocrisy of those crying wolf the loudest for personal gain.
2
Wow, Ross continues to prop up the imaginary Trump and what he 'might' have said.
I prefer the reality of the situation. The President is a bigot, and only wants to incite hatred. Because what else does he have?
Ross is so delusional, he thinks that there is a 'winning' strategy that is out there. The Republican party has planted their flag in hate, fear and ignorance. You reap what you sow.
Let me understand: The remarks last night on TV were by the president of a great country. I thought the image we saw was that of a cartoon figure, and not a very well animated one. We saw a wooden, somewhat ridiculous, construction, apparently reading something he had not previously seen, whose mind (or operating system) seemed disconnected. If, in fact, the target audience for this mumblefest was the proverbial 38 percent base of true believers, what does this say about them and their viewing tastes?
1
Trump should have began with an apology for not using e-verify at all of his businesses and used the moment to support the tool across the country
But the truth is he doesn’t use it unless he has to because he likes hiring undocumented workers- they save him money.
4
Perhaps politicians could talk about real problems instead of made-up ones. Then they might come to some decent solutions.
Employers want to hire low cost workers. There are lots of ways to take advantage of illegal immigrants.
When we returned MS-13 gang members to Central American countries we created huge problems for them, and compounded the refugee crisis.
People overstay their visas and end up working in the USA.
Instead of a monument to ineffectiveness (hmmm, maybe a wall would be a fitting tribute to the Trump Administration), let's do things that make a real difference.
I believe it was Mario Cuomo who said that you campaign in poetry and govern in prose.One could remind Trump that you can campaign in slogans but you cannot govern in slogans. Thoughtful analysis and careful research are necessary before you build that wall.
3
"the Democrats’ core vulnerability — their difficulty figuring out exactly what kind of deportation policies, if any, their base will allow them to support."
Is that really the vulnerability? A national use and strong enforcement of E-Verify has been waylaid by lobbying from various interests. Illegals come here overwhelmingly for JOBS. E-verify has shown to be an effective control; more effective than any wall could be.
5
Ross, our "underfunded" asylum system is the proper term. We have refused to invest the money, spend the money, whichever you prefer -- to keep up with the pace of people fleeing for their lives. It's like we want our border process to be like the DMV!
Stop suggesting that there were any other motives behind the voters for Trump than out and out hatred of "the other," and fear of losing supremacy status as White people. (That combined with apathy among minority voters and some young people, gave us Trump.)
All of you pundits-- right and left -- need to encourage your guy or gal to lead the country for everyone, move in the direction of your opponents. Leading should not be a winner take all process. In our country easily 45 percent or higher don't agree with the winner. Meeting in the middle will make us better as a country, no matter who won. Of course Trump can't see things that way because he is incapable of it. Ross, you and your punditry should continually push for middle once the election is over.
3
Douthat is not Trump, but he isn’t any better either.
Democrats have worked with moderate Republicans (RIP) for decades to try to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Xenophobic Republicans have killed these deals every time with cries of “amnesty” (as though this were a synonym for “treason”).
If the xenophobic fever ever breaks, Democrats would happily resume negotiations on the immigration issue, resulting in a compromise that includes a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented Americans, deportations of others, and more security along the border.
But that is impossible so long as the GOP is beholden to Trump’s delusional base of xenophobes.
The GOP needs to get its house in order and banish its white supremacist flank. Until it does so, the GOP cannot accomplish any of its policy goals, let alone do something good for the country.
6
And a loss of money from the big media, who have probably been wise not to say no to Trump.
Calling them "skeptics of mass immigration" when who you're referring to is Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh gave me a good laugh. The phrase, painting an image of someone thoughtfully stroking his chin and saying "you know, I'm skeptical of the value of immigrants" is comical when the people you're talking about are instead hysterically screaming "We're all doomed if we don't build a wall!"
Ross Douthat, starting with that hilarious understatement, goes on to suggest that Donald Trump could have simply made logical, cogent, honest arguments to persuade people about the need to spend five billion dollars on a fantasy security blanket that he can't even decide is a wall or a fence or a hanging garden of flowers at this point it seems.
None of this is remotely possible. Trump couldn't "just" be reasonable or do anything other than what he did, because the whole premise is bonkers from the start, a hopeless attempt to conjure a racist fantasy campaign pledge into something concrete because his extremist propagandists demanded it and told him that otherwise his entire presidency would be "a joke".
I've got bad news for Donald Trump, they'll think about your presidency no matter what you do, and the rest of us already do.
4
To opine over what Trump should or could have done. What a waste of time. He is not capable of thoughtful argument, policy making, and certainly not admitting to being wrong.
5
I am not going to add anything meaningful to commentary on Trump speech and his motivation.But to truly make progress on border security and on the human suffering playing out at our borders one need to peel another layer and look at what makes these immigrants take huge risks and endanger their families on the way to US. The reason is corrupt and incompetent governments in Honduras and elsewhere created the lawlessness and allow gangs to run their countries.People there are afraid for their lives. What if we take this $5B and spend on restoring order in these countries? Why are Democrats not talking about that? Not sure though how this would be perceived by most of the folks here, I think it is very hard, if not impossible, to relate to someone running for their life...
1
The Democrats are just not serious in trying to stop illegal immigration. They don't want to do anything about visa overstays. Whereby someone flies in from another country and simply never returns home. Democrats want to help foreigners as they reason that if someone overstays it is in their individual economic interest to do so, so why not help someone from a different country ? They can share in our American dream even if they start out with a misdemeanor to do so.
In promoting immigration the Democrats also do not see the environmental impact of our population growing each year. In 1967 the USA passed 200 million in residents, in 2006 we passed 300 million, and now we are at 327 million as of 2017. The GAO estimates that 70 pct of this increase is due to foreigners moving to our country and their offspring. It is no wonder that we have lost millions of acres of natural land to housing, parking lots, big box stores, and other commercial buildings. The Audubon Society did a meadow bird survey in the late 1960's and one a few years ago and they determined their was a 40 pct drop in meadow birds. The reason they stated was the decrease in the acreage of meadows. It would be nice if those Democrats who consider themselves environmentalists should think about the expanding population that needs more space for development.
The Douthat commentary hits some important points but crashes, hard, with this rhetorical thrust:
"... deport without last year’s performative cruelty."
Let's NEVER use moderated, academic inspired language to cover over human righs violations, especially those involving the most tender and vulnerable humans, babies and small children, those who have no way to process the horror of separation from parents and for whom the cycle of trumatic memories can last a lifetime. Imagine the outrage had American kids been caught somewhere in the world in a similar, desperate situation and were treated in such a manner. There would have been calls for war.
As for the rest of the Trump speech, one upsidenwas he managed to speak for ten minutes from a script without sounding like he was making a hostage tape!
There were so many outright lies, distortions and misdirections in the speech that it was hard to take. The brain had to continually process increduality as the words kept coming.
Fear sells. Trump sold enough fear, coupled with the established long time hatred of many for Hillary, to tilt the Electoral College just barely his way in 2016. His idea of an invasion of foreigners carrying drugs and ready to rape across the land was always a massive oversell designed to appeal to the least sophisticated voters. That stuff just gets old, tired, worn out.
Do we have too much LEGAL and illegal immigration?Ligitmate questions but Trump, as usual, spoke to none of them.
It was not "fate" that gave Trump "an immigration crisis that’s substantially different than the crisis of murderers and terror plotters that he invoked in his campaign rhetoric - a humanitarian crisis." Crucially, Trump himself created this humanitarian crisis, by his cruel policies of family separation and child incarceration. Once again, Trump creates a catastrophe and then offers an even worse proposal as his solution - and then throws a tantrum, harming yet more people, when he can't have things his way.
2
The President and his party are master manipulators, using fear and false pride as energizing narratives to maintain power. But to what end? Fear is not a policy. The wall, however useful a symbolic trope as it has been up to this point, is a non-starter as policy. It seeks to solve a made-up problem, and would fail at that. Seeking to demonize Democrats as being soft on border security is a weak attempt to shield his administration's own fecklessness in the matter. Separating children from parents, in fact orphaning some number of them, is criminal. It speaks to a deficit of humanity in those who orchestrated/implemented this policy. Full stop. The immigration crisis in this country has long been our willingness to turn a blind eye to white "visitors" overstaying their visas and "buying" citizenship while ignoring, and now attempting to criminalize, those of another hue, many of whom arrive desperate and with rightful claims of asylum.
Fear of the Other is a sad policy to rely on, especially when, ironically, it is already too late. This attempt at puny "nationalism" is as plodding and grotesque as a burning cross on a front lawn. Weak and pathetic.
Mr. Douthat assumes there is a policy goal behind Trump's immigration rhetoric, making it thus amenable to better adapted, reasoned arguments, which Mr. Douthat kindly steps forward to provide. But the purpose and electoral appeal of Trump's xenophobic, bigoted bludgeon is not policy but bigotry itself. Trump's supporters don't stick with him through thick and thin because they think his "xenophobic style" is just a sign that he is "more genuinely restrictionist," but because he authentically voices what they feel. And there, they are right. Donald Trump is almost 100% con man, but his racism and sexism are the real deal.
1
Most people have some cognitive bias hidden deep in their psyche. Sometimes not hidden. But, all it takes for some transgressor to cause it to become a confirmation bias is a swallow of Kool aid.
The incident may be statistically de minimis, but to their minds that doesn't matter. Trump and others have exploited this throughout history.
3
Looking beyond Trump (don't I wish), we all realize that the-political-party-formerly-known-as-the republicans don't really govern. That is not why they go to Washington.
Beginning with Ronald Reagan we have been voting every year on a single issue: whether you believe that government is part of the problem or part of the solution.
If the former, you vote republican, the latter democrat.
The only way republican office holders (I won't call them legislators) can justify the votes they receive is to ensure that government is part of the problem.
Hence understaffed agencies, shutdowns, impasses, blocked nominations, incompetent and corrupt appointees, underfunded programs - anything to be able to go back to the voters and say "See! Government is the problem."
3
It appears that your argument, Ross, is that if Trump weren't such a buffoon he might be a better president. You might be right.
I think your characterization of "people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system..." is suspect, at best. I have not been to the border nor have I talked to these refugees. I have not heard or seen from those who have any reports or interviews of these refugees where they say that is their aim. Their aim seems pretty clear; they are attempting to escape an untenable situation and seeking safety for their families.
Our asylum system is overstrained because that's how our incompetent, racist executive manages the agencies tasked with this work. That problem could easily be fixed if the president and congress attended to their responsibilities with human compassion and the integrity required to assess the situation in a way that put the interests of the nation ahead of their own desire to hold on to power.
I guess we agree. I appear to be making the same argument as you. If Trump weren't such a buffoon he might be a better president.
3
Douthat serves up thin broth to, I suppose, say something timely or clever. He fails on both counts. Where he does make a point worth considering is in his final line Trump's appearance was a "waste of breath."
If the topic is waste, circle back to the motivation of Trump's sitting before the network cameras during prime time. The shutdown he wanted and was eager to claim credit for proudly and wear its diseased mantle.
The government is shut down with no end in sight (if we are to believe a pathological liar). There is your waste, not of this gangster's breath but of the necessary work carried out each day by those affected by the shutdown, the money they spend on life's basics and the rippling waves of their economic straits.
1
Douthat writes, ..."hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
After our country and corporations successfully exploited Central and South American resources and undermined their governments for decades.
2
Those arguing for a wall have one already, blocking a view of rationality. List the problems we face honestly - infrastructure crumbling, an education system hobbled by neglect, gun violence, an unprecedented national debt, the impacts of climate change, etc., etc. Border security, which has been working just fine, isn't even in the top 10. Yet the monster in the White House, and his myopic and bigoted followers, can only see this issue. It is and always was a ruse, a con, to distract us as the GOP once again gives themselves undeserved tax breaks and bust the bank. Wake up.
3
The fact is
rapists and murderers can't climb walls.
The fact is
most heroin in the US was carried across the desert in 100 pound back packs.
The fact is
most of the unpaid government workers have anticipated the shutdown, since they support it, and have several thousands tucked away in their emergency funds.
The fact is
Donald was born in Queens, still a foreign country to most Americans.
The fact is
Americans are easy marks for a TV showman with no conscience.
2
One nit to pick with Mr. Douthat. This one:
"...the problem isn’t the people that we can’t catch crossing the borders but the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
Not a chance in the world these folks might, in fact, have the thought in mind to become American citizens, huh, Ross? Apparently, none of them have any intention of finding work, and working hard and reliably, in Ross's mind. That is the impression you leave, and intentionally so, I assume.
Hard work used to be as American as apple pie, but no more. It has become, in recent decades, beneath the dignity of many of those born within these borders. The facts regarding the intent of those on our southern border risking literally everything to get to America show otherwise, and Ross deliberately omits them, just like the fellow on prime time last night.
Despite Douthat's "criticism" of Trump, there is not enough daylight between the two on this subject to cast a shadow.
4
US does not pass legislation based on rhetoric of a President alone. Congress under GOP leadership voted on the appropriation for border security. President either should veto or approve the legislative proposal.
What we saw last night was no different than the burning of the Reichstag. My way or the highway
is not how this country operates.
Using extortion and abuse of government workers and nonstop lies to force a bill of President's liking through Congress for political reasons only is antithetical to our democracy.
And then to couple the free air time for this "crisis" speech to raise funds for reelection is disgusting.
Impeachment or Indictment cannot come soon enough.
2
It’s time the Trump Wall goes the way of Trump University and Trump Steaks.
2
No, Ross, this is a power play. Trump is ignorant on MANY issues but he does know gamesmanship and power moves and that is all this is. Even if he doesn't get his funding he will have won this round.
It takes an inordinate amount of power to shut down the government, to lay off 800,000 people, to negatively effect many hundred thousand more and Trump has proven that wields that kind of power. He has shown he doesn't care that people are hurting by his actions and that if necessary he will do it again and again. He picked an issue that is hard to deny - that protecting Americans is part of the reason we have a government - but a wall is an ignorant means to do it.
But the wall could be an everlasting symbol of his power - a lasting testament to his grandeur, so why not fight hard for it. There are enough of his supporters who vocally expressed their desire for it at his rallies so this is as good as anything to fight for. It is the fight that is important. With Democrats taking control of the House, Trump needs to prove he is still a force to be reckoned with and feared because HE IS PRESIDENT and can hurt people at will.
It is amazing that the Republican party is willing to support this but they have been here before. Republicans supported W. Bush through all his idiocy but when it's time will blame it all on him and say he wasn't really one of them to begin with. So funny how nobody seems to remember this tactic but then again nobody seems to remember history.
1
I didn’t bother to watch Trump’s address last night since his script is the same mixture of falsehoods and exaggerations that we have been hearing for the past two years. Having read the analysis of his remarks in the NYT and other news sources this morning, it seems pretty obvious to me that he’s going to sink or swim with his ludicrous partial shutdown of the federal government. My sense is that is also obvious to much of the GOP in Congress and that we should begin to see a rising tide of defections as office holders begin thinking about self preservation in 2020.
210
@David DiRoma.
completly agree.
I wish the networks would stop airing any of his rallies,TV performances, or any thing from Sara SAnders and the awful Kelly.
ENOUGH!!
27
Trump, of course, could not have used either of these strategies described by Mr. Douthat. First, he would need to admit that others had good ideas other than himself and that second, he has made mistakes. Two ideas that will never be possible in Trump's personality. That he can not do these things is the reason he should never have been allowed near the White House. Trump is forever boxed in by himself. That we are the victims of this travesty is the real tragedy.
1
Given the Republicans had full control of Senate, Congress and the Presidency for the last two years, why didn't they effect the border wall then - or did this alleged "critical emergency" materialize with the inauguration of a Democratic congressional majority? Also, why has neither party - or the press for that matter - even discussed calling for the strict enforcement of the current, legal sanctions - which includes fines and/or jail - for "employers" who hire undocumented workers in the first place; to dry-up the jobs and have them self-deport of their own volition?
6
He doesn't want to solve a problem. He wants a chimera and is willing that other people (brown ones) suffer for his purpose. His idea of "tough" or "strong" is based on the degree he is willing to cause others to suffer.
If the problem is a humanitarian inflow of too many families seeking to immigrate , David Frum is correct to note "the solution is to get more adjudicators into the asylum system now. If cases are resolved fast, and border-crossers removed promptly, the surge of asylum seekers will abate."
Fix the problem.
5
@JT - Sending those suffering people back to their intolerable living conditions, or discouraging them from trying to flee those conditions, doesn't solve the problem.
1
As long as one of our primary exports is bombs one of our primary imports will be refugees. The same if we support
Central American dictators.
There is not policy or set of policies that will fix this problem. It's a challenge that legislators need to recognize will need constant tending and adjustment as the world changes. This is only possible in a functional legislature with political leaders interested in helping their country and the world.
As long as 'the policy' is seen as the once-and -or-all fix that represents some vague alignment with a new interpretation of the original intent of the founding fathers it will never happen. If we just work together to start solving today's problems they'll improve. Then our bombs will fall somewhere else and we'll have a new set of refugees and problems to solve.
No pain, no gain.
The longer the shutdown and the wall debate lasts, the more damage Trump will do to himself.
4
Here is a solution. Trump should appeal only to his base and have them pay for a wall that they think is such a threat to national security. If they are so fearful of their safety, surely they can come up with the money that Trump wants? Trump now has the money to build his wall and his base is now safe from the poor, desperate families that want a better life. (Never mind that the drug lords are building tunnels under the border. We are just talking wall here!) Trump is happy because his base is happy and the rest of us can agree to use our taxes to pay for things like health care, infrastructure, education, and thoughtful, strategic, and compassionate laws that will solve or lessen our immigration issues. And this nonsense about a wall that has negatively affected many, many federal workers and other American, will be a mote point and everybody can get back to work and be paid.
4
How about mentioning the central irony that when campaigning in 2016 Trump would joke about how easy it is to act “presidential”. And when he uttered that word he would stand woodenly for a few moments and parrot the kind of bland, stentorian pieties he knew his supporters held in supreme contempt.
Now that he’s been in office for two years it may finally be dawning on Trump that it can be valuable to act presidential ... but since he’s spent those two years locked in campaign mode, continuing to mock “presidentiality”, when he tries it in earnest, well, is it any surprise that no one, supporter or not, takes it seriously?
3
The irony is that Trump himself seemed to realize that his speech, and his subsequent trip to the Mexican border, would be a "waste of breath" when he told TV news anchors before the speech that he did not think it would result in changing any minds, but he was doing it at the behest of his communications advisers. Why does this president only accept poor advice from his PR folks while spurning expert advice on immigration policy from his own State Department?
4
When Trump's supporters say that the government shutdown is not hurting the people Trump is supposed to be hurting, they show that they truly deplorable human beings.
8
This was not a policy address. It was a campaign speech. trump is speaking directly to his dwindling minority of voters while the rest of us roll our eyes and prepare to pull the lever against him in 2020.
8
More amateur hour from Sarah Sanders, Conway, Stephen Miller and Bill Shine. They don't care about anything except "winning" a news cycle or narrative and on this one they have cornered themselves. Does anyone actually think Trump himself cares about any of this outside of the chants he can elicit at his rallies?
6
I want to see the walls that Mueller is constructing all around Don the Con Trump.
Three or four really big ones, that presage his time in prison.
Let them keep closing in on him, the Thief-in-Chief.
His reading of words from a teleprompter to a TV camera is nothing but attempted distraction from the walls growing around the as-yet unindicted co-conspirator.
3
Maybe that's where the steel slats came from - prison bars?
I believe Senator Schumer's retort: "the symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty not a 30 foot wall" is what should resonate with most Americans. Indeed those sentiments expressed in the sonnet fixed to its base represent what makes America truly exceptional.
11
Trump, con man that he is, has spent his life convincing people that he can sell them something that they want - always a vague but pleasant future of material gain. It's always just around the corner, just over the next hill, all you have to do is believe. The wall is seen by the mark as a barrier between the mark and the uncertainties of life with "the other." The mark wants to believe that somehow this barrier can exist.
It works as long as the mark doesn't have the opportunity to see the facts and the reality that failure is inevitable - it's too good to be true.
With the wall he is stuck in the anti-con. The con has been brewing too long, facts come out and the absurdity of it all has become apparent. Knowledgeable adults have shown the holes in the con. Trump the consummate con man knows this and knows he is in uncharted waters for a con man, hence his expression of doubts of the effectiveness of his speech.
Trump now knows the con will fail and in other circumstances he would abandon the con and move on to the next one, after all, a sucker's born every minute.
But he's stuck. He's on the big stage. There is no way out without an explanation of either we got the wall (in some form) and it's working or, even though that con didn't work, I have a better one.
The only "wall" is the one between Trump and his proposed wall. This wall has written on it in big glitzy letters, "FAILURE" and it's going to drive Trump even crazier.
2
It is hard to imagine Steven Miller, Trump's nativist principal advisor, embracing a thoughtful, nuanced policy like the one you suggest. Trump is a reflexive demagogue and ill-suited to the job of governance. He surrounds himself with self-serving sycophants. His ego and approach are completely at odds with the approach you suggest.
4
Trump will not will not cut a deal unless and until he explains what he needs the $5.7B for. He needs to have the DHS Sec explain “Here is what the public gets for the money” and here is the difference the money will make. Simply shouting there is a crisis and offering no persuasive evidence of one will get the money. And even if true, they still need to show what the money will buy. Con artist tactics simply will not work.
2
Exactly. When Ann Coulter called out Trump, he realized his angry fascist rallies might grow smaller, so he had to keep fighting for the wall.
Trump could have played this correctly, but he botched it. This also shows that he has no one in his inner circle that has any political savvy. Furthermore, it shows that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are helpless and simply are giving into Trump's insanity.
5
Trump is good at the short term, at selling illusions that eventually burst on the suckers who fall for them. His campaign was pure genius, judging by its effectiveness.
But now the reality is setting in. People are beginning to see that the suit is empty, and always was.
We have real issues that need to be addressed: poverty, health care that's still inaccessible for many, a declining economic base, and increasing inter-ethnic tensions.
And we've elected a condo salesman as our leader.
Good grief.
6
It's not that "immigrants are coming across the border to kill you," although some are--witness the number of American families who have lost loved ones to "indocumentados "with long rap sheets who have murdered citizens and literally gotten away with it because of "catch and release" and sanctuary cities policies, it is that a country does not become richer by allowing those with 4th, 5th grade educations, unskilled, to enter, compete with the citizenry for jobs, flatten wage scales while benefitting from generous welfare assistance programs, all at taxpayer's expense!It is the beau ideal of the chambers of commerce!Don't obfuscate the issue Mr. Douthat.Meanwhile, no disrespect intended, but Schumer has some explaining to do: putting the safety of Israel citizens above the security of our citizenry. You can't be for one wall w/o being for the other. I support the wall protecting sabras living in the border areas from attacks by Hamas, but I also believe that possibility of zealots out to kill us streaming across a vulnerable border is also a hypothesis not to be excl
uded. Did victims of attacks at Charlie Hebdo, in Nice, on London Bridge, Manchester and in Paris centre, did they anticipate the tragedy that was about to befall them?Could Alexander Harrison walk up to Schumer's or Pelosi's front door, ask for a cup of coffee w/o their calling the police "aussitot?"
1
@Alexander Harrison....Oh please. The cat in your living room is more of a threat to your family than illegal immigrants. And stopping illegal immigration with a wall is just a dumb idea - over, under and around. And any comparison with Israel both in length and in purpose is silly. No matter what lies the administration tells you, the number of terrorists or potential terrorists who have been interdicted at our southern border is exactly zero.
5
The big change from 2016 is the tax cuts for the needy 1%. The never-ending campaign feeds the Trump-rumpers bloodlust for racist and demagogic rhetoric. These are more exciting topics than anything broadcast on primetime.
If he can close the government, an oxymoronic thought, why not close the schools, the courts and, the press?
This incessant excitation is rotting our democracy.
3
The necessity of "a somewhat different strategy" is too kind to Trump by far. On the facts alone, Trump and his supporters are simply wrong. Throw in the blatant immorality and racism, and you've got a president whose case didn't make any sense, but nevertheless further debased us as a country.
1
If Ross thinks that the “immigrants are coming to kill you” position “just doesn’t match up with the news that most Americans consume” then he isn’t watching Fox News. In the Atlanta airport on Sunday morning, I was stuck watching an hour of Fox News which was nothing but fear of immigrants the entire time – – the murder of a policeman in California (and lying about how different laws or a wall could have prevented that, which they couldn’t have), general immigrant crisis hysteria, Mike Pence lying about “terrorists” piling up in Mexico, and more blood and guts stories about murdering immigrants. Trump supporters, at least those who watch Fox, are being fed a very different narrative than reality, and the narrative is exactly that “immigrants are coming to kill you.”
6
What a waste that was! It is tough. If you don’t cover it, Trump accuses media of bias, If you do cover it, it is repeating over and over again the lies, falsehoods and misleading statements. It feels like Trump thinks if he just says it one more time, folks will support him. Bludgeons don’t work, even to manufacture a crisis.
I wonder when he will really see the women, the children trying to find solace in a country that cares. Now they are political pawns. Someone is making money on their backs.
God help them. God help our country. May we find our heart again.
3
Mostly OK, but you state that today's immigrants "disappear with their kids into the American interior." This is not quite true. Back in June, Politifact did a story that concluded that most illegal immigrants do show up for their court dates.
1
Of all the people that write in the NY Ties Douthat is the main worrier about our declining birth rate. He calls himself a "natalist".
He constantly laments the decline in church attendance.
He laments unwed parenting.
The immigrants escaping the anarchy and terror of Central America have the courage to come on a perilous journey with the consequences of having their children snatched from and put into concentration camps.
They are intact families, fertile and church going. In addition they are courageous. The fact that they do not look like most of the readers of the NY Times does not mean that their might be a Nobel prize winner among them, a brilliant legal scholar or any of the other talents we need in his country.
There is no immigration crisis in this country. There is an indolent xenophobic crisis in this country.
2
At the rate that Trump is obstructing our Government's ability to do its job, I would say that the crisis of the moment is the shutdown, not the Immigration problem.
Trump and the Republicans temper tantrums over the Wall and the Budget are at the very least childish and at the very most meaner than a "junkyard dog", with al respect to the dogs.
Trump is doing anything he can to keep us from paying attention to what is going on behind the scenes with the Investigation. This Wall is just another distraction. He has said now that it would be 5.7 billion dollars. He keeps changing the amount it will cost. Has the Army Corps of Engineers given him this estimate?
Pure and simple, Trump is not to be believed. When is his base going to come to that conclusion?
2
Why doesn't Stephen Miller just read the speech he wrote for Trump. He would have presented it with more emotion and vigor. Also, everyone would see what a weirdo Miller is.
1
Ross, Unfortunately I must disagree, there is a violent crime problem and it does seemingly have ties to immigration, in at least two areas I am familiar with, Portland Oregon and Fresno , California. The news out of Koin 6 ( a local news station) is not pleasant, I get it on line daily and regrettabley there are a disproportionate number of Hispanics involved. Coincidence or not Portland not long ago had a well deserved reputation of being the “whitest” city in the country, really, getting off a plane from San Francisco was a culture shock, seeing all these clean cut really pale people in a clean charming small town, weird: well the diversity set doesn’t have to worry about Portland anymore it’s as multicultural, filthy, dangerous, homeless abundant and expensive as any other major city in the country today. I guess that’s a good thing in the minds of many, Portland is now inclusive, but as progressive as I am I admit to a pang of nostalgia for the days of clean safe streets, affordable housing and polite folks, at least the kids aren’t always saying “ no worries” anymore, lots of them look very worried as they should. As far as Fresno, I was there a few years ago for my favorite Uncles funeral and the only word that describes my feeling having not been there for a decade was tragic, eight lane freeways and once nice middle class neighborhoods now gang infested ghettos patrolled by black swat humvees, sorry but I don’t think this is the way immigration is supposed to work.
1
This was a fund raising ploy since Trump asked for campaign contributions before and after the speech. Also, how can there be a "border crisis" since Trump declared on December 19, 2018 that " his administration’s efforts to deter illegal border crossings, praising Border Patrol officers and the military for doing a “FANTASTIC job” and claiming, “Our Southern Border is now Secure and will remain that way.”
I’m not sure what is going on - is this
- an attempt to divert attention from the Meuller investigation and the BIG loss Republicans had in November
- the fact that Trump has truly not accomplished much in the past two years - a tax cut that benefits mostly the very wealthy is regular Republican stuff. Where is the great health insurance, where is the great victories in Afghanistan, where the great peace deal in Israel. Pompeo and friend have been running to allies in the Middle East taking back all of Trump’s rash ‘plan’ to take all our troops out of Syria assuring them that “No, we don’t think ISIS has been defeated. No, we are not leaving the Kurds to their own devices. No, we are not doing doing anything Trump said. Believe us, not the mad man in the White House.”
- he has painted himself into a corner. The Wall was never more than a rally-stunt, easy for the crowd to remember and shout back at him “Build the Wall”. “Lock her up.” “Mexico will pay for it.” Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh won’t let him out of this hole he dug himself and no one is more powerful in the Trump White House than Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh. THEY are why the federal workers are missing paychecks!
Maybe it’s all of it, a true nightmare!
2
As stated elsewhere, Trump's hate and fear campaign of 2016 is being retooled for Trump 2020 without much change. It's about racism and cruelty. A Trump supporter was interviewed on Monday and she stated that Trump "was hurting the wrong people with the shutdown".
Trump and his base are all in on being cruel and indifferent to the plight of anyone with brown skin. Legal/illegal is a minor distraction when the whole point is to get these people out of America at any costs. Humanitarian crisis? They do not care what happens to these people. Trump does not care either. But 9 minutes brought him $500,000 in donations for MAGA 2020 so it was worth it.
Coulter and company know he is a liar and yet they have hitched their dreams of a white America on him. Their last chance to completely cleanse our country so they think. That is their hoped for strategy. Trump will not win over new 'converts' to this perverted hatred. The midterms made it clear that Americans reject the hate.
2
It was more than a waste of breath. It was a continuation of nasty, dishonest politics with no regard for good policy or governance.
1
This is a very real crisis inside one man’s cranium and it’s playing out in the living rooms of a weary nation. That crisis is called reality.
"...hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
You might want to leave Republican talking points aside and investigate the reasons WHY asylum seekers are crossing our borders. Otherwise you join trump in pointing at the results of a hemispheric fire of movement without going after those responsible for setting the blaze alight.
Douthat is trying to create an alternative view of the world. He sees, maybe, that his comfortable conservative description of the world is falling apart, and he realizes he is falling with it. Sad. The best way to deal with the likes of Douthat is to ignore them, I think. Nice to see that nobody has commented on this next piece of nonsense.
1
Adaptation, in both thought and strategy, is a sign of intelligence. Nothing more need be said on that subject.
For all his bluster, and it's all just bluster, Trump is one of the most timid and cowering presidents we've ever had. He takes his international marching orders from Putin and his domestic ones from right-wing media. His performance last night was just one more log on the bonfire of his ineptitude.
1
The headline should read "Trump Still Lies But Not as Much" or "Trump Fails at Trying to Act Presidential."
1
The problem is not only that Trump does not have a strong command of language. The bigger issue is that Trump has a problem with honesty and truth.
Having little respect for men and woman, he lies with impunity constantly believing most people, especially his supporters are too gullible to recognize how disingenuous he is.
In the meantime 800,000 federal worker are not being paid, many of whom protect this country from harm.
It is not Trump's language, it is his disinclination to consider the ramifications of his actions. He wants what he wants when he wants it like an immature petulant self-centered child.
This is a dangerous way to run a country.
1
Yes, a waste of breath, and clearly audible, in Trump’s peculiar oratorical delivery. But if Democrats struggle with a solution to the immigration problem, and God knows they,and others, have tried, Trump has failed, probably intentionally, to define what he wants in a wall. What he really wants is the issue of the wall and immigration. In his self absorbed bubble, he has failed to see that the majority is moving on. One of these days maybe Mitch will wake up.
I think there’s another reason that Trump’s blustering bombast failed last night, while it succeeded in 2016. He’s talking to two different cohorts of people. At his campaign rallies, crowds of MAGA hats ate up his rambling, semi-coherent xenophobic rants. On national TV he can’t just preach to the choir, there are informed, thoughtful, reasonable people in the audience. Channeling his inner Father Coughlin isn’t enough, he has to speak in full sentences, he has to appeal to logic. Which also means he has to read from a teleprompter. Trump’s Bull Goose Loony schtick works with the deplorable crowd, but he can’t pull off “reasonable and statesmanlike”, even with the teleprompter. It just ain’t in him.
1
Ten wasted minutes, a big nothing.
What will happen if there is really something important to our nation, will people be willing to let themselves be fooled again?
1
He misses the rallies that he loves so much because he can choose an audience that he knows is gullible enough to eat up his lies. He’s gonna’ start asking for more and more “on air” time - just you wait and see. Fortunate;y for us, his attention span will only allow him to focus for a ten-minute speech reading session. God help us, if he starts going off script from the oval!
Mr Douthat, any true Trumpian believer in The Wall is likely to meet your Shakespearean allusions and the word 'inchoate' with a vacant stare.
You're writing for the wrong audience if you want to make a positive difference for this country. Mind numbing tribal hatreds are the only politics that these people understand - they enthusiastically support throwing brown, non-English speaking children into refrigerated metal boxes and locking them in.
Try simpler words and allusions.
1
I think it sweet that Ross is trying to find arguments that the President could have made: a sort of backhanded criticism, you did a poor job defending your so excellent policy Sir. But however inventive Ross may be, there is no connection between any problem he or the President outlined and the proposed solution by a wall. Except the problem of the President’s image.
I was almost swayed by this argument! Construct a wall to better direct USA seekers into humanitarian asylum services provided by a caring nation. In Mr. Douthat’s conceptualization of this Nation, we see suffering and we try to alleviate that suffering.
The problem is those better angels are swatted away. Mr. Trump and his base say they are tough and patriotic. They say they feel empathy for the suffering, but they must prioritize, no matter how much it hurts. How grown-up they want to be! Tough Love!
How simplistic, unimaginative, blindered, and obstinate these people have become. And cruel. Very, very cruel.
Remember the "monkey and the coconut" story in which the hunter lures a monkey with an empty coconut on a cord with food inside. The monkey reaches in grabs the food, but cannot get his paw back out. It won't let go of the food and thus seals its own fate. Well, Trump look pretty much like a monkey these days. He simply can't let go of the trap that FOX, Limbaugh and other right wing propagandist have set for him (and millions of Americans). You see, the idea of "porous/open" borders is a lie told over and over by right wing propagandists. Murderous bands of Hispanics killing "natives" is also a fable. Perhaps, if we could explain the President's behavior with children's stories, his base (cultists) might finally wake up and realize that Trump is neither competent or effective as a president. He's hurting Americans because of his obsessive focus on the wrong solution for the wrong problem.
2
The Obama Administration deported over two million people (80,000 from the Austin area alone), but you never hear about that these days. Trump sing songs in the key of fear and only knows cruelty and deterrence as an immigration policy. Democrats miscalculate their ability to attract the Hispanic vote: Hispanics will never be as loyal to Democrats as African Americans are. When all this drama dies down, they will consistently vote anti-abortion, and, therefore, not for Democrats. (Republicans can't seem to figure this part out -- imagine that...) So Democrats open their arms wide and sing Kumbaya, banking that Hispanics remember who supported them back in the day . (Be careful what you wish for, my friends. Abortion.)
So what needs to happen? Both sides need to get in a closed room and hammer out a reasonable immigration policy, and then they need to pass it in a bipartisan manner, all the while ignoring their respective bases.
All of this reminds me of a story from Anthony Bourdain: if you are in the kitchen of a busy restaurant and you need to make risotto, you don't get the best chef or the busiest, and certainly not the one who yells a lot. You get the Peruvian guy, who will put his back to you, stir it and stir it, carefully adding broth in small increments, and then he/she will hand it to you when it is ready, and not a minute before.
Time for Congress to find its best Peruvians and get the job done. Start from here: Both sides are right and both are wrong.
2
CA and NYC are creating illegal immigration crises by offering free healthcare to any one whom resides in their state or city! Individual, unelected federal judges are usurping Trump’s attempts to control illegal immigration by instituting some common sense solutions. Liberal media only report “selective” info which support their snd the Democrat’s viewpoints which justifies the new mantra for journalism, “fake news.” I’m sick and tired of the illegal immigration debate. Congress: close the loopholes, close the borders and start working for the American people.
Douthat managed to convince me of one fact in this column--that he is much more intelligent that Mr. Trump. However, Douthat is not the president, and being smarter than the current placeholder in the Oval Office is true of about 75% of the population.
Most of us can easily understand the facts outlined in this column. The problem is that Mr. Trump and his enablers either cannot or refuse to recognize the obvious. That is the problem we face.
We need more strategies for dealing with ignorance--real, convenient, compensated (with $$$), and willful ignorance.
This is a tiresome and boring administration. Last night was a huge waste of air time. He talks about a crisis.....he's the crisis.
Remember the boy who cried wolf. If this person would ever tell the truth, ( and that's highly unlikely ) no one would believe him. He rants and raves about the wall he promised Mexico would pay for and revved up his supporters into a screaming frenzy. Now he's panicking to try to save face. Keep trying Mr. T. no one is buying it. For once he should think about someone else. He should try to live on $30,000. a year and raise a family, pay rent/mortgage, food, tuition, etc. His vindictive closing down the government is destroying the lives of those federal workers. No compassion here.
2
Those in the media didn't want to cede time for an immigration discussion because the media doesn't want the illegal immigration issue to be resolved.
Despite trump and his malicious stupidity, we can now see the parameters of the problem( as it is manifested right now). A wall will not solve drug smuggling or asylum seeking. The democratic base will happily support public health outreach to deal with drug addiction( reducing American consumer demand), humanitarian aid for asylum seekers and more money spent to try and improve safety and economic conditions in their home countries.
If Trump and the Republicans really believed in the wall, then they would have enacted the legislation when they controlled all three branches of government. I don't understand how he waited two years to address his signature campaign promise, stupid and ineffectual as it may be.
If Trump and the Republicans were really concerned about the carnage occurring in American that is truly threatening lives, I would suspect that they would do something about restricting civilian access to assault weapons and improving Obamacare with stronger drug treatment programs.
Clearly, they just see the wall as a great wedge issue that keeps them in power so they can serve their real constituency, the top 0.01%ers.
2
Nice attempt at blaming the messenger for his ignorant and stubborn ways, but the real issue is that racism is not a viable political philosophy, especially when the demographic it most appeals to is dying off rapidly. Trump's appeal has always been his white, nationalist bigotry coupled with a wrongly perceived business acumen. He could "own" the libs, women and POC with outrageous, inflammatory racism which masked his looting and corruption of our nation's money and ideals. But I believe the worm has now turned and the bill is coming due. But c'mon Russ, it's not because his delivery needs polishing.
The fact is that DT cares not at all about country or human beings. He cares about the wall for 2 reasons; it is meat for his growling base, and erecting a wall (he thinks) will be a monument to his self-aggrandizement. DT sold himself as a great builder (he was not) and a great deal maker (oh please). He is great at one thing: con artistry. And in that, he is truly masterful. Pity the suckers who believe his carnival barking and snake oil selling and pity the rest of us who have no choice but to look on in horror and revulsion.
I had no intention of wasting even 10 minutes listening to some blathering liar. There is nothing Trump can (or will) ever do or say to redeem himself. Yet we will be stuck with 2 more years of this?
...or maybe not. I heard, though, that Pence will be sent to the border with a pair of binoculars. He will stand there in place of a wall.
2
The real problem with this presidency is the ubiquity of his twitter pronouncements, and the complete, by now, erosion of his credibility.
Hid steady stream of of threats, vituperation, excuses and falsehoods has rendered this president's Word, and his familiar, but limited locutions, irrelevant.
He has become an outcast on the world stage, untrustworthy, vacillating, and erratic. To borrow a favorite term from the president's lexicon, "Sad", a term that doesn't do full justice to a presidency that has become pathetic.
1
Mr. Doubthat:
I empathize with you -- I too wish Trump had a bonafide communication skillset anyone else running for or has been President .
Frankly, I wish he had any ability at all. But he doesn't.
His broadcast last night showed a weak, low-skilled individual woodenly repeating words from a teleprompter he neither composed nor believed in.
Between the Obstructionist Mitch McConnell and and our know-nothing, incapable POTUS, here we are -- waiting for Mueller or waiting for 2020, whichever comes first.
1
Lost in this discussion is the revelation that "build the wall" was a line given to his handlers by Roger Stone to make trump remember that he is supposed to talk about immigration. It is a meaningless chant that took on a life of its own - just like "lock her up" something that he and his followers could remember. Now the chant should be lock THEM up - trump, his children, his campaign workers, his cabinet - for their criminal corruption. Time to truly drain the swamp.
1
His entire presidency to date can be summed up in one word, waste. As we all know by now Trump as president is entirely out of his league in terms of intellect, understanding and the ability to reason beyond himself. Last night's campaign clown show under the disguise of border security is just another brick in that wall.
1
The only talent this empty little organism named Trump possesses is demagoguery. He's utterly incapable of the things Doubt That would've preferred to have heard last night. Trump cannot think. Trump cannot talk. He can only con by stirring up fear.
What is it with Republicans who deny that Democrats want to do something about border security; even supposedly educated conservatives who read the NY Times? A few weeks ago Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted on a compromise bill that would have allocated more than $1 billion dollars for enhanced surveillance and increased personnel while other measures would be under discussion. The Republican-led House refused to consider that compromise and it went nowhere. The current Democratic-led House adopted that measure, but the Republican-led Senate now refuses to consider it. Tell me, exactly which party has no viable ideas about border security or a serious plan to deal with it? And, Mr. Douthat, asylum seekers are not trying to "disappear with their kids into the American interior." Why would they do that when they are seeking the legal status of asylum? In fact, border security agents have been placing monitoring ankle bracelets on them, placing them in various locations throughout the US through sponsors, and scheduling them for regular visits to ICE offices until such time as they can put their cases before a judge. I know this because I am a volunteer transporter who drives people to their ICE appointments in New York City regularly. The incredible irony of Trump's fear-mongering rhetoric is that hundreds of asylum seekers are now being dropped at bus stations and in US towns without any monitoring. This is not their doing. Border agents are not doing their job.
2
Unfortunately Ross is right President did not give the right speech. Nobody in 2019 can be persuaded with terrorist's fear because none is to be found. Trump should have said what he meant: immigration has to be controlled because it wastes country resources on providing illegals with medical care, schooling end everything else in perpetuity. Because it lowers hope for uneducated to reach the middle class status. Because it changes country racial balance and it does it too fast. Because eventually it will make USA more like a third world country.
Immigration is a winning issue for Republicans if they could find someone who is not a buffoon to lead the party. Because democrats are extreme on this issue compared to the general population. Heck, AOC wanted to send 5,000 (nonexistent) case workers to the border to help the folks in the Honduran caravan. This is the easiest issue for Republicans to paint democrats as extreme. Unfortunately for them Trump doesn't have a clue how to do it, and the fact that 65% of America hates his guts gives democrats leverage in this shutdown.
We are not extreme. We want border security and comprehensive immigration reform. That is not extreme, and DO NOT paint an entire body of people with many diverse views and ethnicities with the brush of one representative of one small part of the country.
1
We need immigration. This has been voiced by my Bates College classmate Richard Gelles (now at UPenn) in this article: https://www.bates.edu/news/2018/06/20/richard-gelles-68-on-social-security/
As he partially notes, "“There is a relatively simple solution to this hypothesis,” Gelles said. “It’s called immigration.”...
“if we crack down on immigration, we’re going to create two problems. One, we’re going to cap Gross National Product growth,” probably at around 2 percent. “And two, we’re exacerbating the [Social Security funding] problem.” That shortfall, Gelles said, “really goes away if you increase the workforce.”
Because it takes at least 18 years for someone born here to become a full-fledged member of the workforce, encouraging immigration offers the quickest way to increase that resource. In Gelles’ words, opening up immigration is the “low-hanging fruit” in strengthening Social Security."
So, forget the wall. Intergrate new workers andreap the benefits.
290
This reminds me of Paul Ryan’s attempt to pivot from a large corporate and donor class tax cut to an entitlement crisis where we need to make cuts in Social Security.
It was the following week and he started to talk about not having enough workers feeding into the system.
His response was essentially that we need to start having more children. With 5, he claimed he had done his part.
He so much wanted to shift to cutting entitlements as long as they had some momentum but think it was inconvenient to argue that we can’t afford them since we don’t have enough revenue.
Apparently allowing more workers into the country as part of a solution was also not somewhere he felt comfortable going. So the answer was that we all need to do our duties and have more babies.
11
@William Menke: sorry but if the mess that is San Francisco and Portland today are the result of your “ growth” hypothesis I am all for no growth, gdp does no equate to a good standard of living or quality of life, except perhaps for the realtors. What “ benefits “ have older San Francisco residents received from growth, unless they were large property owners, being forced from your homes and having to leave the area your grew up in as it became unaffordable for all but the wealthy is not a positive in the eyes of many.
15
@William Menke
Trump supports legal immigration. But not illegal. It's that simple. He acknowledged both last night.
He was presidential. Chuck and Nancy were like two parents waiting for a late teenage daughter. More importantly, they were intransigent.
6
Trump problem is that he gives him self no way out once he takes a position. Though he would like you to think otherwise, he is not a skilled negotiator. His wall plan is the best example so far. He's a win/lose type. In game theory, win-lose situations result when only one side perceives the outcome as positive. Thus, win-lose outcomes are less likely to be accepted voluntarily. One might think that after a series of win/lose proposals he might change his approach. Maybe temper the rhetoric, adopt a more conciliatory tone, ask for enhanced electronic surveillance, a few more border agents and humanitarian relief for families. Then in the next Congress maybe come back and ask for a some portion of the wall funding tied to resolving DACA. This approach takes a long term view of resolving the problem. But...well, you know....not gonna happen.
2
It must have been difficult for the speech writers to condense an airplane hangar speech into 9 minutes. I was disappointed they cut my favorite part, the remembrance of that brilliant electoral college victory and how it was achieved. Oh well, maybe next time.
6
Trump has never been president to anyone who isn't a supporter of his bombastic ignorance and lying. He is a moral failure personally and now also as president. He and his gullible supporters do not like the twenty-first century, preferring the mid twentieth century, which is gone and never coming back.
The midterm elections delivered more than just the House to Democrats. It informed Trump that he was not liked by far more people than there are supporters. and that caused the angry narcissist to double down on immigration and the idiotic wall that was only a concept to keep him focused during his loathsome 2016 campaign.
Trump has no leadership skills, no wisdom, no nuance, no honesty. He could not hold an executive position in any competently managed company. Congressional Republicans are fools to continuing supporting him if they want to be reelected in 2020. Trump won't be.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
16
The larger issue is exemplified by the fact that the major networks gave Trump time to bolster this manufactured *crisis*. The boy does bring the eyeballs. And that is why he is the POTUS today.
5
So, lessee, after deep thought and extensive analysis, the conclusion is that Trump was playing to his base. He’s never done that before. I am shocked, shocked.
7
Everyone knows the old saying that goes something like this: give a man a fish and he will eat today, give him a fishing rod and he will eat every day. The wall is similar to that ida: you can stop migrants today, but it does not solve the problem for the future.
If you want to solve the problem, you must give the wave of poor, frightened individuals a reason for not coming. And that reason is better conditions at home. The way to stop these desperate people is to improve their economy. So, my suggestion is for Trump to get his 5 billions or more and for us to help the economies of the Central American republics. A kind of Marshall Plan for the area.
11
@Frank Casa
And, of course, Trump has defunded efforts to do exactly this.
7
@Susan Anderson They've defunded the Defense Department? How did I miss this? Wait, that's the governmental entity that strives mightily to create the refugees. Never mind.
@Steve Bruns
No, he has defunded efforts to help Central America solve its problems with violence, rape, etc. at home. Fact.
2
You give the cowardly bully terrorist in the white house too much credit. He and his team tell a lot of carefully constructed lies and unfortunately far too many people who only watch Fox News think lies are truth and the truth doesn't matter.
Yes, there are too many people who are unhappy and think finding victims to blame instead of working together to solve a variety of really serious problems is the way to go.
It's easier to hate and blame than to work on solutions. That's why Trumpistan is destroying my country with unpatriotic nastiness.
This must stop. The destruction is escalating.
11
Trump requires to be center stage. He can't bear for anyone else to have the limelight. He would be happy to join the world's dictators in jailing, killing, and torturing any opponents.
1
"I know, Imagine that!" This brief aside is the pith of the author's argument. If only the president had sought a rational solution to border issues, we might actually pass legislation that would improve border security, treat asylum seekers with some dignity, and benefit from the talents that immigrants bring to the US (including the benefits to our economy) When we treat this issue like a good guy vs. bad guy issue--the way Trump treats everything--then there is no solution possible.
16
Mr. Douthat, while playing devil's advocate, structures a rather coherent argument that indeed a more competent orator could have easily articulated. Thankfully Donald Trump is too craven and reprobate to use the higher level thinking required to exercise such a strategy.
7
".....this “IACATBTKY” argument just doesn’t match up with the news that most Americans consume."
No it doesn't. But it matches up with what his base hears from personalities on Fox and hate radio. As the base dwindles, what it loses in numbers it make up for in intensity; that's what trump notices, and his enablers in Congress are scared of the loudest voices.
If there's any silver lining, it's that the longer the Republicans see Congress as an arm of Kremlin West, rather than part of an independent branch of govt., the greater will be their ultimate undoing.
16
Of course the reality is that there is no emergency. The problem is actually diminished from 2006. Remember that the much-touted Secure Fence Act was supposed to be part of broader immigration reform. GOP hawks did not hold up their end of the bargain. The suffering we all see is a result of their failure.
Trump and his enablers are headed in the exact wrong direction. His wall will waste resources that could be used to address the real problems with immigration.
8
@Warren, the problem in 2019 is different from 2006, and in many ways worse. Read this from the relatively nonpartisan Texas Tribune:
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/05/trump-immigration-border-crisis-little-urgency/
Since Trump constantly lies and his base believes him, even if he says something contradicting his prior statements, or replacing in this case (the U.S., not Mexico paying for the wall), could he just say the wall has been built? Maybe the Democrats could just go along with his alternative facts. Wall or no wall -- what's the difference? As Giuliani said, "truth isn't truth."
7
It seems to me that the president is caught between the demonizing, anti-immigrant rhetoric of his 2016 campaign and the reality that immigrants are largely humans looking for a better life. It's easier to hate the abstract evil vision that the president has created than it is to look at the real humans that are very much in need. Americans have eyes; it's no longer necessary to rely on the president's telling of this story. We can see it for ourselves. It's time to create solutions that deal with the human realities and humanitarian crisis that exists, and not the fictional, unspecific immigrant that is coming to take your job and hurt your family. History will not judge us on the fiction, it will judge us instead on the harsh reality of what is actually happening.
7
The problem for Trump, as we now know, Mr. Douthat, is that the "Wall" was a trick presented by aides(!) so that Trump wouldn't forget to talk about immigration.
The problem is that Trump, in his "brilliance," decided to add that Mexico would pay for the wall.
So, where are the pesos?
The problem is that a minority of Americans liked Trump's schtick on the wall, which was a trick.
The problem is that there are no arguments that our national security is at risk if we don't "give" Trump his wall.
So, there is no national emergency, there are no pesos, and there is no wall.
Really, Mr. Douthat, it's absurd to see you and Mr. Brooks make the case how Trump could make the argument for the wall, given all that we now know.
16
Suppose, instead of all this wall talk that's gone on for decades, a portion of the money spent went to creating businesses and better opportunities for the populations of Mexico and of Central America? Why do people from these places come here - to live better lives, to have more income, to have a safer place for themselves and for their children to live in.
What would $2 billion dollars spent in these places do, provided that the corruption in these places could be controlled? Why is Costa Rica able to maintain a populace in a healthy, productive, and safe environment? Why can't our money be used to better the lives of these people instead of having a wall that does nothing to alter the conditions that cause them to immigrate. Would they still leave if they could live well and peacefully where they grow up???
Imagine if, instead of the rush to China all those decades ago, we'd instead helped these countries, with their own cheap labor, to set up the businesses to manufacture all that China now does. How different would the immigration problem be, let alone all the issues we're now facing with China?
8
Trump used immigration in 2016 to gin up racial fear and economic anxiety to win votes for himself, he lost by 15 million votes. He tried to use immigration, the caravan, in 2018 to gin up racial fear and economic anxiety (he even threw in some possible terrorism just for good measure) to win votes for the Republicans, he lost by 9 million votes.
Using immigrants as punching bags for Americans who feel they got a raw deal from our government didn't work in 2016,
nor in 2018 and I hope it will fail again in 2020. Hopefully, the Republican's Southern Strategy, after fifty years, has finally run its course.
6
"...hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior."
Is that their hope? Really? Or are they hoping for what my grandparents and your grandparents and great-grandparents and my mother from postwar Glasgow and hundreds of millions of immigrants have always hoped for?
Spend a few bucks on more hearing officers, case workers and border guards. Spend a few bucks to help these people, vet them, check their stories out, bring them in right.
We have 2000 open jobs on the border but need trainers to train the applicants. We need to focus on what is doable and right rather than focus on ethnicity and race.
Learn the facts.
9
Anyone who thinks either a concrete wall or steel slat barrier will deter anyone without some sort of virtually continuous surveillance has never operated a thermal lance.
And if you have continuous surveillance you don't need a wall.
3
@Cdb:
Quite so. And the millions of us that have operated thermal lances for decades know exactly what you're talking about. Not.
1
This is all theater. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
10
7.53 billion people, Ross, enmeshed in an economic system, one of whose points of origin is our own United States, that uses people as raw material, thoughtlessly disrupting families, whole communities and even countries in the process, all in the name of profit.
And no where for all those people forced to move by ethnic conflict, outright wars or economic displacement to go, no more empty continents like Australia or North America inhabited by just a few million indigenes so easily displaced.
Really, Ross, it's not that much of a puzzle.
2
President Trump may emphasis crimes committed by illegal immigrants, but that is not the aspect of illegal immigration that concerns most Americans. What concerns most Americans the most about illegal immigration is social disruption.
Legal immigration creates a highly diverse steam of immigration who come from virtually every nation in the world. The come from a broad variety of cultures and speak a multitude of languages. They possess the skills and education necessary to thrive in America.Their tremendous diversity encourages them to acculturate and assimilate rather than coalesce n racial or ethnic conclaves. By law, they have to be functional in English.
Illegal immigration creates a non-diverse stream of immigrants from Latin America who, for the most part, speak only Spanish. Unlike legal immigrants, they lack the skills and education n necessary to flourish in U.S. society. Their lack of culture diversity, coupled with their protracted minority status discourages assimilation and acculturation. It is why border states have to spend billions on court-ordered bilingual education programs.
7
It was obvious that Trump didn't want to be there last night, that he was more fixated on reading the words on his teleprompter and pronouncing all the consonants than he was in addressing a complicated national problem. Only nine minutes on the vexing, immensely complex business of immigration and all the things we might do to improve a badly flawed system? Either he hadn't bothered to explore the matter thoroughly (likely) or he just couldn't wait to get out of there (also likely).
15
Ross:
"Why immigration rhetoric that worked in 2016 doesn’t work today"
Are you saying that you believed it in 2016 but not today ?
Ha. I doubt that. You have opposed everything that Trump has ever said, consistently.
Ahem.
It does work today, for anyone who agrees that a continuing flood of illegal immigrants into this nation is a problem. His poorly put-together details don't matter. The larger point is what counts.
You go to great effort to pick apart his points, right or wrong, but you offer no recognition of a problem, or a suggested solution to the problem.
Clearly, you believe that illegal immigration should be supported - maybe even facilitated, as do many wrong-headed readers here.
The whole argument against a barrier - wall or otherwise - is specious, and childish.
Anyone who wants to enter this nation legally may do so at any time by applying for entry and crossing through a port of entry. A barrier doesn't prevent that. It only prevents illegal entry.
Anyone who wants to enter illegally should be physically prevented from doing so and be made to stand in line with the people who respect the law.
Like it or not, a barrier facilitates that end.
4
Apparently you’ve spent as little time pondering the issue as has our President.
The issue is not that the wall is expensive; the issue is that a wall is not a viable solution.
And you appear to have missed Ross’s point entirely, which is that the situation at the border has changed in the last two years, and Trump should have acknowledged that instead of pretending the current situation at the border is somehow Obama’s fault after two years of Republican rule.
7
@Objectivist
Elon Musk started a company he calls the "Boring Company." He leases boring machines that dig tunnels underneath cities like Los Angeles for future highways. How long before someone in Tijuana rents one to dig a tunnel to Pittsburgh?
3
@Jenny Cook
That's absurd. A wall IS a viable solution.
A wall with cleared areas on both sides, is straight-forward to monitor and enforce, particularly compared with open brushland.
Staff have to be made available; that has been the constraint to date, for areas that already have a barrier.
The vast majority of illegal crossings are on foot, at the surface.
Very few come across in tunnels.
And, nonsense: the situation at the border has only changed for those in detention, already in the US. The rest is exactly as it was when he came into office. Obama had 8 years to do something, and he did do something. He restricted the Border patrol and facilitated increased illegal entry.
As I noted in different post, Trump was elected by the Republican base to run roughshod over the Republican establishment and address issues important to the voters.
He has been very good - better than any other president in history - at fulfilling his campaign promises.
1
Great analysis. Too bad our president is not the stable genius he claims to be... Otherwise he could process information and facts and make good decisions.
2
Mr. Douthat, raises two talking points for president Trump. In the second he suggests that Donald Trump come out as a caring humanitarian, while at the same time claim that keeping tens of thousands of asylum seekers in Mexico is a good thing, which it is not. Hopeful immigrants are being forced to look for other ways to enter America and make their claim for asylum, which is their right. But, it is also dangerous. At the legal border crossings, very few people are allowed in each day, which helps create the humanitarian crisis. The zero tolerance policy has led to this crisis as well. Donald Trump's decision to turn away from the methods devised by former presidents, such as ankle bracelets, to track immigrants movement, and better insure court dates are met has added to the growing border crisis. Trump derided this, famously, as catch and release. Far from calling for more funding to hire the thousands more people needed to process back claims, Trump has called to do away with courts and judges, all together, and simply deport everyone instantly. What we are left with is a vision of children sleeping on cold concrete floors, covered by milar blankets, separated from their families, at Donald Trump's instruction. Mr. Douthat, there really is no second talking point. Trump's abiding vision is to keep punishing people, in as many ways possible, until they stop trying to come here.
3
It is probably safe to say the best public policy is likely to emerge from a complete recitation of the facts as they are known. But the problem we face, is that if the facts suit or political leanings and weaken the position of our opponents, the facts are embraced with gusto. But if the facts do not align with our political leanings and support our opponents, the facts are dismissed or challenged.
There appears to be a lot of media fact-checking of President Trump, and that is welcome. But is the fact-checking being done only on policies big media do not support? In other words, would the fact-checking be just as robust, if the president were trying to make the case for something supported by big media?
1
Why can't Congress compromise and authorize enough border money for all to save face? That is not how Congress works anymore. All or nothing and for the past 20 years, that means nothing. Try to remember that the terrible Trump still has an approval rating twice that of Congress. Congress is the real child in the room that begat Trump. Congress decided not to pass immigration policy for the past 2 decades, essentially gifting that duty to the president. We have a legislature that does not legislate, thereby abdicating its powers to the other two branches.
3
Ross assumes that Trump doesn’t get it, that Trump is trapped in his past and by his own ego so he misses the facts on the ground. Of course this is false. Trump and his supporters understand the situation on the boarder perfectly. Good Republican foot soldier that he is, but still a man of conscience, Ross is trying to shift the discussion toward actual policy. Trump and his supporters want cruelty.
The government is shut down because Trump and Republicans want to be able to treat immigrants (excepting those from Norway apparently) with excessive cruelty to keep them out. They know about the plight of these women and children, and they understand the life that awaits them in their home countries. They don’t care.
Republicans use the specter of the drug crisis to keep these families out knowing full well that opioids come mostly from China by mail, and that the crisis started with excessive sales of opioids by good old US pharmaceutical manufacturers. They know the Democrats would give $5.7B to improve administrative efficiency at the border, increase the number of postal inspectors to catch drugs mailed from China, and improve drug treatment options, but that’s not what they want. Trump and his supporters want cruelty.
Trump and his supporters know what they’re doing. It’s Ross who’s missing the point. I hope it’s unintentional.
15
There may not be a crisis at the border, but there is certainly an immigration crisis in this nation. The GOP gets this. The Democrats do not. The GOP has a plan -- a ham-handed and draconian plan, but a plan. The Democrats have no plan. The best decision in the right decision, which Trump has not offered. But for leaders, the worst decision is no decision at all. Which is what we get from the Democrats.
40
@John Jabo
If it's an emergency, why was this plan not implemented by the GOP majority Congress over the past Two years?
633
@John Jabo
Your statement re: Democratic indecision is dead wrong in proper context.
And also one has to really define "plan" rigorously in that proper context.
In my business mind "planning" centers around "implementation".
Plans in that context come in sort of 2 flavors.
First, a "strategic plan" that defines implementation milestones, paths to them, and overall timing targets/goals/resources allowed/constraints/policies,
Second, various "tactical plans" that define in detail the steps, actions, resources to achieve the milestones.
We have not those plans as a Nation because we have not the basis for them. To implementation plan one NEEDS a unified vision and set of objectives - things negotiated rationally and objectively - things agreed that all are to implement against - a mission statement.
If you strip away the fringes of both Parties they both have reasonable and necessary good technical ideas re: needs and vision. Emphasis a bit different but actually all could EASILY dovetail with a little give and take.
Yet we don't have any implementation plans really because we like a unified vision. One we could easily have.
All we have are raisons d'etat. And the fault for this failure clearly rests on the GOP. ESPECIALLY since Trump to whom they turned over their soul.
He has only raisons d'etat - now they have likewise - the Ds - almost powerless - are driven to the lowest common denominator.
Existential danger today is not at the borders but the Trump/GOP.
87
@John Jabo
There is indeed an immigration crisis in this country...we have too few young, talented, hardworking immigrants to support an aging demographic at a time when American birth rates are at a historic low and declining. Whom do you think is going to keep our 80% consumer-based economy running and pay for your Social Security and Medicare. Look into some facts...they are stubborn yet quite informative.
225
Trump’s shutdown propaganda had one goal: distract us all from the Manafort revelations...and fund raise. Even in a pickle, grifters will always try to sell a scam while being locked up. https://youtu.be/ivRKfwmgrHY
Ross is the only guy who could give the Wizard a second narrative. The cheering citizens of Oz are uncanny in their support for the Wizard as he escapes.
Sadly, Trump will burn Oz to the ground rather than make a graceful Exit, and his supporters are “christians” who can provide Biblical references the justify cruelty to children, termination of food, healthcare provisions and rejection of the refugees. No wonder Ross claims to be more Catholic than Pope Francis, by his cherry picked morality.
12
The large number of asylum seekers at our border is the result of humanitarian crisis in Central America, very little to do with our borders. It is the result of our failure to stabilize this region and insistence on supporting regimes that follow our vision. Instead, we should focus on identifying and supporting political groups that have broadest local support, regardless of their political inclinations, socialist or conservative.
4
Ross, you didn't mention the third feather of the so-called dovetail of the immigration bludgeon. Besides the 2016 specific spike in violent crime and rash of terrorist attacks, there was the omnipresent resentment of people of color that has been nurtured in the Republican party since the 1960's. The bludgeon was effective because it was the message that most Republicans wanted to hear. Even now, the message is about keeping "those people" in-line or out of the country altogether.
17
One problem is, I'm guessing that as soon as he completed his talk, his base turned off the TV and did not any of the fact checkers, which could have revealed his lying and deception.
4
And let’s not forget that Trump’s implicit argument is that the threat is so great he should shut down the government until he gets funding for .... some kind of barrier to be named later by him once the money is in hand. That’s a big ask and the threat would have to be correspondingly big.
3
If this were truly a crisis of the magnitude laid out by Trump, he would not employ undocumented employees. Over 40,000 people died from gun violence last year, our infrastructure is crumbling and the climate is changing in ways we are refusing to research and prepare for our collective future. Please do not tell me this silly wall is a national emergency folks.
14
Trump's approach has as much to do with the ignorance of his following as his own inability to adapt to changes in the amount of Islamic terrorism and other real world immigrant issues.
When he attempted to compromise away his demand for a wall, conservative talk celebrities clobbered him. If he loses them he is finished. If he appeals to them his poll numbers may remain low, but without them they sink to the bottom of the sea.
The man is drowning and this tiny life preserver is his only hope.
3
As Steve Schmidt so rightly asks: "Where are the pesos?"
7
Trumpian policy demands that he never, never, admit to any shortcomings of his policies, and by extension, never, never admit that anything done by anyone not named Donald J. Trump has had any beneficial effect. (I, and I alone, can fix it.) Also, your reference to the old type of illegal immigration by single men.....they did not stay. They made some money and went back home to their families. Nowadays they cannot do that.
6
Mr. Douthat sprinkles his column with positive attributes about President Trump: xenophobic, bludgeon, extremity of rhetoric, etc. This kind of fawning writing in Mr. Douthat's columns has to cease - it clearly shows him to be unable to break free from reflexive praise of President Trump.
It would be better for him to adopt a calm, neutral approach and to suggest some solutions.
For instance, the USA could set up reception areas near the border and invite refugees to escape their country and to be relocated (in a manner allocated by size of the receiving country's population) to countries like China, India, Turkey, etc. It should not be incumbent on the USA to be the sole country to provide a haven from conditions in Central America. A tarmac could be built (at lower cost than a wall) and refugees would be given free air transport to these countries - who are probably feeling cheated because the USA has in the past not fairly shared the incoming refugees. Win-win for the refugees and for the host countries.
“Xenophobic, bludgeon, extremity of rhetoric” — you think these terms are complimentary!? Really???
Hmm. Perhaps the gulf between left and right is even wider than I imagined.
"Democrats core vulnerability"? Ross, I'm a bit disappointed about the liberty you take with facts. Do you remember what was President Obama's moniker? Deporter in Chief! In fact according to ICE statistics, deportations under Obama were higher than under the Trump administration (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/14/deportations-under-trump-are-rise-still-lower-than-obamas-ice-report-shows/?utm_term=.83d68468e186). But he focused on deporting criminals and felons while offering a path to naturalization to the most productive and integrated portion of the undocumented population with DACA.
13
The problem with "Build the Wall!" is that it's become stale, worn out from overuse. Trump needs a new battle cry. I'll offer him this one, free of charge. As any good medieval castle builder knows, a wall is no good without a moat. So: "DIG THE MOAT! A BEAUTIFUL MOAT, ALL ALONG THE BORDER." We'll dig a canal to Chicago and drain the Great Lakes to fill it up.
4
If there's one takeaway from the Trump disaster, it is this:
Hate sells.
As a nation, we have to realize this sad fact and change our course.
It is easier to tear down than it is to build up. Alas, what we build is critical to our nation's success. Hate will only serve to destroy us.
4
What you propose is that he instantly turns into a statesman. Unlikely to happen.
3
I don't often agree fully with Mr. Douthat, finding his tendency to state right-wing dogma as points of established fact from which to argue annoying. But I must concede that his analysis in this case is insightful and thought provoking. If only Trump were remotely capable of the analysis Mr. Douthat has provided, this ridiculous impasse could be ended and we would all, Democrat and Republican, be better off for it.
Thank you for this excellent commentary.
2
Remember Willy Horton! This is vintage Republicanism. Fear is the core operating principle for Republican. Democrats havre never been for open borders. Because of their strong support for union labor, they have supported protecting American workers from unfair competition. Destruction of unions, out sourcing, and support for low wage workers is core for Republicans. Look at trump’s hotels! Democrats have supported human rights of workers worldwide and the humane treatment of immigrants. These are concepts that do not drive the Republican Party. Think of Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, torture and the death of hundreds of thousands of people. Look at how they treat refuges at the border. Republicans voted for Trump because he is a White Christian Nationalist and authoritarian—that I s the Republican Party. It is a party of destruction, devoid of constructive policy ideas. Think of birtherism, Benghazi, voter suppression, healthcare, infrastructure, immigration reform—nothing. The party is vacuous and built in lies. Mitch McConnell worked to destroy Obama and Hillary Clinton. Destruction is core to the party. Trump found a home for a reason. Without Russian help and Russian’s ability to exploit the fears and low information processing of Republican voters we would not have Trump. Why do you think Republicans protect trump and block investigations in Russian interference —they are part of it! The greatest threat to American democracy is the GOP.
8
Ross has taken Trump’s bait and is off discussing whether Trump’s bright lure of distraction is as lusters as of old.
In Riss’ case, the answer obviously is yes. Ross has been lead down Trump’s rabbit hole, and appears unaware that Trump is using a shutdown to completely subvert the House and extract a gift of $5.7 billion toward his $25 billion (plus) boondoggle.
It’s not this gift that matters or whether he deserves it. It’s the use of an arbitrary shutdown to arm-twist whatever Trump wants.
With the cooperation of Mitch, Trump is en route to become emperor.
4
Ross, you and the rest of the "conservative" apologists paved the way for Trump. He's your guy now, why not fall in line and praise him like a "real" conservative.
7
An artful approach that requires a subtle and sophisticated hand. And the ability to read. Need I say more?
1
Another reason the the Wall Talk is received differently in 2019? Our understanding the Trump Organization would be profiting from the building of the wall. America now understands that there is no bottom to the Trump greed. And that it would only be logical to Trump the President that Trump the Builder get the contracts and the profits.
4
We don't need to be completely Trump-obsessed, but we do need to be Trump-concerned. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bullrings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a linguistic "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
How can a rational commentary include “ in fairness to Trump “. ?He was given a chance and blew it. Enough is enough. No more defending the indefensible.
4
The Republican rhetoric of fear rooted in racism is not the issue. It is the quality of Trump's oratory that is to blame for failure. And, by the way, deportations were happening under Obama. He managed not to separate kids from their families (for deterrence) or create massive holding pens as spectacle. One wonders what exactly Republican policy brings to the immigration issue besides ham-handed police-state persecution of brown people a the border to televise and please the Roman Circus of Trump constituents.
2
Even Douthat can't resist the hyperbole that Trump relishes... Exactly what "rash" of terrorist attacks is he talking about - two mass shootings is not exactly a "rash".
By not sticking to facts he fall into the same lazy trap that Trump voters fell into.
We knew back in 2016 that the estimated 3% of the US population that is here illegally is responsible for about 5% of GDP (per Pew Research). They prove their mettle daily by working harder than legals.
3
This is one of the more thoughtful pieces on the border situation (what it is and what it isn’t). As the author notes, Trump is not a persuasive orator. He is a bully and a crass one at that. It’s too late for a teleprompter and speech writer to lend credibility to his “crisis”. A fresh, new argument on why money for a barrier is more time sensitive than humanitarian aid, an immigration overhaul, etc. was needed to give his Oval Office airtime a chance to land an effective argument. Instead we heard evidence that further pandered to the “Build The Wall” crowd and an ultimatum on right and wrong. The error of the Trump administration is their continued inability to put themselves in the minds of the “non-believers” and approach the argument as the author suggests.
1
@Molly Lynn
There is no Southern border crisis and no need for prime time presidential address. Instead, all is part of the Trumpian freak show.
Douthat could stand to be more honest and less high minded. He tries to apply his usual policy sensitive commentary though he usually miss reads the facts on the ground in service of a desire to be thought 'reasonable'. In this case he fails to recognize that Trump is a thief--he stole network assets for personal political gain for a performance that, according to other reporting, he did not believe in himself. But Douthat compounds his desire to be thoughtful with this phrase "... hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system..." which itself makes an unsubstantiated claim about the motivation and strategy of those approaching the border. There is no evidence at all for this statement, in fact rather the reverse as people willingly approach the asylum process. Douthat might stop and think about what he is saying with that phrase in the midst of his other words about Trump. He has tried to thread a needle between immigrant bashing and Trump bashing falling neatly into the chasm created. Good riddance.
2
"the people who surrender willingly, hoping to exploit our overstrained asylum system and disappear with their kids into the American interior.
Certainly this is true for many migrants today, but what evidence do you have that this is not because they would have to wait years to have their cases considered by immigration courts, that if Justice were swift, they would not willing have their asylum claim adjudicated?
Nothing new here. There were no new ideas, merely a non-crisis to blame Democrats for the shutdown. Squinting into the camera, Trump came off as weak and ineffective. He trotted out the same lies and hyperbole to make his case. Snooze...
3
Hey I thought the part where Ross attempts to justify unprecedented fear mongering rhetoric by ignoring the importance of decades of overall decline in violent crimes was interesting
1
Coulda woulda shoulda. But what about his GOP enablers in Congress? Talk about cowardice and collusion, no excuse there.
3
Trump's breath was not entirely wasted. Have a few words with any of his supporters and you'll find that the speech served, once again, to obscure and distract from the corruption and incompetence that at least a few of them might otherwise begin to notice.
Whatever else may be said of him, Trump is a master distractor.
1
A more gifted orator, someone with compassion and without racism, could have easily put Democrats into a tight spot. Americans do not want open borders, but turning people away and deporting them will always be deeply unpleasant. A wall, even if ineffective physically, might have the salutary public relations effect of encouraging asylum seekers and border jumpers to try and make life better in their home countries.
At the end of the day, Trump presents the wall as a racist rallying point because he is quite simply a racist making a racist appeal. That fact alone is why a wall must be opposed, even if there is validity to it in some ways.
1
Whole lot of ugly getting swept under that "inchoate anxieties" rug, methinks.
2
Trump can still provide the same arguments you propose with the Dems after reopening the Govt. your arguments seem pretty valid and Dems can surely meet halfway.
I did not watch Trump's abuse of the national media last night. Reading/listening this morning to news stories and commentary confirms that last night was not just abuse of the media, but more abuse of truth, the American people, our nation.
Ross says the problem is Trump did not take into consideration changes that have occurred since he began his dark diatribe against Mexican immigrants in 2016. Fair enough. But have we not learned for certain that Trump and his base couldn't care less for reality, facts, the truth? When his lips move he lies.
So last night Trump threw more fetid mud at America. To the rest of the world we have come to look and smell like drunken bums who stumbled into a sewage ditch. Most Americans are disgusted, outraged, resistant to his lies. But his 30-percent base continues to believe he was chosen by their god to make America a tyranny.
The problem is no longer Trump's ongoing lies and bile which sway no one outside his echo bubble but Republicans in Congress.
Senator McConnell is now enemy (of the people) number one. He could, but will not, act to put federal workers back to work. He could, but will not, choose to pass immigration reform that secures the border and recognizes DACA must have citizenship and illegal immigrants already living/working in America need residency status and a path to citizenship. Most of all, he could, but will not, provide any oversight of President Vanity.
We need to rid Congress of McConnell to restore America.
6
That speech had Stephen Miller's imprimatur. Enough said.
3
I thought Trump said he could “shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue” and his base would not care? If that is true why does he need to keep reassuring them if he can do whatever he wants?
1
Mr. Douthat's arguments are just as silly and fearmongering as Trump's. There are charts that show that border crossings have reduced tremendously over last 20 years (PBS Newshour Jan 8). There is no anticipation of that going up anytime soon given how welcoming Americans are to aliens (only in America such a 'terrific' word is used to describe people from other countries). The argument that we want to build the remaining wall so that the border crossings don't go up again is an utter non-sense. It is just feeding the xenophobia on the right.
1
Kind of hard to declare an immigration emergency after ignoring the topic for two years. Clearly the GOP priorities were on a huge tax cut and stomping on Obamacare. How about working on that TrumpCare plan? Or the Infrastructure bill? Or just head off for that belated golf weekend?
3
Right now the argument for a wall and border security, however weak you think it is, is much stronger than the oppositions argument against to not having a wall.
Securing the border and protecting its citizens is the most basic function of the federal government. Paying federal workers and having national parks and other things affected by the shutdown are secondary. They can only happen if proper security is in place.
The argument against stronger security is a dead end, a losing issue, and is why a Trump is pressing it. You should look past your hatred for the President and just imagine if it were one of your guys or gals promoting it. You would agree with them if it was their proposal.
19
@Kevin No one is arguing against stronger border security. Pelosi and Schumer both advocated for it in their rebuttals. As I see it, there are three essential questions: First, what kind of border security is most effective? Much of the southern border already has physical barriers, so a more expensive wall wouldn't necessarily do much.
Second, why should unrelated government operations be contingent on funds for border security? You claim that "Paying federal workers and having national parks... can only happen is proper security is in place." Why, exactly? We've been paying federal workers just fine without a wall.
Third, are we as a nation comfortable with the symbolism of an unnecessary 30-foot wall on our southern border? I liked Schumer's claim that, "The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a thirty-foot wall."
191
@Kevin Interesting that the country has managed to survive for more than two centuries without border walls. You must think the U.S. has failed to "protect its citizens" throughout its existence.
148
@Kevin Why do you think a wall and border security are the same thing?
If "proper security" is lacking, and necessary before paying federal workers, then why have federal workers ever been paid? And why, by the way should they ever be working without pay? What does that do for their - and our -security?
101
The "facts on the ground" were never what you pretend they were, not in 2016, nor during Obama's Presidency. President Obama deported more illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border than his Republican predecessors, he just did it humanely, and most importantly, without exploiting racism. Further, the number of people trying to cross the border was falling for nearly a decade.
The only thing that's changed from 2016 is that religious radicals and sophists who supported Trump's bigotry so America's judiciary could be transformed into a theocratic institution are no longer believed by most Americans.
Trump tried to use his phony prime-time address to distract from his criminality and feed America the same lies about how shutting the government down over his wall stops terrorism when it makes it more likely. The WSJ reported that the TSA expects more "airport security screeners will stop coming to work if they aren't paid at the end of this week," and Airport Security Officials stated they'll have to "loosen standards."
Trump's own administration stated that no terrorists come through America's southern border. In July 2017, the Trump State Department said there was "no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has ever traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States." According to separate DHS data for 2017, all the people on the terrorist watch list encountered by U.S. officials tried to enter through airports (2,170) or by sea (49).
482
@Robert B
Obama was actually serious about addressing immigration reform, and went after companies that hired them. Trump is not. He has hired plenty of undocumented immigrants, as have many of his wealthy friends, not to mention Republican voters in places like Texas and Arizona.They are not serious about immigration reform either. The wall is pure optics, that wouldn't deter illegals and almost certainly not drugs. Trump likes it because he likes building projects, it would be visible (unlike infrastructure repair) and it would be associated with him.
Trump has no desire to curb the flow of cheap, hardworking labor - he simply wants to keep it that way and leave them easily exploitable. And that is probably true of many in congress as well.
25
It would be so nice if his concern for violence extended to our only in America gun violence. Perhaps portable fences dragged around to all schools,concert venues,night clubs etc. More concern about thousands gunned down every year by fellow Americans would be better for all Mr.Trump
752
@Bob 1967
Exactly. The only thing worse than a wall is being walled into a country full of guns and gun violence. Let him have his wall but tie it to a ban on guns.
34
@Bob 1967
Fact, we have a better chance of being killed by a crazy American white guy with a gun then an immigrant. Many of my neighbors are immigrants and they are the most wonderful people and truly carry a compassionate American spirit in their hearts.
I am an older white male government worker and I don`t want a wall. How about more judges to handle the back log of cases and more border patrol agents. 2020 can`t get here soon enough.
76
He is who he is. He won't change. His supporters won't change. They don't represent a majority.
However, the Republican Party, unified in all three branches of government, continues its work of disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, and courtpacking. That is their most effective substitute.
Everyone who votes for a Republican is voting to strengthen that approach to politics for the long-term -- and to strengthen Trump in the short-term. And every Republican politician knows their electoral coalition is utterly untenable without xenophobes.
16
Ross has missed the point of Trump’s magic act. Trump has made the issue one of patching up the border. He has fomented discussion of whether the Wall is effective, whether the border is really leaking, and he has manufactured a humanitarian morass at the border to engender concern.
All this is misdirection. The key point in all of this has nothing to with the wall or the border— the thing to notice is that Trump is using a government shutdown to subvert Congress and let Trump hijack billions of dollars just because he wants to. Congressional control of the Presidency has been flipped on its head.
Trump could not do this without complicity of McConnell in refusing to put any bill to the vote unless Trump gives prior approval. It remains to be seen, should it happen McConnell changes his mind, if the GOP Senate will acquiesce to this same abdication of responsibility.
They might. Trump may have achieved being emperor!
290
@John Brews
Don't confuse genius with coincidence. The only reason Trump has authority over Congress is Mitch McConnell. McConnell's approval rating is about 20 points lower than Trump's even among Republicans. McConnell is wedded to the President much more closely than Melania. The Republican Senate is along for the ride because the GOP has made breaking with the party more costly than sacrificing freewill. If Senators just say "yes," they will die rich and well provided.
Unfortunately for Trump, nothing in politics lasts forever. The emperor's cookie jar is already cracked. 2020 isn't going to look any better either. The electoral map for Senate Republicans is miserable and Trump isn't helping. The only question is whether Republicans will mutiny before voters have a chance to throw the bums out. It might be a long two years but Trump has passed his zenith.
18
@John Brews ..✅✅
Trump has previously told us why he wants and needs the wall: to send a (costly) message to those south of the border that they are not welcome here, but last night of course he couldn’t state that simple and obvious truth. No, Stepford Trump simply mouthed the same old inflammatory dog whistles. Thus he again stirs up, and makes a good faith effort for, his base. He does have a humanitarian crisis at the border and lacks the skills to substantively deal with it through true immigration reform; another real humanitarian crisis is between Trump’s ears. A wall will not solve either problem and most of America knows it.
McConnell is just playing politics and has simply miscalculated. He did not want a Govt shut-down and said it would not happen. His first response was the correct one, so it was likely hubris wouldn’t allow him to resist the challenge so he has tried to position himself to avoid any fallout. But taking Federal employees hostage is not a winning strategy and he will not be able to stop the inevitable GOP defections. As Steve Schmidt said on O’Donnell last night, if McConnell hasn’t called you to corral GOP unity around Trump, he’s setting you free since he can always claim it’s beyond his control. We can only hope that Kentucky voters will see him for the scoundrel he is and throw him out of office in 2020.
3
Ross, your analysis makes sense if re-election were Trump's prime objective. But it's not.
Trump knows better than anyone whether Mueller's investigation is likely to unearth evidence of money laundering and conspiracy with the Russians to commit fraud against the United States.
If that evidence is likely to be compelling, then Trump's prime objective is to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail. His best chance to do that is to keep his base loyal to him, fired up against the deep state and willing to take to the streets if Mueller knocks on the White House door.
Once you identify Trump's primary objective, his actions make complete sense, and America has much to worry about because the Deplorables are coming.
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We here this a lot, but what are his supporters supposed to do when they "take to the streets"? Commit acts of terror against random citizens? Attaxk the police or armed forces? How well will that work?
They are mostly cowardly bullies and all we will see is an uptick of anonymous Internet trolls.
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@Kevin Comeau I find your argument curious. I think Mr Trump truly believes that he's done nothing wrong.
I think he believes his own braggadocio: that he's been an astonishing business success; that he's never done anything illegal, but he's been "really smart" about pushing the edge of the law (and Michael Cohen helped him maintain that self-delusion); that he's a uniquely adept deal-maker; that his loner, "disrupter" style of running an organization is a mark of his true genius. For "disrupter," read "tantrum-throwing toddler."
I wouldn't be the first to observe that Mr Trump does not think or behave strategically. His focus is limited to in-the-moment transaction. As is his style, he's throwing a tantrum to win the argument-of-the-moment. Regarding the real people who are suffering real harm from his tantrum, take a lesson from his wife: I really don't care. Do you?
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@Kevin Comeau
All of our presidents have been criminals in one way or another. Trump will never go to prison. He will be pardoned by the next president, whether a Republican (God, no!) or a Dem. He will live his remaining years in luxury, just as before.
There is the law, and there is justice. Rich people hardly ever get justice they deserve. Banksters, anyone?
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The president began well, by trying to broaden the appeal for border security and even managed to utter the word "humanitarian." But before very long he gave up on crocodile tears and resorted to the tactic with which he was most comfortable, the Willie Horton approach, a tactic that even its creator claimed tor egret before he died.
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This seems like an accurate analysis by Ross Douthat. The family migration has changed the reality of the problem and the child separation program has radicalized the debate. Ts of folks just oppose Trump viscerally for that.
Douthat is correct in his view of the underlying problem for the DMs, too. Specifically, what is going to be Blue Policy toward families who arrive undocumented? If we are going to let them in, then there will be an explosion of immigration by families or by an adult with a kid, to be flowed in due course by the rest of the family.
It is an issue.
In political terms, m’s speech changed nothing at all.
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"...what we heard from the president was a play to people deep in the Trumpian bubble..."
That's the only crowd he ever plays to. When he speaks, tweets, or waves, he's only aiming at the 35-40% of voters who dig him. The rest of us might as well not even exist.
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"Conservatives" who want to curb immigration to satisfy nativist fantasies, acknowledged or not, do have one great argument on their side: the competition fleads to reduced wages for "real Americans".
This may be not be subtle enough for Ross Douthat, but it's also true that there's difficulty making that argument when at the same time you want to abolish the minimum wage, cut off other people's health insurance and hate social programs.
What's a person to do, when hate and resentment can't find a defensible form?
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@jrd: does it make any MORE sense for liberals to scream for $15 minimum wages….while insisting we take in millions of illegals from poor third world countries….who drive down American wages?
Why should any employer pay $15 an hour to a US worker, when they can pay that illegal Honduran or Guatemala $4 cash under the table?
The speech made little difference in changing minds. The fact is, the House and Senate want an end to the shutdown NOW. That is clear. What should have transpired last night was a shaming of Mitch McConnell into ending this all with calling for a vote in the Senate to end this mess. He can.
No one has faith in Trump to do or say the right thing. His base just loves the raucous banter. There is no substance there. We are looking for leadership. If it does not come soon a peaceful protest march on Washington of millions of patriots Red and Blue is a must. Are you in? Remember: real people are suffering.
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You know what, let him have his wall. It will create construction jobs and contracts and we can still develop reasonable immigration policy. This is just a huge distraction. Better yet, tie it to something that really matters: GUN CONTROL. He can have his wall when we have a ban on guns. Win, win as far as I’m concerned.
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@Born In The Bronx
Not bad. Especially because the wall will never be effective, might not even be completed and in any event will start to crumble pretty soon. A nice physical metaphor for Trump's presidency.
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@Born In The Bronx What does it take to realize you can't negotiate with con man Trump? Ask the painters and electricians stiffed by his Atlantic City casinos. Ask CHcuk Schumer and Nancy Pelosi who agreed with Trump on an immigration plan last year (which Trump promptly turned upside down. Ask the GOP Senators who carried his water a month ago only to have Trump and Ann Coulter take a hissy fit.
Gun control? Yeah, Trump and the NRA - that will work out fine.....
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T has shown that he can do two kinds of rhetoric: stage theatre with street talk and debate stuff. There is a fundamental logic and a legal case and a responsibility to manage borders.
Why is it that we, in both North America and Europe, cannot seem to recognize that the problem of international migration is based on the quite understandable desire of people to escape poverty, joblessness, war, violence, corruption, intolerance, and who-knows-how-many-other evils?
Imagine what $5.6 billion, intelligently and humanely targeted, might do for Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador?
Trying to solve the problem at our doorstep -- whether it's in El Paso, Texas or Palermo, Italy -- rather than at its sources will change nothing.
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@mtruitt: of those things you list....only WAR is legitimate grounds for asylum.
There is no war in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador.
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A couple of things:
"Inchoate" means "just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary." It does not mean "vague." To imagine that the hatred of brown people among Trump supporters has just begun is either disingenuous or ... no, I guess disingenuous is the only word to describe it.
Next, by your suggested logic of preventing the bad old days from coming back, the Federal government should station troops in every major Southern city to prevent the exploitation of African Americans. Yes, since the Civil War the region has not reverted to criminal slavery, but that's mainly because of the vigilance shown mandated by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enacted by the party that once spoke for slaveholders.
Clearly, the GOP response to suppression of minorities in places like North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida is ... inchoate.
For those who continually invoke your Lord's name, asking what he would do, I ask: How high would he build the wall, and how long would he separate parents from their children? Also, if kids arrived sick, what would be his response?
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To be fair, though, FOX News has had this same approach for years and years. If FOX repeats a talking point enough throughout the days and weeks, it often becomes a fact.
In addition, Trump has been stamping his feet and getting what he wants every. single. day. of his life. Why should this be any different for him?
And I didn't watch and didn't implicitly give this president anything. Why do I want to hear lies?
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I hope the revelation that Manafort shared polling data with an associate who had ties to the Kremlin won’t be elided in the scrum about the wall and who did or didn’t win last night’s call and response. Of course the wall is red meat to the base—don’t let it bait you and your colleagues into missing the critical stories. The base won’t be persuaded, but anyone with a functioning sense of morality and fidelity to the rule of law should be, and should act on those tenets. I’m looking at you, Lindsey Graham, and the rest of this illegitimate administration’s GOP enablers.
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For a patient in pain, it doesn't matter if the cause is physical or psychological; the pain is real either way. Similarly, whether medication or a placebo helps also doesn't matter, as long as the pain is relieved.
For President Trump's supporters, it doesn't matter if the "crisis" on the border is mostly manufactured. The crisis is real and immediate for them because they perceive it to be real and immediate. Telling a patient in pain every fact as to why such pain has no physical cause won't matter. And showing a Trump supporter facts and statistics about border crossing rates, illicit drug entries via legal border crossings, no evidence of terrorists crossing at the southern border, etc. also won't matter.
What President Trump is attempting to do is what he's done for the last twenty years: create a brand, a kind of scripted reality tv show, called "The Border Crisis."
12
Beyond this current campaign tactic, let's project ourselves 12-18 months into the future and picture the spate of reportage and revelations surrounding Trump family cronies, donors and GOP politicians who will be benefiting from or pocketing some or all of this $6 billion ransom.
15
Yes, I agree that that electoral rump has a larger configuration than before and yet it is behind him for all to see but the owner or wearer of said rump cannot see said rump for the trees.
I'm still stunned by the number of terrorists stated in last night's report from after the speech: six! Is that the number? And to me, no expert in numbers, etc. on crime, immigrats vs. citizens, it seems obvious most are very definitely related to those who know each others, hate crimes, rage/race crimes, the mass shooting from our own who were so lost they had to shoot out their lives and others' lives to escape their sad reality. I dislike people saying the wall would only costs x billion or y billion. The symbolism is worse both for the wall itself as a barrier between neighbors, not Canada of course, and the cost. Andy Jackson's Trail of Tears, the Japanese encampments, the Jews turned back at a time of great peril ending in death for some, our own racism still a cause of much violence, and more should have taught us more about the necessity of being humane and responsible. Not this wall and the implications and cost.
11
"You didn’t have to literally believe that he would build the Wall and make Mexico pay for it to regard that wild promise as evidence that he would be more genuinely restrictionist and hawkish on the issue than politicians merely paying lip service to “border security.”"
Thanks so much, Ross, for giving Donald Trump tips on how to exploit Democratic "vulnerabilities." But, as you acknowledge, the man is incapable of heeding such advice, because the man is a xenophobe who relies on his extreme immigration stances to hold onto political power.
What you failed to mention what's happened since he "descended the staircase" to rail about killing hordes of Mexicans pouring into the country is that a majority of Americans simply don' t believe him--on the need for t he costly wall, or any other of the false statistics he cites as easily as wiping off his tie.
A sane president would urge the country to support politicians who vow to craft a bipartisan bill on comprehensive immigration reform based on reality, pragmatism, humanitarianism, and fairness.
But no: the GOP has torpedoed every bipartisan bill at the 11th hour, realizing how vital the anti-immigration issue is to preserving conservative power.
And that--even more than the wall--is the real immorality.
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Trump is using the wall, to distract the public from his legal and financial problems and the threat of impeachment.
Mission accomplished .
Congress"s goal is to get enough support to override a Presidential veto. The longer the shutdown lasts the easier it will be to get the votes.
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I wish that were Congress goal. But Mitch is still carrying trumps water. I think Congress could easily override a veto.
@Thomas E Martini
Trump said that he didn't care about workers not being paid because they are all Democrats. It is probably more accurate to say that being cheated out of their earnings by the Republicans is likely to turn them into Democrats.
It was all counter productive on several levels. There is no crisis on the border, no one believes there is, and relative to the impact of the shutdown domestically which is now starting to bite and plays out on everyone's TV each evening it's invisible. Then there was the event itself. Trump's credibility is shot to begin with because of his constant lying, and then he was wooden and produced the usual litany of lies and half truths which were immediately dismissed across the media. Then the Democrats produced a low key but credible description of where we are.
The latest poll shows 59% of the country blaming Trump or the Republicans with 32% blaming the Democrats. Last night changed nothing.
25
Immigration, abortion, gun control, "welfare"; all of these have become trigger words which the GOP now uses to preclude constructive conversation in congress and elsewhere. They have become dog whistles to rally the hard core base that keeps them in power in their gerrymandered districts.
Access to health care and birth control reduces the number of abortions. Consistent background checks, requiring gun owners to store their arms properly and eliminating large clip magazines can help reduce the consequences of gun violence. Better employment practices and unions can help create decent paying jobs and reduce reliance on the social safety net. Immigration has now joined the list. No one in congress is advocating for wide open borders. As demonstrated by the President last night, the GOP will choose the low road even when it flies in the face of humanity or common sense.
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@Matt
"Immigration, abortion, gun control, "welfare"; all of these have become trigger words"
Both parties do this. I remember back in the eighties, Democrats telling women that Reagan "would take away women's rights in the case of abortion". In other words, women who would never dream of getting an abortion should be frightened because "women's rights" might be taken away.
Ross says: “But the problem for Trump is that presidents have to deal with changing circumstances and cope with unexpected crises.” “So what we heard from the president [is] that he’s still fighting the fights he promised two years ago.”
Yes, Ross, that is what we heard. But that isn’t the point. The point is that Trump is using a shutdown to arm-twist the House into gifting him $5.7 billion toward his $25 billion boondoggle.
This use of a shutdown to bend Congress to Presidential whim is a straightforward coup, a take-over of the entire strings of government. Isn’t that more important than Trump’s use of ancient window-dressing to distract us??
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@John Brews ..✅✅
I am curious how much revenue the government is not collecting this year because of Trump's tax cut. Could it be $5.7 billion? Would repealing the tax cut give him the money he wants?
Of course, that would enrage a lot of wealthy donors who would stop giving him money. So he will create a national emergency instead.
2
Find some courage, Ross, and call for the leader of YOUR party to resign. The damage he's done to our Democracy and the world will last for decades.
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@Ed I'll second that. Any decent former and current Republicans left standing should join that call.
45
Just imagine if every time there’s a controversial issue, we scream for presidents to resign.
Offer better policies, win the next election. That’s how it works.
3
@KJ mcNichols plus I really don't want Mike Pence in the Oval Office either...
5
Thank you, Ross, for nuancing this. I am so exhausted by the flogging of this issue and the disconnect between the stories of families seeking asylum or just a better life and Trump's hateful rhetoric. Calm articulation helps.
15
"The people who didn’t want television networks to cede a prime-time hour last night — or, as it turned out, a prime-time 10 minutes"
They did not live what they profess to believe.
Donald Trump talking to everyone on prime time national TV is not likely to help him.
He put himself on full display. People in general, such as on juries, are very insightful about other people. Their collective BS detector is awesome.
True, as Lincoln said, you can fool some of them all of the time. He was also quite right that you can't fool all of them very often, and least of all can Donald Trump do it.
I cringed to think the fool he was about to make of himself. It is always painful to watch that. I can't watch some "comedy" movies for the same reason -- it isn't funny, just painful.
Detest Trump? Give him a few more of those 10-minute slots, and you'll see his polls dive.
39
Unfortunately, a preoccupation with what "works" politically, as opposed to what is true, has been the guiding star of Republican politicians for far too long. The problem is that policies that are based on lies cannot constitute good governance. Think of the war in Iraq as a means to fight terror. Or tax cuts for the rich as a means to close the deficit. Or trade wars as a means to create manufacturing jobs. Or ending Obamacare as a means to extend health insurance to individuals with pre-existing conditions (in effect, anyone over forty). All were policies based on outright lies, yet they are Republican Party policies.
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The republican party wants the immigration issue MORE than any possible solution, demonstrated by actions of the republican party multiple times - full stop.
In 2013, President Obama and Democrats passed a bill in the Senate with bipartisan support that dealt with ALL border issues AND immigration regulation with a complicated path to citizenship. It had more than 20 (TWENTY) billion dollars for a border wall, structure, fence, slats, or whatever you wanted to call it.
The republicans in the house refused to even allow it for a vote, whereas it would have easily passed and be signed into law.
Fast forward to the 2016 election and a republican candidate uses the scare tactics to win an election AND to control of 3 levels of government, including the White House.
What was done during the next 2 years ? - Nothing.
Now here we are, whereas the American electorate has rebuked republicans to give Democrats a massive win in the house not seen for generations.
The fear tactics by the President is not only NOT working on the American electorate, nor is it working on his own party. All the meanwhile there are hundreds of thousands of civil servants that are being punished without pay, and held hostage to the whims of a petulant President.
Open the government, and try through regular order ( you know - Democracy with votes) to achieve whatever you want to achieve.
Elections have consequences Mr. President. - so do independent investigations by special prosecutors.
79
I think both parties exploit this issue for their own purposes.
1
@KJ
One party (Democrats) exploits the issue by passing bills that take care of the issue and paints republicans as callous.
One party demagogues (republicans) anyone that does not want to raise the drawbridge as not patriotic and a threat to national security.
Indeed.
7
Translation:
Trump has, admittedly, moments of sly cunning, but when those don't work, no adaptability--he's as rigid in the face of changing circumstances as the wall he'd like to build.
And those who can't change when circumstances do are destined for the discard pile.
12
The fact that Trump waited nearly two years to really push for a wall doesn’t help his case that it’s an emergency. It also doesn’t help his case that he refused the Democrats’ offer of a wall in exchange for protection for the Dreamers, protection that is overwhelmingly supported by Americans.
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