Posted on 08/19/2015 7:27:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The billionaire's immigration positions are as ludicrous as they are destructive.
Donald Trump is porn for nativists. Now, a person can derive much political self-gratification from wishful thinking, but remember porn isn’t real. So enjoy daydreaming about mass deportations and visualizing the repeal of birthright citizenship, but don’t let yourself get desensitized to reality.
In the real world, Trumpism is destroying any slim hope the GOP could have a rational immigration debate or cobble together a consensus on policy. Before his fans began genuinely considering a Trump presidency, you’ll recall that the most popular justification for supporting the vanity run was the idea that he’d provoke legitimate candidates to talk about illegal immigration. Because, as you all know, no one has ever tackled this issue before ever, or so goes the myth spun by the same people who earnestly tell you that Jeb Bush is a Trotskyite but Donald Trump is the second-coming of Ronald Reagan.
Well, anyway, we’re talking about immigration now. In the most unhelpful way imaginable.
Trump’s immigration plan doesn’t feature deportation, officially. It also doesn’t matter. Trump’s fans—not all, but enough—aren’t turned on by softcore white papers authored by Jeff Sessions, they want the hard stuff (and not only should you trouble believing he Trump has any intention of implementing his white paper, you should have trouble believing he has ever read the thing,). His fans are energized by protectionist rhetoric and the fallacy of zero-sum economics. They’re fired up because he’s the first major candidate to call illegal immigrants rapists and murders. They’re thrilled because he’s going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. And they’re super excited because he supports the deportation of 13 million illegal immigrants.
“We’re going to keep the families together, but they have to go,” he said on Meet the Press.
Where will they go? “They have to go.”
How will we do it? “We will work with them. They have to go. Chuck, we either have a country, or we don’t have a country.”
Hardcore Border Porn
The fact is that the issue of mass deportation is the clearest dividing line between those who are serious about immigration policy and those who are not. Not only is mass deportation unfeasible fiscally, logistically, and politically, but any attempt to implement such policy would have huge societal repercussions—even if it is the law.
Depending on how the government decides to implement deportation, Washington would have to spend somewhere between $100 billion and $300 billion arresting and deporting these people, a process the American Action Forum estimates would take roughly 20 years. It would need to hire 10,000 federal employees to bring in these people. If we assume that 20 percent of undocumented immigrants would pick up and leave the United States voluntarily when the raids began, as AAF does, that means we would have to forcibly remove around 9 million illegal immigrants—and many of their children, who were born here and are considered to be citizens.
What economic damage would this kind of project inflict on the United States? What kind of moral damage? Trump cultists do not need to weigh the costs of these piddling questions, because all the troubles in the world can be pinned on the illegal—with an assist from their nefarious partners in crime, the RINO (and from what I can tell, there remains only one non-RINO left in the entire country).
Trump has, to be fair, offered us some specifics in his immigration plan. He will tax money illegal immigrants try to send back home, which I imagine would necessitate a massive invasion of privacy and create more destitution on the other side of the border. Trump plans to increase fees on a visa program for workers and others who visit the United States legally, because nothing says “follow the law” like punishing those who do. He plans on increasing fees on the border crossings and, naturally, to institute more tariffs on a nation he imagines is “beating us.”
Now, our first modern mercantilist president could only achieve all this through a number of executive actions. Many of the same people who lament Obama’s penchant for executive abuse and talk about collapse of the Republic would cheer Trump on, because when they say “conservative issue,” they mean illegal immigration.
Less offensive, perhaps, but no less realistic is Trump’s support for the repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause. There are two ways to achieve this: Trump will have to name a whole bunch of SCOTUS judges when he becomes president, and then push a law through both houses of Congress that can withstand the inevitable legal challenge. Or he can push for repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment, which would need the votes of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and support from three-fourths of state legislatures. None of this is ever going to happen.
Many Americans have genuine concerns—I count myself among them—about the preservation of law and order, about the cultural consequences of immigration, about assimilation, and about sovereignty. But today, there is a purity test that demands a voter sign up for the Trump plan or admit he’s an enemy of the state. I imagine when it’s all said and done, most Americans will choose the latter. But the fractures within the Republican Party have been pried apart. Any candidate unwilling to try and keep up with Trump is transformed into a limp-wristed Commie whose primary chances die on the vine. Those who praise Trump’s agenda to placate the base would be annihilated in a general election, forced to defend an absurd menu of statist intrusions and unrealistic policies.
Actually, “the base” is the wrong phrase here. The base is a principled group of philosophically driven party purists. Trumpism is nothing like the Tea Party movement, for instance. The latter, sometimes naïve, was driven by ideals grounded in traditional American thinking. Trumpism is collective expression of base impulse. And like porn, that sort of thing is equally absurd and destructive.
‘Nativists’ eh?
One of my ancestors was a Mohican. I guess that makes me a native nativist.
Enforcing the law = extremist
LOL! Abenaki here. You guys didn’t like us much. Wes Studi spits the word in “Last of the Mohicans”.
“Nativists” = Americans, whom Democrats and liberals HATE.
I request the United States Military to ‘get involved’
Not the Obama minions and JAG weenies , but the true war fighters , the real warriors .
After they have knocked these commies out of their ensconced positions , they can appoint Trump to head up the civilian side of a new American leadership . And screw what the Left may think .
And one of mine was captured by Mohawks in 1703 and lived with the tribe for 20 years so I guess I'm a native nativist too.
David Harsanyi claiming any American against illegal aliens is a “Nativist” is like saying anyone against rape is a Sexual Abolitionist.
Trump is just picking that scab wide open.
Unbelievably easy:
1. Enforce employment laws. Anybody employing illegals gets heavily fined and jailed.
2. Tell those who are here illegally that they have two weeks to leave without penalty. If they are discovered after that period, they will be fined for every day they are in the country.
3. Build the wall and keep it patrolled.
4. Inform the Mexican government that they will be held financially responsible for the costs incurred by Mexican citizens who cross over illegally.
Simple. Self-deportation.
No jobs. Heavy fines for any employer that hires illegals.
Same with landlords.
No social services.
No food stamps, EBT, Section 8, etc...
No medical services unless they can pay for it.
No driver licenses.
Only citizens can buy cars.
They will go back to their country.
Sounds like a good deal to me. Not that I believe the numbers. But what if they do represent the cost of getting America back and saving it from perpetual Stalinist Democrat rule, or bloody civil war? What's not to like?
I’m a 1stgeneration American of Chinese descent and I’m a nativist? So be it. They all gotta GO!
Jeb was well aware of the issue.. he was out here in California in the 1990s calling us Save Our State (Proposition 187) supporters stupid, racists, xenophobes .. so yeah he's a Trotskyite and no Reagan. Ronald Reagan never called me names -- especially for believing in our borders and culture.
Feh.
My grandfather was an immigrant. Came here through the ‘front door’, legally. Naturalized citizen, business owner, US Navy veteran, the works.
A “nativist” would have wanted him thrown out. A “nativist” might well want ME thrown out.
Trump’s no nativist, nor am I.
The author is replete with fecal matter.
You know they’re sweating when they start throwing around the pejorative “nativists”.
That's my editorial opinion!!!
Here's Mr. Trump's plan.
Round up and deporting is only for gangbangers and criminals.
Maybe the author of the posted article supports the Hispanics gangbangers and that's what he hates about the plan.
[quote]
There's a lot of gold in them thar' political campaigns and in his rage the author seems a little too cute --
he dumped the snark on millions of true Americans
who do NOT accept that it is okay to use politics as a source of wealth for the employees of political parties and campaigns.
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