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New World Order Title: "Democratic Overreach on Immigration Beckons" A thought on developments in Minnesota and nationwide. In the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, and particularly in the wake of the perceived — and real — climbdown of federal authorities in the city, the far left is now rising like a rabble to not only claim victory but push boldly forward. The rhetoric is loud and growing louder: Trump must somehow be compelled to formally restrict his own powers! ICE or DHS must be abolished! Rise, leftist Lilliputians, and tie President Gulliver down while he’s still dazed! And this, incidentally, is why sending Greg Bovino home to retire and bringing in Tom Homan was the strongest possible countermove the Trump administration could have made: not only because Homan is a professional but because progressives who misinterpret the politics of the moment will wipe away their situational advantage by massively misjudging the mood of the American people. That sort of miscalculation is precisely what you’re seeing from the left’s most hotheaded progressives right now, as they immediately return to hair-on-fire “Abolish ICE” and anti-deportation rhetoric as they deem themselves to be “winning the argument” in public opinion. I’m not referring merely to the Bluesky rants of anonymous nobodies like “FrightenedKaren981” or “Jamelle Bouie,” I’m talking about actual politicians here. Some of them can safely be ignored although not altogether dismissed. Elliot Forhan, candidate for attorney general in Ohio, promised Democratic primary voters “I am going to kill Donald Trump” — clarifying that he intends to charge and convict him of an offense that carries the potential for the death penalty. (How he plans to do this in Ohio is anyone’s guess; Forhan is a long-shot candidate, a former state representative who lost his primary after threatening a Democratic colleague so forcefully that she had to take out a civil protective order against him.) But Larry Krasner is the district attorney of Philadelphia and wields real power (never against street criminals, that is). And when he stood at an “Abolish ICE” rally, he promised to any and all ICE or CBP agents he deems guilty of crimes, “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find you, we will find your identities, we will achieve justice.” This sort of rhetoric — of equating ICE to Nazi war criminals — is currently hugely popular among progressives and just as suicidal for the Democratic Party to be associated with in the long run. Politicians like Krasner are appealing to the deep-set instincts of the Democratic Party’s leftist base. But the problem is that the base is not the general electorate. The base can and will, however, have an enormous say in the positions Democratic politicians are forced to take in order to remain viable (or to break out of the pack) in a primary, and as Kamala Harris will be the first to tell you, this can have irrevocable consequences down the road. Recall that, in 2019, Harris was an empty vessel of no specific convictions; when she grabbed every crazy and freshly baked item from the à la carte progressive policy buffet and tried to swallow them all at once, it was done purely because that’s where the Democratic electorate was in 2019. (Tellingly, she didn’t make it to 2020.) It is here that I must tip my cap to the wonderfully witty center-left writer Jeff Maurer, whose Substack piece from this morning tracks very much with my thoughts. He very aptly laid out his views of the differences between where Trump (or, perhaps more accurately, Stephen Miller) is on immigration, where America currently is, where the left thinks America currently is, and where the insane progressives who actually run the show in the Democratic Party are demanding that America go. In sum, Americans don’t want to see violence in the streets and don’t want people shot — but they also want deportations to continue. Progressives who immediately call for an end to them (or, even worse, for the defunding of ICE and the persecution of its officers) are only fragging their own team politically. Maybe they think they are moving the Overton window by getting their maximalist demands out there and forcing politicians to echo them. More likely, outside of reliably blue states, they are dooming those politicians. (The chart that Maurer crafted to illustrate this point is too succinct and funny to summarize: click instead.) Meanwhile, a government shutdown looms. Bet you forgot, huh? (That’s alright, almost nobody saw the last one coming or cared that it dragged on for so long — except perhaps Virginia voters.) Senator Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) spoke for the Democrats — emboldened by the shifting winds of public opinion — by making specific demands: "In my view, the most important demand we’re making is for judicial warrants that curb and constrain these ICE mass draconian dragnet sweeps, and also body cameras and identification that are common sense along with a right of action when harm is done to individuals. These kinds of commonsense reforms can’t be opposed on the merits. Republicans are trying to jam us politically, but the American people want reforms and restraints because they’re watching an out of control agency on the streets of America. They could come after them kicking in doors, smashing through living rooms, arresting and detaining people without any judicial warrant." You’ll get even more rhetoric like this and see national Democrats pressured to say things that will soon come back to haunt them. (Expect a shutdown, by the way — and expect it to move Trump’s numbers just as much as the last shutdown, which is to say not at all.) I am certain that a number of my readers feel sore about the Trump administration’s rhetorical swerve after the Alex Pretti shooting, but I am far more sanguine — first, for the simple reason that it had to happen anyway, and, second, because this will now allow the left to make equally disastrous mistakes. The rhetorical sloppiness and political overconfidence we have seen from opponents of immigration enforcement will only increase. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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