Here's today Morning Zoo analysis of the new proposal. Including the pundits talking as if nice Donald Trump would love to accommodate the Dreamers but his mean base won't let poor Don do it. Because Mr. Don is a well-meaning fellow. What’s Inside The White House’s Latest Immigration Plan? Morning Joe/MSNBC 01/26/2018:
Velshi & Ruhle are looking for the pundits' Holy Grail of centrist Bipartisanship on these proposals, White House Proposes Path To Citizenship For “Dreamers” MSNBC 01/26/2018:
Out here in the real world, the Democratic Kinda-Sorta Resistance Party just took a huge dive on immigration just this past Monday. William Rivers Pitt (Bellycrawling Through History With Schumer and the Democrats Truthout 01/24/2018) charaterizes that cave-in well:
If the current iteration of the Democratic Party is what passes for "The Resistance," we may as well slap a gaudy crown on Trump's head and name him "Emperor Of All The Things."That metaphor doesn't work for the Pod Pundits at MSNBC, though. On a normal day, their view of the political world sounds like it could be the result of head injury.
The Democrats lost in 2016 for the same reason they got rolled so completely on this shutdown/Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deal: The so-called "opposition party" has a genuine knack for being strategy-free when it matters most, and they keep managing to forget who they're dealing with on the other side of the aisle. "I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head," President Harry Truman once asked, "before you find out who's hitting you?" The modern-day inheritors of Truman's party still have no answer to that question.
Since the Democrats reverted to their comfort zone of Preemptive Surrender on Monday, the pundits are free to repeat their stock fantasies about bipartisan harmony and the infinite virtue of the Center which moves farther and farther to the right by the week.
Pitt is more realistic in evaluating the current moment:
Pressure from a variety of pro-Dreamer organizations, as well as from within the Democratic Caucus, was brought to bear: Attach the looming government spending bill to a deal for the Dreamers, and if the GOP balks, let the government shut down. Schumer and the Democrats did exactly that... for less than 72 hours.Pitt closes by saying, "The same "leaders" keep bellycrawling through history, and this time, it's quite possible that a million people -- the Dreamers and their families -- are going to pay a brutal price."
It was at this juncture that the Democrats once again decided to showcase their uncanny talent for self-immolation. By Monday perhaps the most preposterous deal in recent political history was struck: If Schumer and his people voted to reopen the government, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised with sugar on top to allow debate on an immigration bill aimed at salvaging DACA and the Dreamers sometime in early February. Note well: McConnell didn't say he would do this. He said it was his "intention" to do this.
Schumer went for the "deal," backed by a clutch of Red State Blue Dog Democrats who couldn't summon a single damn for the 700,000 people who got hung out to dry, again. DACA recipients, many of whom have put themselves on the line with bold action to protect themselves and their peers, now know full well who it is they can count on when the chips are down. Hint: Few with a (D) after their name make the cut.
Charlie Pierce just wrote on a different aspect of the Trump Disaster something that applies at least as much to the immigration travesty, as well: "History’s not going to be kind to a lot of people who are living through these insane times." (The Mueller Bombshell Proves Republicans Are Running Out of Time Esquire Politics Blog 01/26/2018)
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