If this is the republican solution to some perceived crisis, then it shows me just how heartless and self-absorbed they have become.
There’s a sort of longer-term trend of Republicans drinking their own Kool-Aid. For decades, supply-side economics was just a grift – Reagan and Bush I said the words to get votes, but they had the sense to listen to economists when it mattered. Reagan raised taxes when his tax cuts failed to increase revenue. Bush famously said the truth about voodoo economics before campaigning on it. But Bush II was all aboard the supply-side train and only started to half-listen to sense when America needed to crawl out of the smoking economic crater. Brownback is still on board the supply side train, the solution to the ongoing Kansas fiscal disaster always being more of the same. Basically they’ve been saying the words so long that some of them actually believe this stuff now.
I think it’s the same with immigration now. Republicans have been talking about immigrants taking jobs, causing crime, and surging over the border so long that they actually believe it. Before, it was a cheap two-fer, appealing to xenophobia/racism while also providing a simple (and wrong) explanation for economic woes. You didn’t actually have to believe it, Mr. Tancredo, it was just magic words you could say now and then, and then the votes would just materialize. But now, it’s a belief system. And when you base national policy decisions based on outlandish conspiracy theories instead of facts, you get… well, you get the invasion of Iraq. But you also get the current wave of anti-immigrant policies, of which this DACA business is just one of many.
If presented with the following quiz:
Undocumented Mexican immigrants started leaving the US in greater numbers than they were arriving:
a) Before Obama took Office
b) During the Obama administration
c) During the Trump administration
d) This has not actually happened yet
I suspect most Republicans would answer D. Sadly, I suspect most Democrats would answer C. The correct answer is A.