Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers III: Weekend at Bernie's
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Opinion: Republicans’ new immigration spin — same as the old spin <a href="https://t.co/N38asK5GDz">https://t.co/N38asK5GDz</a></p>— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1094995556701782016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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"'Protections for violent offenders' sure sounds like an odd stance for a political party to take. So it should be no surprise that it’s not accurate. Yes, Democrats want to cap the number of unauthorized immigrants that ICE can detain at any given time. But the proposed cap — 16,500 — matches the level of detentions inside the United States in recent years. By capping the number, Democrats want ICE to focus on violent illegal immigrants, not waste resources arresting a mother in San Diego in front of her family or holding parents separated from their children."
That is why the narrative is doomed to fail Scooby. It is why Richard Shelby (R) is freaking out right now as head of Appropriations. The Dems arent doing anything but keeping the status quo and not allowing for another Concentration Camp event and everyone knows it. If they stand pat the GOP doesnt have a leg to stand on.
Whats more, even if say, public opinion blames the Dems along with the GOP (likely to happen since people are fed up) it still hurts the GOP more than it hurts the Dems at this point. The GOP has been tanking for a while now and despite Trump's protestations his approval rating is putrid. (only Rasmussen has him "favorable" ) How bad are his numbers you ask? He is in the low 40s (42% aggregate on RCP, 40.4% on 538) and that is AFTER the SOTU and with a favorable jobs report, Dow Jones and Economy overall. When your SOTU "bump" only gets you above 40 you are in trouble.
And see that puts him in a bad spot if the Dems hold court again. (which they will, they have zero to lose) His whole persona is built on the "Master Negotiator" and he got a double burn the last shut down because he was blamed AND he lost. He cant lose again and he wont let the GOP lose. Since we know the GOP Leadership doesnt have the stones to fight him(Graham has already capitulated and TurtleBoy will only do what he is told) that means this is going to last again. And this isnt about a War or Civil Rights...it is about Immigration which for 75% of the country if not more isnt in the top 5 issues right now. Not good.
So even if both sides get blamed it will hurt the Dems but it will be a knockout punch to the GOP. This is a game of heads up Poker and the Dems have top pair, twice the chips and their opponent on Tilt. You ride them til you have taken every dime. If the GOP wants the money for security, every dime has to be accounted for nothing shady. No diverting money to fences and walls, no added rooms to lock up immigrants and children. They can add personnel, they can update the facilities and they can fix what needs fixing but that is it! The Dems need to give them no avenue to backdoor a wall or beef up his Gestapo...end of story.
edit: This says it best:
"The truth is, three weeks after the last shutdown ended, the White House and the GOP still have no idea how to get out of the corner they’ve worked themselves into. They promised the base a “border wall,” but they have even less leverage now than they did when the first shutdown started. So they’ve returned to the first page of the playbook: scaremongering about violent immigrants."
