Trump Thread

[Don Corleone]

Seamus, my old friend, well met.

I respectfully disagree. Stephen Miller, the brains behind these efforts, is many things, but stupid is not one of them. He is rare in the current administration in that he understands how to play the "long-game". Such an individual would know better than most that:

1) the uproar would be tremendous and the polarization effect would be devastating to the American body politic
2) it would be ineffective as a deterrent, at least for several months (inside sources say the White House estimates border crossings and family separations to continue to ramp through the summer into the middle Fall).
3) It would however be highly effective as a wedge issue.

This is not about slowing immigration into this country. As you and Strike have highlighted, there are far more effective tools available for that.

This is about reshaping loyalties and national identity. If you can make a people green-light this, you can make them do anything. Stephen Miller knew how the numbers would shape up, and how long he could keep the outrage going. Interersting that it will just be starting to tail at the next election, no? But wait, if he knew it would galvaninze 35% of the population to do anything, and he knew that it would equally galvanize 65% of the country to do anything to stop him... what do you suppose his moves in October likely to be?

I know this is extreme language, but we are living in Berlin in 1933 right now. I strongly recommend "In the Garden of the Beasts" by Erik Larson.

I know I sound like an alarmist... but put this critical piece into context... If you were at the big kids table in the White House, even if you knew Trump himself had no ties to Russia (highly unlikely), it is irrefutable that the Russians did interfere directly and repeatedly in the 2016 elections and continue to do so. Why wouldn't you take some steps to preserve your electoral integrity (actually, the White House has actively blocked efforts at the state level for the past 15 months)? Especially when your candidate brayed for 6 straight weeks "that the fix was in"? Why? Because you know full well that there will be no mid-term election... that you will use the Russian influence to suspend elections "until such time as their integrity can be assured". Isn't that how all strongmen do it?

In order to get your people to stomach that, you need your motivated minority to have a wedge issue. You need an other to after. It's not Jews. It's "those filthy Latinos, all of whom are in drug gangs, even the children". And here we find ourselves. We're not playing politics anymore, and we haven't been for some time.