We all knew it was coming. We all knew that Donald Trump would rescind DACA. I actually believe that he has qualms about ending the program, not because he “loves the dreamers,” but because even he understands the optics of rounding up some 800K young people and deporting them. The title of Josh Marshall’s blog post after the announcement says it all:
Trump Wishes Dreamers Luck as He Tosses Them Out of the Plane
As does this passage in Josh’s post:
What the President is doing is the executive action equivalent of flying the plane up to 10,000 feet, tossing the Dreamers out the door and yelling after them, “I hope you have a parachute or if you don’t that Paul Ryan can get you one really fast!’ Actually, one small difference. He had Jeff Sessions toss them out of the plane.
Yowza.
Trump the phony tough guy once again proved his cowardice by having true believer white supremacist Jeff Beau make the announcement. As always, Jeff Beau prevaricated and demonized his way through the statement. I’m surprised he didn’t gleefully rub his hands together in celebration like a cartoon villain. Bigots like Jeff Beau have much to celebrate: mass deportations of service people, first responders, teachers, and on and on and on. DACA has a rigorous vetting process so its beneficiaries are the best of the best. I doubt many people at the Trump White House could pass muster. Slumlord Jared would have to amend his form because he’s such a forgetful boy.
What Trump has done is to punt this clusterfuck to the Congress. The six month deadline is an arbitrary one and major legislation rarely passes both houses in six months or less. The president’s* sole aim is to accept as little responsibility as possible for this heinous and callous action. Feral Trumpers will howl in approval but this is yet another incredibly unpopular move done solely to placate the MAGA Maggots.
There *may* be majorities in both Houses of Congress to pass a new Dream Act. I’m uncertain if there’s a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and dubious that it can get past the so-called Hastert Rule in the House. The rule named for Coach Pervert applies to the Republican caucus: only legislation with majority support in the caucus reaches the floor. There are enough nutbars and white nationalists to keep it off the floor UNLESS the GOP leadership gets around a rule named for a convicted felon. It’s a caucus rule, not a law, after all. Stay tuned but I am not optimistic. Speaker Ryan is as cowardly as the Insult Comedian.
The administration* is sending mixed messages about its DACA debacle. Trump is holding out hope of a change in plans but nobody believes anything he says about anything. If LBJ had a so-called “credibility gap” on Vietnam, Trump has a credibility canyon on everything. I put more stock in a White House memo telling dreamers to prepare for deportation.
A detestation of buck passing was instilled in me as a child. I always got in more trouble with my parents if I deflected responsibility for my words and deeds. They went easier on me if I fessed up and took the blame. Donald Trump is incapable of taking responsibility for his actions. It’s never his fault, the finger of blame always points elsewhere.
Trump’s perennial buck passing made me think of Harry Truman who famously had “the buck stops here” sign on his White House desk. This is Trump’s second pairing with a man whose ass he is not fit to wipe. Trump’s stunning 2016 electoral college victory surpassed Truman’s 1948 shocker as the biggest upset in American political history. Thanks to the DACA debacle, Trump is now fated to be the anti-Truman. Just call him the Buck Passer in Chief.
A new nickname has been born. And a new benign earworm has hatched. Let’s hope it doesn’t come true.
I’ll give the last-ish word to the late Ted Kennedy. It’s the closing passage of his 1980 speech to the Democratic convention. It is *not* about the dreamers but it could be:
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
It’s time for people to both hit the streets and call their GOP Congresscritters. Make the fuckers squirm like the worms they are.
1.I support Pres.Obama’s DACA program and the people that it “protects”. .
2. As a Presidential directive it was never established law.
3. To preserve the ideals of DACA, Congress needed to establish this as law.
4.Both the Democrats and Republicans have kicked it down the road for 5 years.
So,my question –
You would like to continue to kick it down the road ?
Why not have Congress address legislation that will allow these people to become 100%, voting citizens able to have all this country offers ?
rob
Hi Rob.
Yours is a silly comment on pretty much all points.
1: The presidential directive by Obama was a step taken to regularize the status of DREAMERs, and grant them the chance to occupy a full role in our society. So yes, it was a protection, an explicit statement that La Migra wasn’t going to throw them out of the country if they tried to live normal lives while otherwise complying with the law.
2: It was not law, but it was a necessary step because the Senate refused to pass versions of the DREAM Act FIVE (5) times in ten years. Waiting for Congress to enact the necessary legislation would have maintained the status quo, and through inaction continued to ‘kick the can’ establishing some degree of these people’s civil rights much further down the road.
3: You have the causation backwards, failure of the DREAM Act –> DACA. Congress refused to vote, so Obama acted to establish a humane policy as far as he could on his own.
4: The House Democrats voted to make the Dream Act a law five times. Paul Ryan and the GOP ass clown army voted against it those same five times. The Senate Republican caucus more successfully voted to kill the DREAM Act each of those five times. So take your “a curse on both your houses” rhetoric and shove it far enough that you find Trump’s moral compass.
So, my questions —
Why in the name of all that is holy do you think the current GOP-led Congress is going to discover a collective sense of responsibility to even draft adequate legislation in the next 6 months when they can’t seem to get anything else done? You realize this will demand a complete revision of the national immigration policy, right? No DACA-lite BandAid will make the grade. All these attempts to pass the DREAM Act has only made immigration reform the most dependable third rail of GOP politics especially with their base, and they are already looking at a nasty 2018 election cycle. This is the exact issue that killed Rubio’s national aspirations.
BTW: Where in this article did you get the sense that the author’s hope was to continue to deny DREAMers a path to full citizenship?
So, you only think your thoughts need to be taken seriously on this issue.