Pirate's Cove

Justin Gest and Tyler Reny are asking quite a bit. Kinda like asking your dog to drive you to work when you’re hungover

To win over moderates, Democrats need a coherent immigration policy

Two conflicting trends emerge from a new poll conducted by the Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Americans are largely unsupportive of President Trump’s approach to managing immigration. At the same time, they trust him to handle many aspects of the issue as much as, or more than, they trust congressional Democrats on the issue.

The poll results, released last week, should send a message to Democrats: Opposing Trump’s policies without offering a clear alternative will not be enough to win over public opinion on immigration.

According to the poll, a majority of Americans disapproves of each of Trump’s signature immigration positions: 62% of respondents said they were against the construction of a border wall; 66% said they disagreed with proposed cuts to legal family migration; 72% said they disliked the separation of families at the border; and 94% said they didn’t believe the president’s contention that many migrants who come to the United States are gang members or drug traffickers.

And yet, when asked whether they trust the president or congressional Democrats to protect American jobs and secure the border, most respondents selected Trump. Independent voters, especially those in swing districts, said they trusted the president more to manage undocumented migration, attract the best and brightest immigrants and handle immigration policy overall.

The duo offer more analysis and stats, leading to

Between the disapproval of Trump’s specific measures and these more humane views on immigrants as a group, Democrats should be well positioned to capture moderates when it comes to immigration. But the Democrats offer little beyond a condemnation of Trump’s policies. Their most recognizable counter-proposal is the campaign to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a polarizing idea that is not likely to gain widespread support.

The duo then offer a few ideas

There are better solutions for Democrats to unite around. Merit-based immigration appears to draw popular support. Such a system need not be based only on education and professional skills. It could take into account a range of data, including previous visits to the U.S., proficiency in English, shortages in the labor market, the number of family members who are American citizens and underrepresented countries of origin.

The U.S. could also adopt exit stamps to keep track of visa overstays; private family sponsorship of refugees; short-term work visas; and bilateral mobility treaties, which satisfy demands in the labor market without granting residency to large numbers of people. These options are likely to enjoy broad support.

What they miss is that Democrats do not stand for these things. If they ever did, it was decades and decades ago. Any attempt to show support for these ideas, many of them which already exist and are in effect as federal policies, would simply show Democrats as being patronizing and liars. They’ve been railing against any attempts to require lawful immigrants to speak English.

But, none of this covers the real problem, which is illegal immigration. The opinion piece offers zero ideas on this, and illegal immigration is what people are mostly concerned with. If they attempted to offer up the above ideas, Trump would eviscerate them for ignoring illegal immigration.

And, really, this is who they are

(Breitbart “Abolish ICE PDX,” an anarchist group based in Oregon, publicly executed an effigy of President Donald Trump in Portland on Tuesday using a mock guillotine and replicating one of those most familiar scenes from the French Revolution.)

Far-Left Watch noted in its own coverage of the incident: “[T]his theme of wishing to publicly execute ideological opponents borrows from the French Revolution and is alarmingly prevalent in far-left circles.”

The event was captured on Periscope.

The effigy was a piñata of Trump, of the kind that has been on sale for the past three years. The sign on the guillotine read, “Brick by brick, wall by wall, we will make the border fall,” in red paint, which looked like blood. The group sealed the sign with the Anarchist symbol — a capital “A,” circled.

Weirdly, anarchists vote Democrat. This type of nutbaggery is emboldened by the elected Democrats and the big talkers, such as California state senator Kevin De Léon, who is attempting to beat Democrat Dianne Feinstein for “her” senate seat, and hosted an ‘ABOLISH ICE CREAM SOCIAL’ for members of the California Democratic Party executive board. This was a cute way of pushing abolish ICE.