Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Oppose A Plan To Fix It
Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Oppose A Plan To Fix It
Many on the right claim the U.S. is being "invaded" by migrants but also want to wait until Donald Trump is elected president again to stop it.
Many on the right claim the U.S. is being "invaded" by migrants but also want to wait until Donald Trump is elected president again to stop it.
For months, Republicans have shouted from the rooftops about a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how President Joe Biden needs to act to address it, insisting the flow of migrants is an urgent national security threat.
Now many on the right are urging their party to reject the very same things they said were needed to fix the problem, including tougher enforcement measures and a proposal to automatically shut down border crossings when it is overwhelmed. Instead, they appear set on impeaching the top Cabinet official in charge of the border, even though there is no evidence of a crime.
The GOP’s contortions aren’t just grating for Democrats but also on some conservative Republicans who have been deeply involved in crafting bipartisan legislation, which is expected to be unveiled soon, that would overhaul how migrants are processed at the border.
“It is interesting. Republicans four months ago... locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law,’” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the GOP’s lead negotiator on a deal pairing immigration changes with assistance to Ukraine and other allies, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“A few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year,’” he added.
The GOP doesn’t have a platform, they just have a pair of goalposts on wheels.
Republican goalposts are red due to redshift from them moving away.
Democratic goalposts are blue because they move closer/easier. (Campaign for full healthcare, barely get out mandated healthcare markets)
I get that politics are politics, and the right did all they could to kill/maim the ACA, but I needed to complete my light spectrum.
Democrats, despite championing policies that seem to be supported by big chunks of the population are always just one or two votes short of what they need, so then they throw up their hands, "We tried, sorry... Ok, moving on to other business..." Meanwhile, Republicans will have priorities like forced child labor, killing puppies, and adding lead to drinking water that seem to consistently sail through no matter how small their majority. Democrats seem like they're really ineffective either by just bad luck or on purpose, I've never been quite sure.
This should be expected from conservatives. There are never qny issues or principles, just talking points and scapegoats. Conservativism is the protection and advancement of the self, the in-group that the law protects but does not bind. The "platform," the issues they choose to care about, are the ones most likely to benefit themselves, either directly or as wedge issues to incite their base of voters and donors.
Hence it is not a ‘crisis’
There seems to be a 'crisis' at the border every election year and then the 'crisis' suddenly ends if Republicans get into power.
Clearly because those traitriots fixed all the problems once they're in charge.
There seems to be a ‘crisis’ at the border every election year...
How can you look at this graph and not see a problem? Border interactions rose by a factor of five between 2020 and 2022 and while they 2023 numbers aren't out yet it's clear that they went up even more.
...and then the ‘crisis’ suddenly ends if Republicans get into power.
Which is why Trump famously shut up about the border wall after he was elected. Oh...wait.
I mean fuck Trump (and most Republicans) but your comment is ridiculous.
I've never hated a group more than conservatives. I feel like I would be a different person if I didn't constantly hate Republican politicians and voters. I feel like I might have been a more "live love laugh" kind of person. It's just depressing at this point.
Is your hatred actually achieving anything positive? If not, consciously work to put it aside. Stay angry if you must, anger can be a good motivator, but so much of what the conservative side do can be explained by hatred, and we can see how that goes. Stop hating and focus on reducing their influence everywhere you can, including on yourself. That's how we overcome them, not by falling to the same plauge of hatred as them.
And take breaks from the political circus. I'm guessing most of us know how we're planning to vote already, and we all know that Republicans have no shred of decency or shame anymore, so hearing about every latest act of cruelty is just punishing yourself; don't do their dirty work for them.
This just proves that the "border crisis" is nothing more than a political carrot on a stick for Republican leaders to manipulate their base with.
I for one love how Democrats called their bluff.
This completely undermines literally their only talking-point going into election season.
Let me just say the bill is terrible, because it grants a wishlist of right-wing "solutions" turning the border into a militarized zone.
The "crisis" we have is turning away refugees because their skin is the wrong color.
One of my main Biden criticisms is he's been no different than Trump when it comes to the border. He's continued horrible Trump era policies that are responsible for both death and family separation.
Rather than staking a leftwing position, he's ceded all discussion about the border to the rightwing narratives. And I doubt a single person has been swayed by this.
We don't need to "protect" the border. Europe by and large did away with borders and it's been a huge stabilizing factor for them.
The whole "drug smuggling" shit is equally garbage. To the extent drugs cross the border, it's through legal ports of entry. And, it's entirely silly to build up the Mexican border when the Canadian border is basically wide open. Newsflash, drug smugglers know about Canada. Further, we have ports with giant shipping containers of goods that enter and leave the US every day. Do these rightwing idiots really believe drug smugglers wouldn't simply hide drugs in a giant container of soybeans or other food item?
There's a million ways to get drugs into the country, the one way they are the least likely to come in is via some undocumented worker looking to get a job working on a farm in Idaho.
Right, but it’s the kind of terrible that the GOP supposedly likes, but because they refuse to even associate with democrats much less work with them, they have a knee jerk response to anything they put forward. Nothing will get done in this country so long as the Republican Party has control over anything.
Yep, it undermines their only talking-point that has been sticking.
I too agree the border crisis is entirely manufacturered. But that doesn't change the fact that independents / swing voters, and even a large chunk of Democrats have this as a major concern, with it overshadowing inflation now as the overall largest issue.
So Democrats calling Republicans' bluff will offer an excellent rebuttal to any questions or debates down the road.
The “crisis” we have is turning away refugees because their skin is the wrong color.
This isn't correct. The United States cannot continue to absorb the equivalent of Sweden every 4-5 years. It's completely unsustainable and it has nothing to do with skin color. It also has nothing to do with the Biden Administration beyond Biden's long history with the situation as a U.S. Senator.
The Republicans who are suddenly opposed to this bill are assholes, and likely traitors, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a serious problem that needs addressing.
How is it unsustainable? Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes every year, and they are unable to claim benefits afforded to US citizens (e.g. unemployment, social security, Medicaid, etc.).
They work jobs that Americans refuse to do.
I really fail to see how this is anything but positive. But then again, I'm not racist or xenophobic, so...
A steady stream of people showing up daily with nothing, starting from scratch, is not a crisis to you?
What do we do with those who show up to find all the farm jobs in Idaho and other places are filled? Furthermore, do you condone the treatment refugees receive while working these jobs?
There are certainly racists opposed to letting in refugees, and a lot of them make policy on such things. But minimizing the long term need to assist the ongoing influx of people as purely racism isn't productive. We have no solution for what to do with all of them.
Leaving drugs completely out of discussion, this is a humanitarian crisis. Do you think just opening up the border and letting whatever happens afterward work itself out is the answer?
A steady stream of people showing up daily with nothing, starting from scratch, is not a crisis to you?
Correct.
What do we do with those who show up to find all the farm jobs in Idaho and other places are filled?
Lol, you have no clue how farming works. But to be clear the US currently has historic low unemployment. Your remember that time when no employer is hiring at minimum wage? That's what historically low unemployment does.
There is plenty of work available.
Furthermore, do you condone the treatment refugees receive while working these jobs?
No, I don't. In fact, these "make the border strong" and "deport everyone" chants are used by employers of undocumented workers to get away with serious abuse. People that employee undocumented workers use the threat of deportation as a control method to stop their workers from demanding fair treatment.
The only form of border control I support is strict punishments and fines of employers of undocumented workers. That's the only way to improve working conditions and hopefully end up with reforms that make getting documentation not the nightmare process it is today.
But minimizing the long term need to assist the ongoing influx of people as purely racism isn’t productive. We have no solution for what to do with all of them.
It is racism because all this fear mongering is targeted at a single source of illegal immigration, the Mexican border. And it's targeted through evil and inhumane methods like putting razor wire in waterways. That's racism, it's not "solving problems" it's killing brown people.
We have other borders and mechanisms that people enter the US. This one is what racists cling to because nothing is more scary than a group of brown people on Fox News.
Do you think just opening up the border and letting whatever happens afterward work itself out is the answer?
Yes, because you may not know this, but that's exactly how the US operated for a century. It wasn't until the 90s that the border became this huge scary thing that racists clung to. Famously, Ronald Reagan granted citizenship to every Cuban who landed on US shores. That hasn't destroyed the nation, it was the backbone of major US cities like Miami.
And, again, I'll point to Europe which does effectively have open borders, particularly for EU citizens. This has not lead to the collapse of the EU. Though it did lead to brexit which has supremely hurt the UK.
We'll never stop undocumented workers, so how about we put into place mechanisms to. 1. Make getting documentation super easy, and 2. Provide these people with a leg up to actively contribute.
And if you say "we should do that for citizens" yes, we should. We can do two things.
They’ve been screaming about it for 25 years without ever trying to fix it. Why would they start now?
They've been screaming about abortion for fifty years, yet when they finally got Roe overturned they're dead silent about it.
Almost like they want to campaign on problems not solutions, isn't it?
I think the 2022 midterms revealed to them what a monumental fuckup that was and continues to be. They are hoping we forget somehow.
We have a party just like that in Sweden as well. Literally founded by nazis. They support the current government but still complain about everything. Pure populist fascism.
GOP doesn't want solutions, because then they have to stop screaming
It's literally that meme with the guys jamming his bike wheel with a stick.
"There's a crisis" 🥺 "Here's a solution" 🤔 "No" 😠
"Why are the dems doing this to me!?"
There is no such thing as an honest conservative. Every word uttered by a conservative is either deception or manipulation. Every word.
They want the ‘crisis’.
the 'deal' is a gift to the far-right in the house. but biden is in the white house, so their guy wouldn't get the credit for 'shutting the border down' when the new limits in the deal are hit.
Republicans Do Their Own Research! That's why they blame BIDEN for the Border!
Republican politicians don't give a single shit about immigrants. They only rule about it because they want to rile (and rule) their base with cheap shots.
Making a country better is hard. Blaming the immigrants / blacks / Jews / gays / those different / insert whatever group you want, is easy because people hate those that are different. It's also a feedback look where these politicians purposefully increase the hatred. People filled with hate are easy to manipulate. Then you push yourself / your group forward as "the (final) solution (tm) and they'll vote for you.
Honest question to anyone, democrat or republican: when was the last time you saw a republican politician push forward or sign in law anything that wasn't in their own best interest, that wasn't a cheap shot bullshit item (hello, border wall!)? Seriously, when was the last time a republican politician put out a law that really helped the vast majority of their constituents, typically the poor and uneducated?
I can't recall.
Same people who said they'd have a replacement for the affordable care act day one? It's been "stay tuned" since and nothing but static. Republicans don't even have a policy, just election talking points.
Of course they opposed fixing something. Heaven forbid something might actually work in the US.
Everyone - Biden and all Democrats - should mention this at every opportunity. Including the mainstream media. That's if they weren't constantly goading on a stupid horse race with their endless bothsiderism.
"Plan"
What's the catch? There's no way everybody agreed to "let's give Republicans everything they're asking for" without adding in some bullshit that would get the whole thing turned down. That's just not how politics work. So what was it?
Aid for Ukraine. Afaik they said they would only aid Ukraine if they closed the border, then when Dems tried to take them up on that offer, Trump asked that Republicans deny any deal and hold it hostage essentially. It's a bit more nuanced than that I'm sure, but that's the gist as far as I remember from the last few days. Corrections welcome.
The catch is that it would be perceived as a win for biden. That's it.
So what was it?
Trump said it was a terrible deal, Republicans fell in line. They are refusing to govern simply because fixing the border issue takes away one of Trump's campaign talking points.
