"We're talking about the basics... treating people with respect," is one of the key takeaways from Megan Rapinoe's interview on 'Meet The Press' today. And when we're talking basics, this is President Trump's problem - his lack of respect for the office that he holds, the Constitution and for the purposes of this discussion human dignity.
Ms. Rapinoe also said that Mr. Trump divides so he can conquer and does not unite so we can all conquer. No matter the area, the president never misses an opportunity to pit one group of people against another and it filters down through our entire political discourse. And this president's policies are concerned, action. The conditions at these detention facilities on the border are appalling that Vice-President Pence got a firsthand look at this week. This followed up by I.C.E. raids today that the president bragged about. We'll see how these raids play out and it won't be well when you see families who've committed no crimes are hauled out of their houses and not treated with any semblance of dignity.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), Home Security Committee Chairman, said that the situation at the border is completely out of control and then he cited an example from 2005 where then Homeland Security Security Michael Chernoff (Bush Administration) reversed an immigration trend from Brazil in 60 days. If it can be done in an effective manner as Mr. Johnson explained then why can't there be some kind of coherent plan in place to mitigate this overwhelming flow of migrants? The answer is because the White House doesn't have a coherent plan. The only strategy that has been consistent coming from this administration is blame and vilification. As Politico's Tim Alberta explained, this plays well with the president's base but he is alienating suburban Republicans that put him over the top in 2016.
In response to Mr. Todd's question of why not have a Marshall Plan for Northern Triangle countries to better the conditions there, Mr. Johnson said that that was more of a long-term plan and we need to do something now. The Administration has cut way back on aid to those countries, which is short-sighted and the fact is that Mr. Trump is proving himself incapable of putting a long-term plan together.
Compounding the problem of the president's lack of an attention span is the fact that the administration consists of 'acting' department heads,
Acting Defense secretary
Acting DHS secretary
Acting UN ambassador
Acting SBA administrator
Acting chief of staff
Acting FEMA director
Acting ICE director
Acting USCIS director
Acting FAA administrator.
(source NBC News)
This makes is virtually impossible to put a plan in place and get anything done. It shows a lack of respect for governing and the Senate's role of 'advise and consent.'
To illustrate the point with a bit of irony, here's the actor James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano spelling it out most concisely (clips contains many f-notes):
One more note of this notion of respect. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said this week that Speaker Pelosi's comments about her and other very liberal-leaning freshman congresswomen were essentially disrespectful. But a couple of things here: 1) these congresswoman, and this column strongly feels they need to be in office, still have a lot to learn; 2) to fmr. Senator Claire McCaskill's point, it's the 40-odd moderate Democrats who won races in Republican districts that gave those freshman their majority voice which Ms. Pelosi has to be mindful of; 3) it was incorrect of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to make it an issue of race or color; and lastly, though we agree with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that Ms. Pelosi was a bit too hard on them, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez needs to get thicker skin if she wants to be a leader in the Democratic Party.
Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Carlos Curbello, fmr. Republican Congressman from Florida; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Democratic Senator from Missouri; Tim Alberta, Politico
Race:
One more thing...
This column trends to the more practical and pragmatic when it comes to legislation and policy and with that in mind we'd have to agree with Senator McCaskill in asking the question, how do Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senator Sanders get these 'big change' policies like Medicare-for-all through the U.S. Congress? You can be for it, but to believe that the promise will come to fruition is being naive.
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