In many respects, Joe Biden is continuing the Donald Trump immigration policies that he campaigned against. He is deporting more immigrants. He is even re-launching the previous administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy that exposes applicants for political asylum to retaliation by drug cartels.
Democrats often ask progressives: how can you say that there’s no difference between Democrats and the Republican party? While there are differences of tone, on the most important issues there is little to no difference in policy. And Congressional votes reflect that.
Democrats are fighting internally between their progressive and centrist wings over infrastructure bills, one for actual buildings, the other one for actual human beings. Interestingly, two right wing senators control what comes out of the US Senate even though they are only a tiny minority. Over in the House of Representatives, on the other hand, the small minority progressive squad is dismissed as the small minority that they are. What both assumptions have in common is that right wing politics are always considered normative.
Democrats desperately want Republicans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But maybe they shouldn’t care.
Republicans are pushing through voter ID and other laws intended to reduce voting among people of color and others more likely to vote Democratic. Democrats are fighting back for obvious reasons. But what if you can’t vote in the first place because you don’t have, for example, a voter ID?
Republicans aren’t the only party that likes to indulge in magical thinking.
Republicans are obsessively trying to prevent Democrats, particularly blacks, from voting. Meanwhile, Democrats collect those votes but don’t work hard to represent their constituents on the issues that they care about.
Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is the latest example of how Democrats negotiate against themselves.
Democrats are still completely wound up over the fact that Donald Trump falsely claims that he won the 2020 presidential election, and the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. Yet Democrats quickly forgot about something far worse than lying about losing and a failed coup: the 2000 presidential election actually was stolen, in part due to a violent coup, and as a result more than 1 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan died. Democrats forgot so thoroughly that they now treat Bush like an elder statesman to be respected rather than thrown into prison for the rest of his life as he deserves.
Many people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 yet continue to act as though they need to stay inside and socially distance. This behavior is every bit as irrational and unscientific as the red state conservatives who refused to wear masks last year.
