Election Issue
Let’s make one thing clear. The most important issue in the United States isn’t foreign policy. It isn’t the economy (stupid), and it isn’t what’s happening on the Southern Border. The most important issue is the clear fork in the road America will take on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. On that day, election day, we will be choosing the next President of the United States. Our choice is the current President, Joe Biden, an eighty year-old Democrat, or Donald Trump, the former President, a seventy-eight year old “Republican”.
I put “Republican” in quotes, because Trump leads the Republican Party away from its traditional roots. Republicans stood for a strong America with a powerful role in the world. Today, Trump would have us leave Ukraine alone against Russia. Republicans were the Party of a strong economy. But today, Trump would have Biden left as a “Hoover” so that Trump can win the election.
Grand Old Party
And Republicans have been the Party of strong borders. That’s the stand that the Republican (and conservative) Senator James Langford took in Senate negotiations on legislation to “fix” the border problem. There’s a lot in that legislation that Democrats readily agree to: better fentanyl detection, more legal aides and judges to determine asylum claims. And there are parts that Democrats stand against: more deportations, closing the border when the number of asylum seekers get too high, more “militarization” of the physical border.
President Biden and the Democratic leaders of the Senate determined to accept Langford’s compromise, in return for aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and increased help for the Gazan Palestinians left destitute by Israeli action in retaliation for October 7th. Those are all issues “regular” Republicans support too. It was a balanced package, one that, frankly, looked a lot more like something George Bush or even Dick Cheney would advance, rather than Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.
As the legislation reached its final form, it had bipartisan support. Sure, some Democrats would struggle to accept it, but for many Republican Senators, this was everything they wanted. And in our narrowly divided Congress, it was a bill from the center of the political fray. Even in the fractious House, if that bill ever reached the floor for a vote, it likely would pass.
Donald Trump couldn’t allow it.
“Republicans”
The “Republican” Party of Donald Trump stands for only one thing: what’s good for Trump, is good for the Nation. And the twice impeached, four-time indicted, facing ninety-one felony charges former President needs chaos at the border as a hammer to pound away at the Biden Presidency. So instead of taking a huge step forward to solve the border problem, the first since 1986, Trump ordered his Party to block the bill.
Senators and Congressmen don’t work for Donald Trump. They are elected to represent their constituents and the American people, paid for through tax dollars raised by the US Treasury, and under oath to protect the United States Constitution. There is no direct “line of authority” from the former President to any of them. But, almost as a block, the bipartisan legislation became, as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson stated, “…dead on arrival”.
“Republicans” are now willing to allow Ukraine to fall to Russia. They are willing to let the People’s Republic of China take Taiwan. They want the nonsense at the border, from Texas defying the United States Supreme Court, to “surprise” buses of unaware migrants dumped in the streets of Washington, New York and Chicago, to continue. And they even are willing to hold back support for Israel. All to give Trump his issue.
Whose Fault?
President Biden spoke to the Nation on Tuesday afternoon. He asked, in fact, he demanded, that the Congress move forward with the legislation. Some will say that Biden sounded “weak”, imploring Congress to do its job.
But Biden made the salient point. This isn’t about what’s good for the country, and this isn’t about what’s right. It’s not even about what the Republican Party believes. It’s about Trump, and Biden made sure that the blame is placed where blame is due.
The border was going to be a problem for the Biden campaign. Now, they have their answer. We had the fix, one that we had to “sell” to our own Democrats. But, through old fashioned political compromise, working from the center out, the Biden Administration went a long way towards solving the problem. Trump stopped it – and it’s his problem now.
Ask Biden, ask Harris, ask Schumer, ask Jeffries: what are Democrats doing about the border? Now the answer is simple: it’s Trump’s fault. He couldn’t have given Biden a better “election” present. Trump gave Democrats the answer to the border problem. It’s his fault.
He even put a bow on it.
The border issue is only a gift to Biden to the extent he chooses to use it. It is useless unless Biden shouts it at every chance, on every street corner, and repeats again and again and again, and makes it a key issue in every mailer, every message in social media, every talk show, and makes sure all his surrogates do the same. Does he have the guts, will, and organizational skill to do that?