Look, it\u2019s 2024. It seems like this Presidential election year started about six months after Biden was inaugurated in 2021, but now we\u2019re really, finally, (sadly), here. Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, \u201cGod willing and the river don\u2019t rise\u201d. Almost inevitably, Trump is going to be the Republican nominee. So, like it or not, we are in for a \u201crerun\u201d of 2020, this time hopefully, without a world pandemic to upstage every other issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first it seemed that James Carville\u2019s wise intonation would hold the day; \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Biden was saddled with inflation, an unavoidable side effect of the successful efforts to avoid a Covid depression.\u00a0Most Americans don\u2019t remember the crushing inflation of the 1970\u2019s, averaging almost 10% a year throughout Jimmy Carter\u2019s Administration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The past couple years felt \u201creally bad\u201d:\u00a0\u00a02021 at 7% and 2022 at 6.5%.\u00a0\u00a0But last year it was down near 3% and this year looks even better.\u00a0\u00a0So the inflation issue won\u2019t have the impact Republicans wanted. (Gee, gas prices were down to $2.53 yesterday, even here in the Amazon van bubble!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden used a phrase in 2020 that still resonates in 2024: \u201cDon\u2019t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative\u201d. In the \u201cbinary choice\u201d of Biden versus Trump, there are several key issues where voters face a black or white decision. Trump embraced the results of \u201chis\u201d Supreme Court appointees in the Dodds<\/em> case; abortion is now a state by state issue. And the Pro-Life crowd made their goal clear: end abortion care nationwide. That\u2019s mobilized voters, particularly women, even in Republican places like Kansas, Ohio, and Kentucky. If women want to be able to control their own bodies, Biden is the only answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in foreign policy the division is clear. Support Ukraine, vote for Biden. Want Russia to take over Ukraine, support Trump and his friend Putin. The current Israeli War is more complicated. The media makes a big deal about the Democratic split over the Israeli strategy of destruction of Gaza to destroy Hamas. But the comparison (Almighty versus alternative) is obvious. Trump would give his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu a completely free hand in Gaza, Biden is the only moderating force. If you want to support the Palestinians and don\u2019t like what Biden is doing, what\u2019s the alternative? Vote for Trump? Or, don\u2019t vote at all, and allow Trump to gain the Presidency? <\/p>\n\n\n\n So Republicans returned to an old strategy, one we remember from the elections of 2016 and 2018. There\u2019s a \u201ccaravan\u201d coming to the Southern border. Thousands (Fox News says eight thousand) headed to the border. They are still a thousand miles away, but when they get here, the border will be overwhelmed. And Biden isn\u2019t ready!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has his solution: militarize the border, arm it with razor wire, walls and armed troops, and arrest anyone who manages to get through for illegal crossing then send them back to Mexico. Make illegal migration Mexico\u2019s problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem with that solution is twofold. First, it creates a \u201cdeath zone\u201d at the border, that is guaranteed to kill some migrants trying to get through. The \u201cdeterrence\u201d concept that migrants won\u2019t come if it\u2019s \u201cbad enough\u201d just doesn\u2019t work. They continue to come, and drown in the Rio Grande, get tangled in the barbed wire, and their kids get sick and die from exposure. Ultimately those armed troops will use their weapons, and we have the catastrophe of American troops shooting migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And second, it creates a lawless zone on the Mexico side of the border, with towns overwhelmed with the humanitarian burden of hundreds of thousands of migrants.\u00a0\u00a0Exposure, starvation, disease and crime will not remain just a Mexican problem.\u00a0\u00a0It simply raises the stakes, and drives the migrants into the clutches of the \u201ccoyotes\u201d who will offer them a way out through the wilderness onto American soil.\u00a0\u00a0And more will die in the desert, trying to get to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fixing the border crisis is complicated. We have treaty obligations to let people try to claim asylum in the United States. The conditions in Central and South America driving migration are worse, far worse than even Governor Abbott is willing to create on the border. So until that improves, folks are still going to leave their homes, risk the Darien crossing, pay extortion to the gangs, and show up in Juarez or Matamoras, or Tijuana; to come to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States absolutely must do a better job of administering the border.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a legal, medical, ethical, issue.\u00a0\u00a0And the United States can use more workers in the economy; there is a ready supply to be tapped at the border.\u00a0\u00a0The political reality is:\u00a0\u00a0a solution at the border isn\u2019t in the Republican Party\u2019s best interest.\u00a0\u00a0With all of the other issues falling in Biden\u2019s favor, Trump needs the Border.\u00a0\u00a0That remains a \u201cthorn in the side\u201d of the Biden Presidency.\u00a0\u00a0And besides, it\u2019s all Trump\u2019s got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caravan <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n