Saturday, November 26, 2016

No Time for Showtime

No Time for Showtime | Mickey Kaus:
Does President-Elect Trump understand:
1) That the immigration issue is at the heart of his election. 
The Trump supporters who voted on the issue not only reflect majority support for most of his policies, but they tend to care about the issue intensely.
 If Trump backs down on the clear policies in his big August 31 immigration speech, including
On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, power, beautiful southern border wall.
he will dissolve this base of support. 
Since he has no other big base of support — not the Democrats who hate him, not established Republicans, who may hate him even more — he’ll be Wile E. Coyote in mid-air, with nothing under him.  (Psst. It takes a simple majority to impeach.)
2) That by design, tradition, and circumstance, it’s grindingly hard for a president to get new laws through Congress. 
Our presidents are weak that way. 
One of the few proven openings for action is the first 100 or so days of a new administration, when the public’s most willing to give an incoming chief executive the chance to try his policies. 
If Trump doesn’t appoint people who will push hard from their first minute in office, he’s unlikely to get the laws — to expand the E-Verify system (to check the status of new hires), lower future legal immigration levels, maybe funding for the wall  — he needs.
Much more.
Read on!

No comments: