As Super Bowl Sunday is around the corner and the end of the NFL season, the Republican Party have been kneeling on the ball to get a fourth down so they can pass a Hail Mary to win in 2024. And that Hail Mary is the immigration policy. It’s a big risk they are taking because it can always backfire.
Immigration has always been the go-to BuggerBear for the Republican Party to use as a dog whistle to attract the racist, bigots and misogynists who have been members of the GOP since most of the Dixiecrats and Southern Democrats switched over in the 1960s. They tried to stoke fear at the southern border in 2018 but that backfired as they lost the House of Representatives. And then you didn’t hear about it for a while. The U.S. Senate recently had presented a bipartisan bill spearheaded in part by Sen. James Langford (R-Oklahoma), a very conservative legislator from a very conservative state. And President Joe Biden was supporting it.
However, if it passes that means it’s a win for Biden in an election year where they are doing their best to get Donald Trump back in office despite all the problems he’s having. House Speaker Mike Johnson says that Trump isn’t calling the shots on the immigration bill but it’s obvious they are doing it to make him look good. On top of that, Ronna McDaniel resigned as chair of the Republican National Convention. And Trumps wants Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina GOP to replace. He is one of the many who still believe Trump’s claims the 2020 election was rigged or stolen.
It sounds to me like he is pulling the strings. The $83.3 million defamation judgment against him won by E. Jean Carroll was a setback. Bden is leading Trump 50-44 in a Quinnipiac University poll. Even Fox News reported on this without much spin. CNN, which would run his speeches and press rallies from beginning to end in 2016 cut away three times when he was outside the courts talking about the Supreme Court hearing on whether Colorado can involve the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to keep him off the ballots.
All the talk about state’s rights don’t mean a thing when it comes to possibly being a disadvantage for. The Supreme Court is mostly 6-3 conservative as well as having Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife Ginni, is suspected of conspiring with legislators and officials to reject the Electoral Votes of 2020. They could surprise us in a 5-4 decision because it can always set a precedent for future elected officials.
And they’re not too popular following their 2022 ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. Many conservative states, such as Texas (which has the most miles of the southern border), have reported an increase in sexual assaults and pregnancies. The medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine reported there were 26,313 rape-related pregnancies in Texas alone over a 16-month period. That’s an average of about 1,644.5 a month or 54.8 a day. That means that every day over a 16-month period, at least four dozen women were raped and impregnated each day.
That’s all that have been reported. My guess would be more have been reported that people don’t want to say either it’s been committed by a family member or someone who is a close friend/acquaintance and people don’t want to announce it yet. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling has had the different effect because it’s brought women’s rights and reproduction rights to the forefront in 2024. How many of those 26,313 are registered voters who will be reconsidering who they vote for this year?
And that’s why they’re hoping they can use immigration to present this stereotypical view of “dirty Mexicans” crossing the border to rape and sexually assault white women. However, many people are going to the border towns only to discover there’s not much going on. People are posting videos online of border towns, such as Eagle Pass, Texas expecting something out of a Mad Max movie only to discover it’s all smoke and mirrors. CBS News has reported that most migrants are going northwest to Arizona and California to cross over into America.
Yes, people are crossing the border without proper documentation. But it’s actually the desire by farmers and factory workers to hire the migrants. In northwest Georgia where I grew up, it’s considered the Carpet Capital of the World in Dalton. There’s also many rug and carpet factories in neighboring towns and communities as well as other textiles and industries. All have employed migrants. Are they properly documented or did someone pay for them to come there? When I was living there, apartment complexes would rent out units to 10-12 migrants. They all paid in cash and most just slept on the floors.
According to Google Maps, there is almost 1,200 miles between Eagle Pass, Texas and Dalton, Ga. It would take someone on average 18 days to walk from the border to the foothills of Appalachia, crossing some high elevations along the way in northern Alabama and Georgia. I seriously doubt a migrant would travel that far when there are numerous places along the way they can work for cash under the table. No one is wanting to pay real Americans, who have been born here or become citizens, a decent wage. So, they’re willing to spend the money to get migrants to come work for them so they can pay them less.
There is a serious immigration problem, but a lot of it is the result of years if not decades of bad policies in Central America from direct or indirect involvement from America. It’s become apparent that the end goal is to do whatever is possible to help Trump win. Even he said in a recent speech that he is the leader of the Republican Party. This may be why Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has said there is no move forward and even reportedly stood up and left a meeting on the bill. They don’t want to do something even the least likely bipartisan.
And the House of Representatives failed to impeach Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas 214-216 with all Democrats voting nay and a few Republicans crossing the aisles. This is another black eye for the Republican Party to prove they don’t any goals or policies in place except just get Trump re-elected by any means necessary. The House did pass a bill to extend the child tax credit but it seems to be something they did to just win them good favor.
The Supreme Court may rule that Trump has to be included on the Colorado ballots. But it could very easily backfire. Colorado is one of the first states in the country to legalize cannabis. The blowback against Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican Congressmember in the state, has been seen in a straw poll where she came in fourth as she has moved to a new district because she barely won by about 500 votes in 2022. People are getting tired of this.
The D.C. Court of Appeals has ruled that Trump doesn’t have immunity in the 2020 criminal election case. He faces 91 charges and he still is awaiting a decision in the New York case that could determine where he can ever do business in the state again. Unless his behavior in the court was a strategy to gain sympathy or to show that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind while conducting business, it’s likely he won’t win this one either.
I’ve seen comebacks and surprises in sports and politics. But at this point, it doesn’t look promising that the Republicans will win. If anything else, they are laying the groundwork again for another “Election was rigged” episode.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 