As promised, I am posting the second half of the Ryan Harkins Comment of the Day double-header. This one is an analysis of the revolting Minnesota debacle that had “Knucklehead” Tim Walz pardon a confessed child rapist on the flimsiest of justifications to allow the man to escape deportation, whereupon he was deported anyway. [Is Vang wearing pajamas in that photo? I guess it’s a practical choice for a rapist…] Then Minnesota’s spectacularly incompetent governor complained that no one should suffer because of their “worst day” (the man had repeatedly raped the same girl for years), and was applauded by the state’s biggest newspaper for “standing behind” his indefensible pardon. Walz also implied that the ultimate deportation lacked “due process.”
At the risk of hitch-hiking on Ryan’s post, that last issue is one I find especially perplexing. The Biden Administration deliberately refused to enforce our immigration laws, flooding the nation with so many illegal immigrants that the procedures in place for finding and deporting them were bound to be ineffective, too expensive, too time-consuming, too much of a burden on the courts, and sure to inflame public opinion, making the necessary response politically impractical. It was, progressives thought, a fait accompli, silently accompanied by gloating and mockery. “Sure we ignored the law, and there’s not a thing you can do about it, so there!”
I believe that it was crucial to do something about it, and if it took a uniquely bold and defiant President willing to bend procedures, process, the law and public tolerance to accomplish an important mission, that is what Presidential power is for. Our best Presidents were willing to take matters right up to previously uncrossable lines and sometimes over them, and the Trump Administration commitment to dealing with the illegal immigrant avalanche is in the tradition of Jackson, Lincoln, FDR and Eisenhower at their best.
Sure it’s a slippery slope, and of course Democrats are indignant that their plot is being foiled. Nevertheless, I believe the President has to have the power to do what is in the best interests of the nation when situations arise that the usual processes can’t handle.
Here is Ryan Harkins’ Comment of the Day on the post, “Unethical Quote of the Month: The Minnesota Star Tribune“:
Ethics Alarms 
Nice work, Ryan. As always. Thank you.
[I]f the Democrats want to actually retake the House and Senate, the Machiavellian calculation should have led them to abandon Vang to his own devices.
Your conclusion brings into focus the question of how much of the electorate is Trump Deranged. The Democrats may believe, and even have polling supporting the fact, that a healthy majority of the electorate is Trump Deranged. Therefore, anything done to stymie Trump will get that majority of the electorate to the polls. Maybe their entire strategy for the mid-terms is to simply generate outrage among this majority of the electorate (the Trump Deranged). Maybe it’s simply all about “getting out the vote.”
I remember a dozen or so years ago, Glenn Beck spent a lot of time discussing the Cloward-Piven strategy being used. Basically, the play is to overwhelm the system to the point of breaking, then complain that the system is broken, and needs to be replaced by a new, preferred system. Any defence of the old system is dismissed as denial that the system is broken. Beck may have gone kooky since then, but I think he was spot on regarding this.
Correct. The idea was used by Leftists even back in the day when they were more popular than they are now: break the system or convince people that it’s broken so they will be more willing to replace it with something different.
The Chicken Little strategy.
Excellent comment Ryan. It may well be that Biden has backed us into a corner on immigration that we will be a decade recovering from. However, if we can keep the border as closed as it has been and work diligently, we can ultimately recover, I think.
I think the Trump administration should have concentrated on the lower hanging fruit. There has been overwhelming support for them to deport illegals who have committed crimes after arriving in the U.S. The only problem is that the numbers might not be as high as the administration wants. Well, I don’t like it but it’s what our system of law demands — and I think we should stick with the ‘due process’ thingy no matter what the Democrats have done and are doing to undermine it.
I think that the biggest problem with Trump 2.0 is the perception (which I share) that he has only hired folks who totally agree with him. The problem with this is that they have tended to overstep the boundaries (e.g. Minnesota) and sabotage their own program. Surely they are tons and tons of illegal and criminal aliens to deport. The revenge lawfare we’ve seen would never have happened under Bill Barr. Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy — were these really necessary? Ick.
The Democrats decided early on to go all out in opposing every single thing Trump was doing, no matter how popular, but why shoot yourself in the head and give them real ammunition to play with? And don’t get me started on tariffs…..
*sigh*
I do harbor hopes that the Democrats have gone so far as to alienate a good portion of their base, more than the extra support they can garner from Socialists and Communists. But really, given their stances, the midterms ought to be a red wave.
I think you overestimate the average voter. I’m afraid the wave will be anything but red. I don’t know how much of that is the stupidity of the voters overall, or the press manipulating weak-minded people.