Dan Lipka Web Log

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/ice-arrests-domestic-violence-victim-at-texas-courthouse.html?mid=emailshare_di The Trump immigration policy (which is either actively supported or simple ignored by almost every Republican in Congress), simply treats undocumented immigrants as a lesser kind of person.  They happened to be born in another country and came to the US for a better life.  However, they will soon be forced to live below the law.  They will refuse to ever go to any law enforcement agency out of fear of deportation.  If they are a victim of crime or a witness, they simply will not go.  This will inevitable lead to people committing more crimes against undocumented people.  They will no longer be protected by either the law or law enforcement. I ask everyone out there to put yourself in their place.  You are born into a poor area of Mexico, that is just where you happen to be born (you don't get to choose where you are born).  You grow up seeing some terribl

This sums it up... " “Conservatives do and should view [Trump] as their current best chance to get conservative policy enacted into law because that was the grand bargain made,” said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist who opposed Trump’s candidacy for president. “The idea was they would overlook certain behaviors and distractions from President Trump in anticipation of being able to have a willing signature on the other end of conservative legislation.” Republicans will support/ignore whatever Trump does as long as he supports all their legislation.  It is a very simple concept.  Trump policies on immigration, trade, education, elections, etc., are not a concern for Republicans, so they won't object.  In return, Trump will (supposedly) support a conservative agenda to lower taxes, reduce public assistance, be pro-life, and reduce regulations of almost any kind.  It empowers both Trump and Republicans in Congress to be as aggressive as possible.  However, how will they re

@HuffingtonPost @CNNPolitics @politico When I studied political science, they explained that most people were moderate and fewer people had more extreme ideologies (top chart).  If this is the case, the way to win an election was to be as close to other candidate as possible, but very slightly to your ideology.  This meant that candidates were actually very similar and whoever was more mainstream won.  However, this might not apply anymore.  Perhaps there aren't very many moderates and people feel much stronger about their positions (second chart).  The implications are numerous.  In order to win your party's nomination, the candidate has to be more extreme.  Jeb Bush would have probably done great 20 years ago (attracting  moderate Republicans and Democrats, but now neither of those exist is large numbers).  So you end up with two candidates that are further and further from each other, with moderates disliking both of them.  So if the button chart reflects the population, ho

The media says “We are all from immigrant families, how can we discriminate against new immigration.  Immigrants built this country and helped make it great”.  Of course, this is technically true, but I fear that this line of reasoning is actually having the opposite effect of what they are trying to accomplish.  A significant number of people in this country, especially in the south, do not consider themselves immigrants, or their family immigrants. Tens of millions are descended from families that have been in this country for 400 or even 500 years; they were the ones that actually settled the land, build the first cities and farms, fought in the revolutionary war, wars with native Americans and Mexicans, the Civil War, WW1 and WW2.  They consider themselves truly “Americans” and fundamentally different from the immigration waves in the 19 th  and 20 th  century.  They see a completely different set of values in immigration, and many believe that every new immigrant is taking a job

😟 (nothing more to say)

I am shocked that Democrats in Congress don't have a plan (at least not yet) to really hold Republicans accountable for their support of Donald Trump.  They should circulate a petition that says "Good judgement is a part of being a good elected official.  I believe Donald Trump will be an excellent President and I support all of his Cabinet nominations.  When he is a great President, I want everyone to know that I supported him.  If he turns out to be a disaster, than my judgement is clearly poor and perhaps I am not fit for this position." Of course it could be written better, but there is no negative to this, even if Republicans don't sign it.  Unless Trump is great, but this really wouldn't change anything in that case either.  Democrats need to make a strong association that every Republican who supports Trump's nominees for executive orders is the same a Trump.  That they are "putting party above country".  Likewise, democrats need to get every