Day: August 21, 2015

At the Plum Line at the Washington Post, Paul Waldman says that the Republicans may have just given away the election with all this birthright citizenship fascist nonsense. I agree.

[T]his week has seen the most significant development yet in the immigration debate’s role in the 2016 election. I’d go even farther — it’s possible that the entire presidential election just got decided.... It’s possible to argue that you’re “pro-immigrant” while simultaneously saying we should build more walls and double the size of the Border Patrol. Indeed, many Republicans do, and while their argument may not be particularly persuasive, it’s not completely crazy. But you can’t say you’re pro-immigrant and advocate ending birthright citizenship. You just can’t.

Thus, in a scenario where it would be very difficult mathematically for a Republican to win the presidency without a pretty big improvement over Mitt Romney's performance among Latinos, the GOP is doubling down on the self deportation remarks that doomed Romney in the first place. According to Latino Decisions analysis that Waldman cites, Republicans will need 42% of the Latino vote to win even if they maintain their 2014 support levels among white voters and black turnout and Democratic support levels among black voters return to pre-Obama levels and Latino turnout is poor. You ain't getting 42% of the Latino vote with this rhetoric. You ain't getting 22%.

We could be guided by science, reason, and rationality, but that would conflict with our sacred duty to protect the profitability of oil, coal and natural gas companies.

These signs are popping up all over President Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia. I spent some time in airports terminals yesterday, so I got to see most of President Carter's news conference concerning his cancer diagnosis. Saying that his life was in God’s hands and that he was “perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” Mr. Carter added, “I’m ready for anything. And I’m looking forward to the adventure.” I can only hope I'd look at things this way in his situation. Then again, it helps that he is 90, and it helps that he has completely and thoroughly used his life in the service of others. If I were President Carter, I would have no fear of death, and I would look forward to giving God a good talking to. Typically, presidential maladies are for hiding. And among all of us generally, we don't like to talk about the fact that we are ill. I myself did not like saying I had a heart condition last year, because you can feel, as soon as the words escape your mouth, that you are then diminished in the eyes of everyone, that you are somehow weaker, less than. I would like to thank President Carter for being so open and honest about his illness, with such ease and courage. May he instill it in all of us. For many years to come.