Despite Trump’s best efforts to create a distraction — Your Leader averted the nuclear disaster that he ginned up in the first place! — people, meaning the media, are starting to pay attention to the cruel practice of taking children at border stations from their families, even if those families are seeking asylum rather than trying to sneak into the country.
Just as an example, Stephen Colbert broke format on his show last night to deliver a joke-free plea on the subject — common practice now for Jimmy Kimmel, but rare for Colbert, who seemed most offended by Sessions’ use of a Biblical quote not to justify the cruelty but to establish the government’s authority (barbering the Bible is invariably how “Christian” authoritarians justify their authority, since religion is, at root, authoritarianism). But that was just Colbert’s door-opener.
The CBS host cited a report from The Independent stating that public defenders have claimed immigration officials are misleading families, telling them that children were being taken away for baths, in order to separate them. “Now clearly no decent human being could defend that. So Jeff Sessions did,” Colbert said.
The crowd audibly gasped at the mention of the concentration-camp-like ruse of a bath.
Sad as it is that the public now pays attention to an issue only when comedians do, such attention does play into the belief in some quarters that public outrage is growing and, with elections on the horizon, Republicans in Congress are only tepidly defending the administration, while Trump tries to blame the mess on Democrats, which makes no sense on its face because Republicans control Congress.
In short, Mr. Vanella is right — this is an issue on which citizen participation could tip the scales.
Meanwhile, as most of the media focuses on bad signs for Democrats in November, turnout for party primaries tells a different story — one in which GOP turnout is down sharply, which is what creates a wave election. It’s also why polls are likely to err toward Republicans if they base their likely voters on recent past turnout patterns.