In case you missed it, President Trump is now blaming the Democrats for his own policy of inhumane and sadistic separation of immigrant children from their parents, despite the fact that these actions are being done at the direction of the president himself and carried out by the executive branch of government that he controls. I’m certain that he and his advisors are casting this nonsensical blame to sow confusion among the public, as well as to provide a moral lifeline to those of his supporters troubled by behavior more associated with totalitarian regimes than a healthy democracy. This way, they can have it all — witnessing the cruel and satisfying spectacle of inflicting emotional pain and suffering on immigrants, while also telling themselves that this cruelty is actually the fault of the Democrats.
The White House has made it clear since the early days of its anti-immigration moves, including the ban on people from majority-Muslim countries, that a central policy benefit has been forcing Democrats and liberals to take a stand that makes it seem as if they care more about non-Americans than actual citizens. This is a canny and malicious way to stir up Trump's base, but I question whether the public at large is so easily duped. However, I do see in these latest outrages the danger of still more distraction from the far greater menace to our country — the overwhelming evidence that the president is beholden to Russian interests, that members of the campaign and likely the president himself have committed what a reasonable person would call treason, and that this presidency is engaged in a level of self-enrichment and corruption potentially unparalleled in our history. The Trump administration’s vigorous exercise of presidential powers means that the opposition is forever scrambling in reaction to its moves, including on the immigration front.
The most basic adherence to liberal principles means that the sadism at the border must be opposed — defense of the defenseless and of human rights is non-negotiable — but this opposition needs to be fit into a larger movement to counter Trump and the broader authoritarian, racist movement he’s given voice and shape to. The key dynamic of this present confrontation that we need to keep in mind is that Donald Trump finds himself able to inflict suffering on a population of people in a way that demonstrates his power and fidelity to the principles he campaigned on, while also demonstrating the powerlessness of his opponents. This powerlessness is only emphasized by Democratic politicians who call on Trump to stop these practices. For Trump, their impotent cries are the point of this moment; they demonstrate his absolute strength and their utter powerlessness.
The majority of the American people find this treatment of children and parents an affront to basic human, let alone American, values. Trump is doing it because it pleases him and his base; yet he has now chosen to play the situation like the separation policy is actually the fault of the liberals themselves. The opposition can throw this back at Trump — not only is he implementing an un-American policy, he doesn’t seem to have the cajones to own up to being responsible for it. Somewhat counter-intuitively, because it involves an admission of their own limited leverage, Democrats should be emphasizing Trump’s absolute ownership of this issue and of his own sadism, and ask what punishing the most vulnerable people on the continent has to do with making America great again. In exaggerating the threat posed by women and children, Trump paints a picture of an America that is weak beyond comprehension, ever a Central American family unit away from giving up the ghost and turning into some sort of burrito-Mariachi band hellscape. The cruelty suggests cowardice, and both the cruelty and cowardice reveal a president, and a party, that would rather attack impoverished immigrants than, say, confront the monopolies and oversized banks that are sucking the life out of our economy.
The most important step to redressing this nightmare is to beat the GOP in the upcoming elections, and eject Donald Trump from office. Then we will have the means to pursue justice against Trump and his minions at ICE, who are clearly following orders that no decent American would ever follow.
