• iain@feddit.nl
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    9 months ago

    Democrats just as much. They just proposed the toughest border control bill…

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      It was literal bait.

      They knew they would move the goalposts and not vote on it. The border is the only thing they had to run on, and they shot that all to hell. The economy is slowly getting better, wages are rising and the stupid Republicans not only shot themselves in the foot over the impeachment based on Russian criminal hearsay, they reloaded and shot the other one over the border deal they got.

      • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t know that I agree that it was bait. They were working on that bill long before it became apparent that it wouldn’t pass.

        Even if it was bait, it was a tacit agreement that the racist fearmongering from the right was true.

        I do think it was good political strategy in the end, but it still advanced and legitimized the alarming eliminationist rhetoric coming from the maga camp

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          advanced and legitimized

          Do you know how much “legitimizing” something is worth in politics? Nothing. All politicians are masters at “legitimizing” whatever their voters want through cheap words. Actually doing something costs money and may piss off the wrong person, so they try to avoid that.

          You can literally tell everyone placating things, “legitimizing” everyone’s opinion, and do nothing at the end of the day.

          It doesn’t matter.

      • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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        9 months ago

        I’m sorry, but I can’t be optimistic about this.

        Even if we accept it was bait, and not just the DNC pivoting to the right, I think it was a losing move. Who is this going to sway? Republicans aren’t the kind to be well-informed and swayed by the changing circumstance of current events, so it won’t peel any of them away. As for the rest, it just shrank the differences between the two parties, whether practically or purely optically. It’s not like this just finally demonstrated that the Republicans were a fucking joke of a party when it comes to actual governance.

        So we showed that the Republicans are incompetent hypocrites, as though that’s new information, and as if that realization would change any hearts or minds. And in exchange for this completely worthless prize, all it cost us was a now bipartisan consensus to push The Big Lie about immigrants. I don’t consider that a victory.

        The DNC is still the lesser evil, and there’s still a significant margin. I just wish that margin was growing because the Democrats were moving left, not because they’re both moving right but at different speeds.

      • iain@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        I haven’t seen any Democrats say they did it on purpose, but I could’ve missed that memo.

        But even if it is bait, it’s using immigrant lives as bait, and I’m not cool with that. What if the Republicans voted for the bill? Risking all those lives, for what?

        And furthermore: now that the Republicans are proven to be hypocrites, do you think that this will cost them any votes?

        • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Not among the base

          But

          Independent voters are watching, and the Republican party is tanking with the 18-40s Independents.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      Thank you, I’ve been so pissed off about this, but every chucklefuck acts like this was such an important bill and wasn’t just the Democrats trying to capture the mythical (read: doesn’t exist) “moderate voter” who is basically a racist but wants medicare for all.

      Why else do they push these bills that address all the conservative talking points as though they were true?

      Also, before I get some “Blah blah blah Ukraine Funding” this is par for the course for Democrats, writing legislation that is the right-wings wet-dream is half of what they fucking do, just look at the ACA, oops, I mean RomneyCare.

    • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      That’s not how I interpreted what happened, Democrats reject the lie but don’t mind secure borders and if that’s what it takes to make government function they are willing to pass bills to that effect.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 months ago

        Yeah FUCK them DREAMers, amirite?

        The US would cease to function without all the cheap, illegal immigrant labor it uses for everything from harvesting food to janitorial services.

        If it’s a job you wouldn’t want to do, you can bet your ass someone without a social security number has been hired to do it for less than minimum wage.

        That’s why the border bill didn’t pass, because the Republicans already had a taste of what happens in Florida with that.

        • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          The same people dependent on cheap migrant labor seek to criminalize it. I suppose this gives them more leverage with which to exploit. If the right were serious about ending illegal immigration it would mean going after employers, not the migrants, and if successful it would mean paying people enough that they are willing to do unpleasant jobs. They don’t want that, they want a convenient scapegoat with which to fearmonger and labor they can exploit. As noncitizens, this group doesn’t have political power to push back, and they can be made to seem scary and foreign to their xenophobic base.