Noting that the title of the article is not terribly good, as the funds in question have already been appropriated for the purpose of the wall and are not new, and are in fact part of a “compromise” bill that also includes funding for asylum lawyers. Not that I want a compromise bill, or don’t think she shouldn’t push for better, but it’s hardly big news.
That said, the real problem lies at the end:
Zoom in: Beyond embracing the bipartisan bill, Harris’ campaign has portrayed her as an immigration hardliner in ads.
- One Harris TV ad frames her time as California’s attorney general as that of a “border state prosecutor,” and includes images of the border wall.
- In another, Harris’ team highlights her support of boosting the number of Border Patrol agents.
- Most of Trump campaign ads have attacked Harris for the Biden administration’s struggle to deal with waves of migrants crossing the border.
The bottom line: Like the wall itself, Harris’ changes on border policy reflect how Trump has shifted the political debate on immigration during the past decade.
I am getting very, very sick of the trend of Democrats spending more time trying to appeal to bigoted conservatives than trying to actually represent their own constituents or help the people they ostensibly care about.
Clinton made it ok, Obama made it cool, and since 2016 it’s been tradition for the Democrats. Citizens United made our elections into a bidding war and the Democrats are often pretty frank that courting billionaires is about not getting outspent by Republicans. As long as they represent the cause of the problem most leftists are concerned about by accepting bribes, they figure they might as well go for conservatives since they seem easier to convince of things.
The mistake they’re making of course is that conservatives don’t get convinced by rhetoric or appeals, they get convinced by the strong looking one who promises to defend them from all the scapegoats. They can’t out scapegoat the Republicans about the border wall and it’s a little insulting that they thought they could, but it’s better to them than risking their funding by being ethical in our hopelessly corrupt system.