“If you vote for Trump, then you, the voter, you, not Donald Trump, are standing at the border, like Nazis.” – Donny Deutsch.
So, you want to compare Trump to Hitler and his supporters Nazi’s because he wants to arrest and deport illegal aliens? First, former president Obama deported more illegals than any president before him, earning him the nickname: “Deporter in Chief”. So where was your outrage then? Second, but most importantly, when ICE deports illegal aliens they send them back to their country of origin. They arrive there safe and probably in better condition than when they entered the U.S. If not wanted by the authorities in their own country, they are free. Many of them as we know will return to the U.S., a funny thing to do if you believe Trump’s America is the Third Reich revisited.
Compare that to the actual Hitler and real Nazi’s When they rounded up Six million Jews, Slavs, and others they were sent not home, but to concentration camps where most of them died or lived as slaves. The religious and ethnic minorities that were rounded up were not allowed due process, they were offered neither hearings nor trials, there was no pleading their case, no requests for asylum. There was no “catch and release, ” there was no recidivism rate for Holocaust victims. When a member of Himmler’s Totenkopf SS found you, that was it, you were a slave of the Reich until death or the Allies freed you.
If you want to compare Trump to Hitler based on deportations of illegal immigrants, then what you are saying is that being sent back to a country like Mexico or Honduras is like being sent to Treblinka or Auschwitz. The problem with that is that aliens returned to Mexico or some other country find themselves free and alive at the end of their experience with ICE or the Border Patrol. Not so much in the case of Nazi death camps. Anyone unlucky enough to have an encounter with the German Totenkopf SS was looking at guaranteed slavery and/or death. Our immigration laws actually prevent human beings from being made into slaves by human traffickers and the like.
Attempts to liken Trump to Hitler due to his stance on immigration are not just historically wrong but are hurtful to the memories of all who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. The Holocaust victims were never allowed to plead their cases, never given a hearing, never allowed any due process. Illegal immigrants are. The Jews and Slavs captured were used for slave labor, our immigration policy is an impediment to those who wish tho traffic in human beings. An encounter on the part of illegal aliens with ICE or the Border Patrol will usually result in that person being returned healthy and alive to their home country. Capture by the Nazi SS always resulted in the enslavement and usually the eventual death of those captured. To compare Trump and his supporters to Hitler and his is not just historically inaccurate, it is divisive and dishonest. Moreover, the hatred and distrust this causes prevent rational discussion of the very real problem of illegal immigration.
The State of the Union speeches can sometimes be tedious and predictable. There will be the long list of achievements that the President wants to highlight, coupled by an even longer laundry list of things he wants to Congress to act on. They’re full of soaring rhetoric, with each president making an obvious effort to get in that one, memorable line that will be quoted ad nauseam later that night and the next day. This year however, with President Trump, things promise to be a little more entertaining. When Trump speaks, you can never be quite sure what you’re going to get. Still, there will be the usual SOTU trope: The long introduction with the President working the reception line, the call outs by the President to guests in the chamber who he thinks personify a certain virtue, or a the need for a certain pet program. The camera will inevitably cut to shots of some general or admiral when the talk turns to defense, the Supreme Court when a decision of theirs is mentioned, or the relevant cabinet secretary, whenever the speech refers to something they’ve or their department have done or might do.
Everyone likes to make New Year’s predictions. Just to be a little different, here is a list of things that are exceedingly unlikely to happen in 2018. Although there are scores of pundits, celebrities and other talking heads who will try and convince you otherwise, here are seven things that logic and clear thinking suggest won’t occur in calendar year 2018…
As past presidents have shown, a president’s term can’t be judged by their first one hundred days, Kennedy had a terrible first hundred days, Carter was highly successful at doing the wrong things during that period. That having been said, it is a good mile marker, an opportunity for course evaluation and correction. I give President Trump a “B” for his first 100 days. He’s done as well as can be expected for someone with no previous political experience. He’s maxed-out on what a President alone can do in that period. He’s started to dismantle the regulatory state, and has exceeded expectations in the area of foreign policy. American is back in the business of leading. His administration stumbled a bit on the initial travel ban rollout. He has yet to make any major economic policy. He (luckily) has not had to deal with any world crisis of the 9/11 or Cuban Missile Crisis magnitude so those remain ungraded.
If President Trump is correct, Obamacare will implode and the Democrats will have little choice but to join the effort to fix healthcare. Don’t count on them to bring conservative solutions to the table though. The problem for the Freedom Caucus if this happens will be to hold onto the concessions they gained during the last few days. The more Democrats elect to take part in the effort the less chance any further conservative initiatives will make it into any new healthcare legislation. The Freedom Caucus having won this most recent battle, may well lose the war. The best hope for the Freedom Caucus going forward is to continue to explain to the American people at every opportunity the virtues of their positions on healthcare and build public awareness of them to the point that by the second go-round they seem common sense. They will need to expand their sphere of influence beyond conservative diehards to the more moderate Republican constituencies and Trump supporters if they are to have any hope keeping their gains in tact much less building upon them in the event that Democrats decide they want a hand in fixing the mess they made with Obamacare when next attempt at healthcare reform is made.
Just after noon Friday, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as our 45th president. An improbable run for the White House that began over a year ago culminated in President Trump taking the oath of office in front of the Capitol building. Inside the Mall, tens of thousands cheered. Outside the Mall, thousands protested, at times violently, while others showed support. Immediately after being sworn in, he gave 