politics

I sympathize with you, but at the same time your description is inaccurate. You wrote that people are equating the Republicans with the Democrats on immigration. I don't think that's true, because the Democrats aren't spreading stories about cat eating Haitians, for example.

But Kamala Harris is trying to adopt a very strong border policy, and she's certainly not trying to emphasize that immigrants are people, and that we should care about and support people who are fleeing deadly situations in their home countries. Remember the immigration bill, the one that gave Republicans much of what they wanted? The Democrats were on board with that, and eventually Trump had to shoot it down because he thought it would be better for him politically.

One argument was that the Democrats would give the Republicans everything they wanted, and this would show that actually the Democrats are good at getting things done, and that it was a political decision but not necessarily a moral one.

I'm not accusing you of anything, but many people in the last few months have gotten upset when the Democrats are attacked for having dodgy positions on issues, and they say that that's only helping the Republicans. I totally disagree with this. There are no perfect candidates, and pointing out a weak point of a candidate doesn't mean you shouldn't vote for them. Rather, it's a reminder that politics is not pretty and we have to do the best we can.

During the presidential debate, Harris expressed intent to be harder on immigration.

Unfortunately, in the give and take of politics, this is one of the areas where we will fall back to in an attempt to sway the right and avoid veering into authoritarian territory.

Ideally, I would like to see the far-right diminish entirely after this crazy God King crap passes, allowing for a new progressive movement to emerge and people to actually get stuff done with regards to immigration.

Please read the article before doing a knee jerk reaction to the headline.

Over the past year in particular, Democrats have abandoned the positive arguments for immigration and its benefits and contributions to American life that were standard for both the party and American tradition — a positive vision that was politically successful for them during the Trump years. Instead, they have taken the cowardly option of trying to outdo Republicans over who can be harsher immigration hawks.

Since this is a game Democrats can never win — there is virtually no inhumane policy they could adopt or carry out that will make voters view Republicans as softer on immigration — they have received no discernible political benefit from this. Which, of course, hasn’t changed their thinking an iota.

So now we have the Kamala Harris campaign not just constantly touting a terrible immigration bill and its legally dubious ending of the right to asylum, but even promising to build Trump’s border wall, for years the physical symbol of the cruelty, racism, and stupidity of Trump’s immigration agenda. The Democrats’ promise to clamp down on asylum seekers, incidentally, would negatively affect at least some of the same Haitian migrants in Springfield whom Republicans are inciting violence against.

As we’ve seen so many times in American politics, the appalling behavior of the Right gives the liberal center a largely free pass on its own misdeeds.

If they don't want to be equated with republicans then they should stop taking up republican policy.