Sorry, Carsonites. With one hand JASmius giveth, and with the other he taketh away:
Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson jabbed Tuesday at front-runner Donald Trump's proposal to deport everyone who is in the country illegally, calling the plan impractical.
"People who say that have no idea what that would entail" legally and otherwise, Carson said, adding: "Where you going to send them?"....
The same basic point that I made two weeks ago. Making it official that JASmius Echo Syndrome has hit the 2016 GOP presidential campaign. And if that was all that Dr. Carson had said, we wouldn't be having his regrettably necessary conversation. Because of course, he'd be absolutely correct because he agreed with me.
But then he had to go and stumble down the steps and poop his pants:
Carson said he would secure the border, but also grant guest-worker status to people who are in the country [illegally]. That way, they can pay taxes and come out from the shadows, he said.
Mass deportation, he said, would be expensive and impractical, and crippling to the hotel and agriculture industries. [emphasis added]
Ouch, Doc. And just when you were rising up to slay the Trump beast, too. Now all The Donald has to do is deride you as "low-energy" and "weak-willed" and "lacking the cajones" to "do what has to be done" as only a "Green Lantern president" can, and the Trumpster hordes will descend upon you like the zombies in the run-of-the-mill Walking Dead episode, rip you to pieces, and send you back to Maryland in ten metaphorical boxes.
Some Republican voters may find such WYSIWYG frankness and genuine authenticity refreshing - heaven knows I do - but we are few and far in-between. The bulk of the GOP base wants to believe in miracles and stubbornly insists that Trump is our Moses, able to part the Red Sea of illegals like he parts his rug. Anything to avoid having to admit that maybe, just maybe, the despised "GOP establishment" might actually be right about what is politically achievable in the absence of winning additional elections. And perhaps because after almost seven years of the enemy POTUS getting to do whatever he wants regardless of Constitutional and legal restraints with utter and complete impunity, our side wants to balance those tyrannical scales with some counter-despotism of our own. Isn't that pretty much what Trump is fancifully promising?
But, of course, only Democrats get to be above the law. Republicans are suffocated by it and always will be, even if any of us wanted to stray beyond its boundaries. That's why so many Tea Partiers are flocking foolishly after Trump, and why they will turn on Ben Carson with a vengeance for this "sellout," which puts him in the same lineup with, among other fellow "hopefuls".....Ted Cruz.
As has been the case on so many issues over the past few years, the loveable dork Mitt Romney probably came the closest to having the illegal immigration issue nailed (though not entirely) through the "self-deportation" strategy that used sensible economic incentives to discourage border crossings and encourage voluntary repatriation. Get rid of "guest worker" amnesty and Dr. Carson would be in pretty much the same near-sweet spot within the immigration "Overton Window".
But that's never going to be good enough in a cycle where most GOP voters want to smash that window altogether out of its frame with a hail of bricks and baseball bats, Incredible Hulk-like, only to "come to" after the election is over to find either a Putinesque authoritarian or Nixon in a skirt in power.
That direction lies insanity. And insanity is what the Right lustingly wants.
Which is why there's so much to be said for a calm, thoughtful, "adult" hand at the helm of the ship of state.
If only that package didn't include amnesty support.
Which leads us back to....
You know I'm right.
And you know you want to.
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