Mandates, Myths, and Manufactured Fear

With the current unrest in Los Angeles, most news reports have recently begun by implying in some way that Trump received a mandate to enact mass deportations.

First and foremost, that is patently untrue, starting with the fact that Trump did not receive a mandate; he did not win by a simple majority, but rather a plurality. To define a plurality as a mandate is a distortion of the language, a betrayal of democratic clarity, and a dishonest political strategy to falsely claim broad public endorsement.

Beyond that, Trump’s stated reason for mass deportation was supposed to be to “restore law and order,” and that he would only deport the most violent and dangerous criminals.
According to The Daily Beast, Stephen Miller explicitly ordered “ICE to conduct raids targeting undocumented day laborers at Home Depot parking lots” and stressed arresting all undocumented individuals, not just criminals, setting quotas of about 3,000 arrests per day and threatening to fire officials who didn’t comply.

This is not law and order. This is not a rational or targeted immigration policy. This is state-sanctioned fear, built on the false claims of public approval.

A true mandate requires not just electoral victory, but clarity of purpose and consensus of the people. Trump has none of these.


... I'm just saying

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reduce vocabulary, and you reduce the capacity for complex thought

A few years ago on Valentine’s Day, I sang in a Barbershop Quartet for a friend’s kindergarten class. When we finished, one of the children — without being prompted — exclaimed, “That was expensive.” We took it as a sincere and generous compliment. After all, this little girl had reached deep into the recesses of her vocabulary and offered us the highest praise she could muster, based on three years of socialization and maybe six months of formal education. That was acceptable — even touching — coming from a four-year-old. Unfortunately, the President of the United States seems to have only a slightly larger vocabulary than that kindergartener. At best, he speaks at a fourth-grade level. When confronted by a journalist or anyone he considers an adversary, his responses are rarely more nuanced than, “That was a nasty question,” or “You’re not being very nice.” How far away are we from "nanny nanny boo boo?" We've gone from "Ask not what your country can do for you...
Read more

Who called that ______ a piccolo player?

From Insider Trading to Conspiracy Theories: Trump’s Cabinet Reveals a Dangerous Trend — Loyalty First, Leadership Last Of all the qualified Republican politicians and public servants — and let's be honest, even a few outside the party — you have to wonder: Why does Donald Trump continually scrape the bottom of the barrel when assembling a Cabinet? Most of these people aren’t just underqualified to lead the organizations they're supposed to oversee — but in the words of Robin Harris: Who called that muthafucker a piccolo player? Here’s the lineup: Marco Rubio – Secretary of State Criticized for hawkish foreign policy toward Latin America, China, and Iran. Received a 0/100 rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his voting record on LGBTQ+ rights. Pete Hegseth – Secretary of Defense Shared classified military information over unsecured messaging apps. Accused of sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse. Proposed renaming the Department of Defense to...
Read more