We all know what just happened, now I want to talk about what is about to happen.
DACA was an Executive Order that President Obama signed after the GOP blocked the DREAM ACT from becoming law. Over 800,000 children of immigrants came forward and willingly gave their information to the government — information that can now be used to round them up and deport them. Trump has put a count down clock over the heads of these people and tossed it over to the GOP-controlled congress to come up with a legislative solution.
To the surprise of many in the media, a handful of GOP legislators have spoken openly of the need to help DACA recipients. More credulous members of the media has taken this as a hint of some long-hidden humanity deep within them. This is a mistake. What we are seeing is the slow build up to a legislative campaign that has many traps for Democrats already baked in. We need to be aware of this now so that we do not fracture our coalitions and rip ourselves apart over this.
With 800,000 hostages the GOP is in a strong position to demand a ‘ransom’ in the form of Democratic support for any number of odious GOP policies. The most clear cut example of this would be for the GOP to put up the DREAM ACT for a vote but attach something that would severely hurt another group within our coalition of coalitions. The Dems would them face the choice of rescuing the hostages at the expense of, say, African Americans, LGBT or other group. Then talk radio and Twitter bots would spread their memes about how "Democrats care more about Latinos than [working-class whites, African Americans, etc..]. And we tend to fall for it every time with countless self-critical, introspective thinkpieces.
But the GOP will never allow a Democratic bill become a law so the DREAM ACT will never see a vote unless it is absolutely packed with poison pills. More likely is that the GOP will put forth their RAISE act and then dare the Democrats to vote against it as the countdown clock ticks down on the hostages and the 2018 election heats up. This is going to be a slow process so we need to remember to pace ourselves. This is a red-meat issue for their cruel, sadistic base and the GOP will want to wring as much as they can out of it. The image of thousands of angry Latinos marching in the streets will make Trump loyalists' heads explode and drive them directly into the voting booth. Even more so if Trumpers are able to provoke violence - and they are very skilled at provoking violence.
It is what it is. We must hang together and support each other if we are to survive this. Our Democratic Legislators will also need our support. They are trying to free 800,000 hostages with almost no leverage. We can be the leverage they need if we can support them.
