Trump’s position is weakening fast. Here’s how Democrats can exploit that.
by Greg Sargent
January 23 at 9:56 AM
The forces arrayed behind President Trump in the government shutdown fight are now sending out decidedly conflicting signals. Some want Trump to dig in more firmly behind the xenophobic nationalism symbolized by his wall, as if he can break the Democrats’ will through sheer force of intractable anti-immigrant recalcitrance. Others are urging him to reach out to Democrats with concessions designed to accommodate their desire for humane immigration solutions.
This gives Democrats an opening to put forth their own proactive immigration agenda in the days and weeks ahead — to further divide the opposition, yes, but more to the point because it’s the right thing to do from a good governing standpoint.
The New York Times has now confirmed that the White House deliberately ensured that poison pills were inserted into the Senate GOP bill to reopen the government. As the Times reports, White House officials “conceded privately” that they “tacked on controversial proposals anathema to Democrats that would block many migrants from seeking asylum.”
This week, the Senate will vote on that bill, which reflects the Trump proposal to reopen the government. Trump pretends it’s a compromise. In reality, it is larded up with cruel provisions hatched from Stephen Miller’s nationalist fever dreams. It would further restrict asylum seeking in multiple ways. It offers one-time legislative relief to 700,000 young immigrants brought here illegally as children — a.k.a. “dreamers” — but only in a manner that codifies relief that has already been granted and that Trump is trying to take away, and appears to create new obstacles for them to apply.
At the same time, however, Axios reports that some in Trump’s orbit, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, want him to offer a path to getting green cards to those 700,000 dreamers. But some on the right are arguing against this. Why? As one GOP senator puts it: “If you throw green cards onto the table, this whole coalition will fall over on the right.” Trump, this senator says, cannot afford to “lose” the likes of Sean Hannity.
In other words, some around Trump recognize that making genuine concessions to Democrats actually would provide a way out of this standoff. But doing this risks splitting off pro-Trump forces on the right.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/23/trumps-position-is-weakening-fast-heres-how-democrats-can-exploit-that/?utm_term=.16d0d1720aa7&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

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