dimitrig said:
sycasey said:
dimitrig said:
This whole border thing is a manufactured crisis and it bores me.
There is a legitimate problem at the border . . . too many people showing up and overwhelming the system.
That said, it is "manufactured" in the sense that the people who could really do something to fix the problem have just decided to use it to play politics.
There's been a problem at the border for decades now.
Why is it suddenly a crisis? It's an election year that's why.
It's the GOP's favorite crisis because it combines racism, xenophobia and economic security into one fear-filled trifecta for their fragile white base. They especially love when they can freak out about caravans.
When they control the white house and both branches of congress (which happened under Dubya and Trump) they had no interest in solving the "crisis" and spend all of their energy on lowering taxes. Lowering taxes pays their bills (eg keeps the donors happy) while ranting on the border keeps their low-information base engaged.
Trump paid lip service to infrastructure week and healthcare (neither of which the GOP ever even came close to having a plan for) but didn't do anything on the border except for a few executive orders. If they cared about "fixing" the border, why didn't they do anything under Trump? The answer is simple: for the same reason they are blocking the border deal under Biden, they have no interest in giving up this crisis.
Just like they pretend the economically magically improves when the GOP is in the white house, they pretend the border crisis is solved and the "both sides" media is happy to cover whatever the GOP's praetorian guard media decides to prioritize.