From of all places, Newsweek [1]‘
Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.
These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.
These shrill noises are the sound of progressive politicians being squeezed. They proclaim their cities are “sanctuaries” but—surprise, surprise—they don’t actually want more illegal immigrants. Not that they can voice that reservation, of course, given their activist political base. Neither can they support serious efforts to manage the underlying problem by closing the border, or even trying to. Doing so would mean a humiliating return to Donald Trump’s tough policies: building the wall, requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico as their applications are processed, and encouraging Mexico’s armed forces to deploy along the border to prevent illegal crossings. Biden overturned all those policies, to cheers from his party’s left-wing base. That was when they thought it would be costless.
Yeah, there is nothing like a little skin in the game to bring one back to reality. In the end, this is going to be one of the measurements of peak woke, as far left as politicians find their long-time positions and policies indefensible.
Of course I should point out that the only wall that’s being built as a result of Democrat policies is the wall around Joe Biden’s home. [2]
That factor alone should tell you where his priorities lie. The irony here is that it’s DHS that’s building the wall around Biden’s house.
Protecting himself on the taxpayer dime? That’s our boy.
Protecting the American people by raising the wall on the border? Not so much.
At this point, it’s a matter of time before this bubble bursts.