Here half a wall; there half a wall; everywhere half a wall
(E-I-E-I-O Trump
has no wall)
Introduction to super fine article from
the LA TIMES – here in part:
In more placid times, news that the president of the United States was
encouraging aides to break the law by seizing swaths of private property along
the southwestern border to build a wall might have caused more than a day’s
ripple.
After all, legitimate controversy over the
promiscuous threat of eminent domain (as well as illegitimate fears of a NAFTA
Superhighway) dogged former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for a full decade,
prompting him to eventually abandon his dreams of a Trans-Texas Corridor toll road.
And Perry wasn’t out there dangling pardons and barking take the land to his staff.
As former Fox News and current CNN host Alisyn
Camerota recently asserted: “Any time there was any suggestion about
President Obama using eminent domain for anything, Roger Ailes, and therefore
Fox News, blew a gasket about the idea of seizing private land.”
My insert: Now comes along Donald J. Trump –
land grabber par excellence – during his whole life, or so it seems.
The article continues: We are accustomed to some ideological shape-shifting when the White House changes teams.
But what’s so striking about this week’s slate of immigration-related
controversies — including the one that supplanted the land-grab pardon: the
administration’s new rules governing potential citizenship for
the children of U.S. service people abroad — is that none of it should come as
a surprise.
This is how Trump ran, this is how he won the GOP primary,
this is how he beat Hillary Clinton, and this is how he has governed. So the
question for Republicans becomes, is this how your party will henceforth be
known?
In fact, private property rights used to be foundational to
the conservative movement. What Trump was advertising here was that he didn’t
care. And that Republicans cared a hell of a lot less than they claimed to.
The article concludes:
Trump in the fall of 2015 was distancing himself even further
from the field by proclaiming that the government’s use of eminent domain to
seize private property from one owner in order to hand it over to another, as
was codified by the infamous 2005 Supreme Court ruling Kelo vs. the City of
New London, was a wonderful thing. When it was pointed out that Kelo was
(deservedly!) unpopular across the political spectrum, Trump, the candidate said, with
confident inaccuracy: “I fully understand the conservative approach. But I
don’t think it was explained to most conservatives.”
In fact, private property rights used to be foundational to
the conservative movement. What Trump was advertising here was that he didn’t
care. And that Republicans cared a hell of a lot less than they claimed to.
Story
in more details at the link – worth reading
– very excellent rundown.
My 2 cents: Trump is wrong on his land grab for his wall
along with offering pardons for law-breakers in advance if they break the law.
What do we call that? Oh, yeah lawlessness.
Plus, when did a president ever say or propose such an
outrageous deal making offer like that? I’d have to say: Never. But, that’s Trump,
right? Yeah, right.
Thanks for stopping by.
No comments:
Post a Comment