Washington will be least capable of doing things over the next two years: Regarding issues which it tends to worsen rather than resolve, this is cause for rejoicing and giving thanks. Regarding issues which only Washington can and should address—such as immigration—we remain uncertain.
The legislative will be constrained by the partisan division itself, and the executive will be constrained by (one suspects) the House’s soon-to-begin series of investigations and impeachments. What does all this entail for immigration policy? The most recent unified Republican and unified Democratic governments—focused on keeping power, and their opponents away from it—have done little, so forced bipartisanship is at least worth a shot. In the meanwhile, this Congress has a final chance to do some actual work until January 3rd.
Symbolically, this midterm season we’ve witnessed yet again how—across this wild American vastness—even the most potent extremes eventually exhaust each other, the result being a bloodless moderation. Ideologues on the Left and Right were electorally penalized, as were quacks, crooks, cons, and crass and gross characters. Many mediocre but acceptable incumbents—as well as principled policy entrepreneurs and promising talents—were rewarded. This doesn’t apply nationwide, of course, and that’s the point: nothing can, desirable or not. Sermonizing about political salvation and catastrophizing about the end times are equal and equivalent expressions of ahistorical nonsense.
Stencil graffiti in Madison, Wis., that reads “Our dreams cannot fit in their ballot boxes.” That’s fortunate, because the ballot box isn’t meant to accommodate them.
“Democracy is on the ballot,” was a catchy but witless campaign phrase. Yes, one can imagine how it might have been a consoling thought, given that what really was on the ballot often painted a depressing picture, but this sort of exaggeration fools nobody (even if many choose to play along). The rest of us, who aren’t given to colorful language and political hysterics, know that democracy can’t be on the ballot; democracy is the ballot.
Nod in approval of:
Matt Soerens, who argues in Fox News that Republicans ought to focus on passing bipartisan border-security and immigration reform now rather than wait for the new Congress. Given what you and I discussed above, he may very well be right.
Reihan Salam in the Wall Street Journal, who elaborates his case that Republicans should abandon restrictionism for immigration “selectionism”:
It isn’t hard to imagine targeted, bipartisan bills that would, say, expedite the adjudication of asylum claims or modernize the application process, especially for the world’s best and brightest. Progress on those fronts might make possible, in a future of less partisan rancor, the wider reforms that now seem out of reach.
No, it isn’t to imagine. It isn’t hard at all.
Squint skeptically at:
Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who compared the number of Russian invaders in Ukraine (82,000) to the number of illegal border crossings into the U.S. since 2021 (5 million), for which she was justifiably excoriated. Her point—that the American state should be more concerned with American borders than foreign ones—is reasonable enough, but reasonable points are tragically lost in exaggerated rhetoric (see comments about hyperbole above). We know what an invasion looks like, and a disorderly border isn’t it.