'4 truths' blow up GOP’s claim of 'existential threat' at the border: ex-Republican insider

06 February 2024

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has been railing against MAGA Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), for opposing a bipartisan border security/immigration bill. President Joe Biden, the Never Trump conservative argues, has agreed to a bill that is very tough on illegal immigration — and MAGA Republicans' opposition to it, Scarborough complains, is nothing more than an empty political "stunt."

Another prominent Never Trumper, journalist and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, is equally critical of MAGA opposition to the bill in an article published by The Atlantic on February 6.

The bill, Frum emphasizes, is a major compromise on the part of Democrats—and MAGA Republicans are opposing it anyway. Johnson has indicated that the bill has little chance of passing in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The draft agreement offers little to nothing on major Democratic immigration priorities: no pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants, only the slightest increase in legal immigration," Frum explains. "The Democrats traded away most of their own policy wish list. In return, they want an end to the mood of crisis at the border, plus emergency defense aid for Ukraine and Israel."

Frum continues, "Yet Republicans in the House seem determined to reject the draft agreement…. So if no deal results, what truths will we learn from this process?"

The Never Trump conservative goes on to lay out four truths about opposition to the bill from MAGA Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Frum argues, "The first is that Republicans don't really care all that much about the situation at the border. A real 'existential threat' cannot wait for some later date.…. A second truth concerns what Republican priorities really are…. A third truth is suggested by the angry reaction of House Republicans to the work of Senate Republicans: The very act of negotiation is mistrusted…. (A) fourth truth, maybe the most important one of all…. (is that) Donald Trump has sold his supporters the dangerous fantasy that democratic politics can be replaced by one man's will."

MAGA reactions to the border bill, Frum adds, are performative in nature — not motivated by serious policy considerations.

"To many Trump supporters," Frum laments, "glowering and yelling are the whole of it. They don't care how little gets accomplished, so long as that little is done in the most offensive manner possible…. Arriving at no is what's happening now among the House Republicans. Because they refuse to understand the other side, they cannot appreciate a good offer and recognize when to accept it."

David Frum's full article is available at this link (subscription required).

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