'Abolish ICE'? A new audacity in Democratic hopes
"When we have an 'infestation' of MS-13 GANGS in certain parts of our country, who do we send to get them out? ICE!" tweeted Trump on Tuesday morning. "They are tougher and smarter than these rough criminal elements that bad immigration laws allow into our country. Dems do not appreciate the great job they do! Nov." That last word of Trump tweetspeak apparently refers to the November elections.
That's Trump, taking every possible opportunity to hype up his demagogic appeal by exaggerating the size and threat of the MS-13 gang, as well as the criminality of immigrants in general.
Although most Americans may never have heard of ICE until the recent "zero tolerance" border eruptions, it's a powerful issue in heavily immigrant communities like Ocasio-Cortez' district.
Yet Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, opposed the abolition of ICE on CNN Sunday because, "If you abolish ICE now, you still have the same president with the same failed policies."
That makes sense. We should oppose the abolition of ICE, in my view, at least until we know what would replace it. If ICE needs reform, there are more alternatives than its abolition.
Yet Democrats, as divided by their moderate and extreme wings as the Republicans are, sound delighted by any issue or person who can bring back some of the unifying excitement generated by Barack Obama's rise a decade ago. Witness the exuberance generated by Ocasio-Cortez's unseating of Rep. Joe Crowley, a powerful Democratic leader who apparently lost touch with his district's voters.
That's OK. The people have spoken. But what works for a self-described "democratic socialist" in the Bronx is very different from what wins in, say, the suburban Pennsylvania district of U.S. Marine Corps veteran Conor Lamb, the young centrist Democrat who won a district in March that voted for Trump in 2016.
Democrats will do well to remember the late House Speaker Tip O'Neill's motto: "All politics is local." The "Abolish ICE" slogan gives ammunition to the president unless Democrats also make their own case for border security that will work better. Their motto, then, should not be "Abolish ICE" as much as it should be the figurative "Abolish Trump."
========
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
