Trump’s Latest Immigration Song and Dance
From Reuters (September 5, 2016):
Trump softens again: Raising possibility of eventual legal status for undocumented immigrants by Steve Holland
In a new twist to his immigration proposals, U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held out the possibility of legal status for millions of illegal immigrants, but only after many other border enforcement steps are taken.
Trump, in remarks to a small group of reporters whom he invited on his plane for the first time since accepting his party’s nomination, said parts of his hardline immigration speech last week in Phoenix had been misinterpreted and that he had in fact softened his position to some extent.
The New York businessman said that before considering how to deal with millions of illegal immigrants who are obeying U.S. laws and contributing to American society, he first wants to evict criminal elements like drug smugglers and build a border wall.
Any illegal immigrants who want to gain citizenship will have to first return to their home countries first and get in line behind legal applicants, he said.
But for those who stay behind, Trump said their cases would be considered at some undefined point. Asked about a potential legal status for this group, Trump did not rule it out.
“We’re going to make that decision into the future. That decision will be made,” he said. “The first thing will be to get the bad elements out, the gang members, get ’em all out. We secure the border. We stop the drugs from coming in, because the drugs are pouring in … We’re going to build the wall. We need the wall to stop the drugs.”
Such a piecemeal approach has been pushed by Republican congressional leaders over the years because it is extremely hard to get a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the U.S. Congress.
Trump has struggled to strike the right tone on how he would take on illegal immigration if elected on Nov. 8. After flirting with a softer tone, he stuck to his hardline position in Phoenix last week, saying that anyone in the United States illegally would be subject to deportation.
Trump, seated with vice presidential running mate Mike Pence in tan leather seats aboard his private jet, was relaxed for a session with reporters of more than a half hour, clearly feeling better about his campaign after polls showed him closing the gap with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
What Does It All Mean?
The preceding article is quoted in full, in order to avoid misquoting its contents.
Perhaps Mr. Holland and/or his editors at Reuters are suffering from Labor Day holiday exhaustion or jet lag, or terminal political campaign travel cycle boredom. They do not, however, reflect credit on their profession, or their individual smarts, or their observation skills, to say nothing of their defective memories.
Trump’s fundamental campaign thrust from the very beginning (June 2015) has been an unrelentingly stiff position and hard line on immigration. He has maintained his swollen, unbending stance for months, undeterred by more moderate and reasonable Republican voices, as well as the not-unexpected howls of derision and charges of fear mongering from Hispanics, Latinos, Mexicans, and nearly anybody else who speaks Spanish, or has immigrant friends, colleagues or family members.
Trump has been given numerous softball opportunities to dial his rhetoric back in debates, interviews, and TV appearances by sympathetic TV hosts and journalists, to no avail. Indeed he has reveled in the chance to amp up his virtual hate speech to even higher volumes.
Pundits confidently predicted this past spring he would eventually pivot to the wider and more moderate electorate, once he had secured the Republican nomination and could turn to address the entire country for the General Election.
They were wrong. He didn’t.
Then came the Republican Convention which was, let’s face it, no Emmy-winning entertaining performance by Trump and his family entourage (though saturated with all manner of Trumps, wife, daughters, sons, and son-in-law). He did teleprompter himself and stick to kind of a script at least for nomination night, but by early Friday he was off and running on the Let Trump be Trump Train, particularly with his preposterous and extended feud with the Gold Star family (the Khans). Trump, who had been deeply aggrieved and insulted by their low-down, vicious attack on his proper person, turned his poisonous Twitter cross hairs against first Mr. Khan, and then quickly added Mrs. Kahn (for standing with her husband). One might note in passing, Mr. Khan seems more in command of proper English verbal expression (his second language) than Trump, who speaks only his version of semi-fractured native English.
Sadly for Trump’s campaign managers, and slow to dawn on the candidate himself, it took a while to process that Trump had blown what little Convention bump he had gained with real Americans beyond his die hard, obdurate, and unshakeable partisans (who make up perhaps 25-30% of the electorate). Enough of a crowd to get him to the Republican nomination; but not near enough to prevent a stinging Republican party loss in November.
We were then treated to the spectacle of Trump’s third top-tier campaign team in charge in the brief period from June to August, as they groped for a message that would play to the whole country, and a campaign method whose interference lines with the all natural Trump, he would tolerate.
Lewandowski gone, Manafort gone. Conway in.
Conway’s ascendance resulted in a two-month dance of reconsidering, adjusting, fine-tuning, softening, and generally presenting Trump as less than pig-headed stubborn on immigration issues, despite the absence of detailed specific plans to accomplish his goals. Trump loves simplistic slogans, as do a good portion of his most dedicated audience. Undeniable red-meat was a most crowd pleasing taste.
Trump’s post-convention drop in the polls, nationwide and state by battleground state from the end of July until late in August was finally slowed, and then halted, by a skillful apparent rejiggering of Trump’s immigration message for independents, white Republican women, worried suburbanites, and college graduates, who wanted to believe in him, if he just wouldn’t act and talk like a maniac.
In the campaign’s (Conway’s) piece de resistance, Trump shocked nearly everyone by accepting an impromptu invitation to visit the President of Mexico on August 31. Trump simultaneously got the chance to appear “Presidential” in a photo-op on a stage with a “World Leader” and attend a behind closed doors, 50 minute meeting (Trump spoke only English, as befits a presumptive World Leader in such circumstances), There was a flash press conference (Trump’s own traveling press corps was missing, left behind in the US, and diverted to Phoenix, don’t you know) partly to keep journalistic surprises to a minimum, and the Mexicans displayed hospitality and good manners, and didn’t push him very hard.
Trump then pivoted on the same day to his much anticipated major immigration speech in Phoenix at a 4 PM rally. His opportunity to double down on his presidential big boy policy coup was cast aside. On the way to Phoenix from Mexico City, the glimmerings of a Twitter tiff with the President of Mexico dismissing the idea of a Mexican Wall Payment Plan surfaced. This apparently angered Trump, that veritable paragon of patience and reconciliation, who was departed from their cordial, smile inducing meeting barely two hours.
Trump fired back, and launched into another full-throated red-meat appeal for the whole immigration enchilada that his ardent supporters could be proud of. No compromises for Trump. In the following two days he made it plain again that there was no softening, that his position hadn’t changed one jot or tittle, trust him. His campaign manager and various surrogates scrambled about, assuring us he hadn’t changed, that clearly the press had misunderstood any apparent disconnects, conflicts, or reboots.
News Flash!! Extra, Extra, Read all About it!!
On September 5, poor Mr. Holland greets us then with the end of Labor Day weekend story that Trump was not ironclad and unyielding. He had been misunderstood yet again by the losers and haters in the Press, among others, since there were still details to work out, and some decisions would be made down the line.
Trump in Canfield Ohio, September 5, 2016
On the other hand, look at the picture Reuters chose to illustrate the article. Not a Trump nice face.
In Your Heart You Know He’s Right
The Original Barry Goldwater Campaign Button (1964)*
Anyone casually tuning in to this drama might be confused by the ups and downs, hard and soft swellings, and ins and outs of Trump’s actual immigration policy proposals. Trump’s friends and supporters in the Alt Right, White Power Movement, White Supremacy groups, Hard Right fans, David Duke types, and others of their ilk have never doubted and never been concerned. Why?
The Knock-Off 2016 Trump Version (Unsanctioned by Campaign)
Because Trump hasn’t changed on immigration; he has always been consistent. It is fundamental to his campaign and his outreach appeal. Turn soft on immigration, get blown out. This is one reason it is so funny to see a distraught Ann Coulter driven to distraction, and nearly to tears, over his softening before the Phoenix speech last Thursday. She apparently doesn’t fully get it. It’s just sales talk for the doubters and the suckers.
Trump has used every code phrase and dog-whistle in the book for his fans. Whatever he says for general consumption, he has got their backs. He will build a Wall. Some kind of wall (virtual, electronic, concrete, whatever works) to keep “Them” out. Whatever pussy footing, mumbo-jumbo dressing he adds on top, the real thrust is that all illegals will be deported, guaranteed, and good luck for them to try and get back in our beautiful country. There may eventually be a legal re=entry, but it will take a good decade two and the end of a very long line, before anybody gets to use it.
In your heart you know he’s right, brothers and sisters. No Kenya born Muslim-favoring, Ex-President is going to stop Trump from “Making America Great Again”, and pronto.
Real fans know exactly what “Make America Great Again” means. Back to the 1950’s. When women stayed home, Blacks were in their place, and the rest of us weren’t troubled by immigrants with brown skins, funny names, and weird religious practices.
Watch Three Card Monte on YouTube
There have now been so many twists and turn backs, no one person can hope to keep it straight, and try to follow what Trump says for the Press. It doesn’t matter anyway, because he doesn’t really mean it. And his supporters know this in their guts. Playing Thee-Card Monte with a 70-year old New York street hustler is a fool’s game. Sorry, Mr. Holland.
Three Card Monte in Manhattan by Barbara Alper
The classic New York City street hustle of Three Card Monte in downtown Manhattan, commonly seen in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This scene is very authentic. Note the partial cardboard carton playing surface, which allowed a quick get-away for the operator with the cards and the money, if the cops showed up, or a mark got wise to the scam.
It’s time for Stump the Chumps.**
The sheer quantity of electrons launched in the ether, the tons of ink and paper consumed to make some rational sense out of Trump’s immigration meanderings is purely mind blowing. An entire waste of precious time, resources and money.
No more time on Trump’s Mexican ripping and running. We all know where he’s going in the end. If he fools some naïve moderates, good for him, too bad for them. His real people know better than to fuss and fret or lay down a bet. Bet against him, you’ll just lighten your own wallets, and depress your spirits.
It has been crackling good entertainment. It would be nice to be able to turn off the TV for a few moments, and seriously consider solutions to America’s problems like creating sustainable jobs, facing foreign policy choices, restoring trade balances, improving race relations, dealing with national security challenges, lessening environmental threats, and resolving immigration issues in a somewhat calmer and more thoughtful fact-based environment, without the constant, surging Trump Sugar Rush.
If we are not careful, Trump Reality TV will begin to play inescapably, 24/7/365, for the next four years, on all the networks. No off button, no release.
God Bless and Preserve America.
Final Thought
We could all use a little music break. Thoughts naturally turn to Phoenix, and then Arizona. Phoenix has become something of a Trump hot spot. He has been there for five rallies (by my count) for this election cycle, despite the fact he has no real Trump business interests in the state, and can’t stay in his own hotel. He also delights (repeatedly) in insulting both of Arizona’s elected U.S. Senators, each of whom received more than a million votes from the citizens who live there when they ran (lots more than Trump managed to get in his fabulous primary run). And, of course, Phoenix was his venue of choice for the just delivered majestic “Immigration Speech”.
For a white male of a certain age (which I share with Trump), two or three songs spring naturally to mind. In my case, lets go with my second choice. Just to check how far out of synch I might be (not having lived in Arizona, and not being any sort of music expert, just an appreciative consumer), a Google search provided one list of the most popular songs mentioning Arizona. Read them for yourself.
Anyway, my choice is the iconic rock anthem “Take It Easy” by Glenn Frey*** and the Eagles (1972) which makes the corner in Winslow Arizona, and the Girl in the Flatbed Ford an image of freedom and adventure that doesn’t fade with time. Watch the Eagles perform it here.
Glenn Frey and the Eagles Take it Easy (1977)
The small town of Winslow has hit on hard ties before, but managed to make a small tourist attraction of the “The Corner” with a statue and a Route 66 Road Marker.
The Corner in Winslow Arizona
Song co-writer Jackson Browne, revealed the corner in the song was all Winslow, but the Girl and the Ford appeared nearby in East Flagstaff, which required some creative license in the song lyrics.
Unlike Trump’s recurrent fibs and untruths, this musical one didn’t hurt any actual fellow citizens.
Oh, heck, let’s go for two song entries. My top pick has to be Glen Campbell with his ballad “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (1967), wistful and soulful. Campbell has led a troubled personal life, but he surely could sing.
Watch Glenn Campbell sing “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” here.
*Barry Goldwater was the Republican nominee for President in 1964. He was the junior Senator from Arizona at the time, first elected in 1952. “In Your Heart, You Know He’s Right” was a prominent campaign slogan for him in the election.
Watch a signature campaign ad from 1964 here.
We know how well that turned out for the Republican Party. Nostalgia can be jarring.
**Stump the Chumps was an episodic feature of NPR’s most popular radio show “Car Talk” hosted by Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers from 1977-2012. Both brothers (Tom and Ray Magliozzi) were graduates of M.I.T. and thoroughly grounded in a fact-based universe. They entertained with gentle humor and laughed at themselves much more than at the expense of their callers and listeners.
How many radio shows do you know of where there was a literal call-in from the Space Shuttle (1997)? Not even Trump can try and top that out-of-this-world experience as an entertainer, businessman, or politician.
Listen to a typical episode (May 16, 2012). If you don’t find yourself laughing hard out loud, I suggest you seek medical attention. As always, music by B.J. Leiderman, the jingle genius of all things NPR, including the themes for Car Talk and Stump the Chumps.
BJ Leiderman performs themes from NPR radio shows on Nashville Public Radio. “Stump the Chumps” is the second selection he plays.
Here are the Magliozzi brothers delivering the 1999 M.I.T. Commencement Address at their alma mater (with charts).
***From the Independent (January 2016) on Glenn Frey’s passing:
It was a song co-written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne and contained something of an unlikely geographical reference.
“Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see,” Frey sang in The Eagles 1972 tune Take it Easy.
“It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me.”
The song was the band’s first single, taken from its first album, and would reach #12 in the Billboard charts.
Yet it go on to become of The Eagles most celebrated numbers, and would also help provide an obscure town in the north of Arizona with a celebrity that has lasted down the years.
Last year, it was reported that such has been the fame of that song, and that line, that more than 100,000 people every year visited the former rail hub to place themselves in the setting created by The Eagles.
Winslow, a town of 10,000, fell on hard times after WWII when train travel declined. It grew ahead as a stopping off point on Route 66, but the building of a by-pass in 1979 again drained the town of visitors.
About 15 years ago, the authorities in Winslow decided to try and cash in on their footnote in musical history and erected a statue to commemorate the song.
On the junction of 2nd Street and Kinsley Street, they put up the statue of a man with long hair and a guitar. Someone painted a mural and the town named the spot the Standin’ on the Corner Park.
“People were stopping and taking pictures on corners in Winslow anyway. So they were quite brilliant to realize that they should capitalize on this interest,” local historian Ann-Mary Lutzick, director of the town’s Old Trail Museum, told the Los Angeles Times.
Neither Browne or Frey had been to Winslow when they wrote the song. And the experience of seeing a young woman in a truck had its roots in the nearby town East Flagstaff, but Winslow fitted better into the lyrics.
“It was always Winslow,” Browne said, when the Standin’ on the Corner Park opened. “But the image of that girl driving a truck was an image that came from the east.”