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Mark's avatar

I would be careful what you wish for with deportations. The most likely scenario is that Trump proceeds with a controlled number of deportations, declares victory, and then proclaims the problem is solved. If he does, the economic fallout will be minimal and the deportations will be incredibly popular. Unless and until real hardships are felt by consumers because of deportations, Trump will be on the right side of popular opinion by proceeding with them.

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

We need to be a Greek chorus on this. Point out this is X-thousand out of Y-million, and fuel their own coalition's inherent tensions.

Don't let them avoid copping to their lies, no matter how blatantly obvious they are to anyone with their eyes open.

I honestly don't know what else to do. Just in no way repeating the "resistance" posture from 2017. That just f-cked us over even worse, in the medium-to-long term.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Well that's the whole question at the end of the day-does Trump believe in this issue strongly enough to go the Stephen Miller/Bannon route, or does he do basically a slightly harsher repeat of his prior Administration policy and not stick up the middle finger at the Business Roundtable groups that he both loathes and wishes he was a part of?

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Henrik's avatar

IMO tariffs are likelier to harm consumers more quickly and obviously than deportations, and it feels (to me at least) like protectionism bordering on mercantilism is the one thing Trump actually truly in his bones believes in policy wise

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JanusIanitos's avatar

It's also something we have a harder time stopping as I understand things. There's more leeway for the executive to impose tariffs regardless of congress' input. Deportations and other matters generally at least require funding apportionment even when the executive branch generally can do them unilaterally.

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Paleo's avatar

I don’t have a problem with tariffs depending on the facts and if they’re done for economic reasons. Democrats worshipping at the altar of “free trade”/protecting capital over labor is a big reason why the party has slipped in the Midwest.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Inflation was the number #1 issue this year, and tariffs supercharge that while not providing any corresponding surge for domestic mx. The Biden Administration did more to onshore U.S. manufacturing than any presidency since WWII and voters showed they DGAF.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Voters DGAF because they were largely ignorant. Why were they ignorant? Because Team Biden failed to tout their accomplishments as loudly as Trump would have done – and, sadly, not even as loudly as Trump and the right-wing ecosphere spouted their lies and constant negativity.

You might argue that the news media should have done its job regardless but, sadly, that is not the infotainment reality we live in.

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James Trout's avatar

Or did he tout them and nobody cared?

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ArcticStones's avatar

Tout? Yes. Tout loudly? No. Tout as loudly as Trump? Definitely not!

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James Trout's avatar

The point being you can tout things as much as you want. If voters don’t agree and/or care though, none of it matters.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Oh, I understood your point. My point is that most voters weren’t even hearing it. In other words, it never really got as far as voters deciding whether they care/agree or not.

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James Trout's avatar

Except they were. Biden had websites out touting them, talked about them in conferences, et cetera. Nobody cared.

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Henrik's avatar

I’m probably more favorable to free trade than you are, but I agree on the whole.

That said, Trump’s “25% on Canada and Mexico so I can seem tough lol” isn’t that

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Henrik's avatar

Correct. Though I’m surprised unilateral tariff authority is constitutional seeing as it’s a tax and thus within the purview of Congress

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Kildere53's avatar

The thing is, if Trump does that, his base won't think the problem is solved because they'll still hear Spanish spoken in their towns.

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Buckeye73's avatar

That would be the smart thing for him to do. Ironically if he were to do this the biggest problem he would have is pushback from his base that really believes that all undocumented immigrants should be deported, along with their children and they are willing to suffer economic pain to get this.

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Henrik's avatar

He could simply bring deportation figures back up to Obama levels and pass the border act he killed and he’d already be more hawkish than in his first term

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