Boots & Sabers

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Tag: JD Vance

Start With Deporting One Million Illegals

JD Vance articulates real policies while Kamals hides. 

When asked how he and Trump would accomplish their stated goal of mass deporting as many as 20 million immigrants – a proposal experts previously told ABC News would be a “nightmare” — Vance said they would take a “sequential approach.”

 

“I mean do you go knock on doors and ask people for their papers? What do you do,” Karl asked.

 

“You start with what’s achievable,” Vance said. “I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem.”

“I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with 1 million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there,” Vance said.

This is where most American are. No, we don’t want our government proactively knocking on doors searching for illegals. What we do want is to deport them when they are found and make it less comfortable for them to be here. Increase penalties and enforcement against employers who employ illegals. Deport criminals when they are arrested and identified as illegal – even if they just get a parking ticket. Make it difficult for illegals to get benefits from taxpayers like welfare, housing assistance, or education.

If we do these things; if we make it an unpleasant experience for illegal immigrants to live in a country they illegally entered; if we do this while making the border more difficult to enter; then many of the illegals will self-deport. This is how other countries do it. We can be a compassionate, welcoming country to legal immigrants while still maintaining our national integrity and trying to manage the expense of our welfare state.

The Trump campaign is having a substantive, nuanced discussion on hard issues like abortion, illegal immigration, and race relations while the Harris campaign is treating the People like toddlers.

Revenge of the Cat Ladies

This little manufactured controversy has been entertaining because it really struck a nerve.

Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has defended resurfaced comments in which he called Democratic politicians a “bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives”.

 

His remarks, made in 2021, have been roundly criticised this week, with Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston among those to have hit out at the 39-year-old Republican.

 

“Obviously it was a sarcastic comment. People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said,” Mr Vance told the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly on Friday.

 

“The substance of what I said, Megyn – I’m sorry, it’s true,” he added.

I listened to the extended interview. Vance was clearly being glib to make a point. But the point is valid. Liberals are generally less happy than conservatives. The studies showing this have been replicated for decades. With that misery, it is a common human reaction to want to lash out and make sure other people are as miserable as you. Think of how angry many liberals got when they saw people ignore Covid restrictions and having a good time. Or think of how angry liberals gets because Vance appreciates a good soft couch (see, we can poke fun at ourselves). Liberal ideology is not a “live and let live” ideology. It is a “everyone conform for the greater good” ideology.

By and large, most conservatives I know are generally happy people. Happy in their families. Happy in their faith. Happy in their homes. They mostly just want people to leave them alone. They get most worked up when the government or other people interfere with how they are trying to live their lives. Why are they happier? I think it is because generally their values are centered around God and family instead of government and society at large. It’s easy to look in your children’s faces and find joy. It is not so easy to look around at the mass of humanity and find that same joy.

Related, Vance has also shared the sentiment that people with children have a greater stake in the future of this country. This is correct and used to be understood. No, that does not mean that people without children are less American or cannot act in the best interests of the future of this nation, but it is different to have an esoteric or intellectual stake in something and to have your own children’s futures in the balance. It is the difference between the chicken and the hog at breakfast. One has a lot more skin in the game, so to speak.

For people who love to crow about nuanced and honest discussions, they sure pounce like J. B. Pritzker on a donut when they think it is to their political advantage.

 

Trump Chooses Vance for VP

Meh.

The first-term senator from Ohio is now by Trump’s side as vice-presidential running mate – and, by extension, an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028 – with a reliably conservative voting record and Midwestern roots that Republicans hope will boost support at the ballot box.

What I like: he’s a veteran, young, smart, appeals to middle and lower-class Americans, has a beautiful all-American family, and he’s quick on his feet.

What I don’t like: he’s more populist than conservative and is more of a mini-me Trump.

In general, the VP pick matters little. The election will be decided at the top of the ticket. Vance will be an effective communicator of the Trump message. But he doesn’t broaden the appeal.

One thing this pick does confirm is that the Republican Party has moved decidedly into the more populist direction. Trump no longer feels a need to pick a classic conservative or libertarian Republican to unify the party. It’s already unified behind him.

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