On Friday, New York Democratic Party primary candidate for governor Cynthia Nixon implicitly endorsed Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential re-election bid.
Well, not exactly. But the former “Sex and the City” star’s comments on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency might rationally be perceived as an implicit endorsement of Trump 2020. Just watch what Nixon said.
“What it’s turned into is, frankly, a terrorist organization of its own.”
Those words follow Nixon’s ICE policy statement on Thursday which concluded, “We must eradicate them.”
Now, consider how those words might be employed by Trump. The president can now honestly say: “You might not like all my immigration policies, but unlike the favorite of Democratic elites, Cynthia Nixon, I support ICE in keeping our country safe. And unlike Democrats, I believe that police officers deserve better than being called terrorists.”
While Nixon probably won’t be running for president in 2020, there is a broader concern for Democrats here. By countering Trump’s immigration policy excesses with their own more extreme excesses, Democrats foster the realistic narrative that Trump is actually the more moderate candidate on this issue. And the more Democrats entertain Cynthia Nixon-type absurdity, the more dangerous their electoral game becomes.
Although many Americans have understandable concerns about an immigration bureaucracy that forcibly separates families, I’d venture that a significant majority of those same voters believe in some form of border security. Certainly, the vast majority of Americans believe that we need law enforcement agencies like ICE to detain, prosecute, and deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, especially violent ones.
By endorsing ICE’s “eradication,” Nixon and her Democratic compatriots don’t simply endorse a counterpoint to Trump; they endorse open borders. After all, if you do not believe in enforcing immigration law at any level, you don’t really believe in borders. This lends credibility to Trump’s 2016 presidential message that he is the man to save a nation losing its identity.
Democrats might think they have the initiative here, but so did Hillary Clinton.
