In another case of previous hyperbole over present reality, the Trump administration has reversed itself and is allowing the census to be printed without a question on U.S. citizenship. This will potentially allow millions of illegal immigrants to be counted and will be a great help to the Dems and far-left in gaining congressional seats and electoral college numbers.
This news came yesterday from the NY attorney general’s office. Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed the move.
The administration’s sotto voce response is that it was up against a last Monday deadline to print the census and that the recent SCOTUS decision did not bode well for a future decision on the subject.
Malarkey.
The president himself even tweeted that he was thinking of holding up the census until the question was definitely resolved and the SCOTUS did not disallow the question, merely tanked the specific rationale the administration used in that case. It intentionally left the door open.
It is true, the census is constitutionally mandated and was on deadline. The president should have held it up anyway. He should have gone to the mattresses on this. The poll numbers on this subject would have massively supported Trump. I know that strategy would have been risky. It also would have been worth it.
Now another census won’t be taken for ten years and this decision will be used as precedent. In a further blow, when state legislatures are executing reapportionment next year, these false numbers of actual American citizens can be used to draw state legislative seats. This consequence will rain down hard on social conservatives, as many social and cultural issues of a political nature are decided at the state level.
Yes, the president can play the martyr and use this to rile up the base. However, the political use is not worth the damage to the nation.
Why an aggressive conservative president, an intelligent man surrounded by intelligent people, did this remains to be seen. This was a hill to die on, given its long-term political consequences for the GOP and the country.
And don’t give me “Trump 2020,” “MAGA,” or “I just trust in him.” Blind trust is the territory of mobs and the gullible. We can only be honest with ourselves and what we stand for when we call the truth for what it is, in this case a mistaken climb down on an important subject.
The man is an effective president who has done a lot of good for America and will hopefully be reelected by a wide margin. But he got this one wrong. Really wrong.
