Sometime in or around 2007, a friend’s ex-boyfriend, whom I was not particularly close with but had no animosity toward, invited me to join a Facebook group founded by “fiscal conservatives” and libertarians that advocated “sending a tea bag to Washington” in order to hold politicians accountable for… something that sounded completely normal, it’s hard to remember the initial platform. I was very young and much less jaded at the time, so I clicked “join” just to be nice. That’s how, many years after I’d forgotten about that dumb Facebook invite, I was horrified to realize I was a member of some weird proto-Tea Party, at least in long-forgotten Facebook groups. Since then, I have been wary of clicking “join” when Republicans and Republican sympathizers ask me to be in groups with them, even if those groups start out with superficially shared aims, such as removing Donald Trump from office. Because even if the first ask sounds reasonable, the next one usually involves Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin.
So that is why even if today’s New York Times op-ed written by conservatives George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson, members of a group calling themselves the “Lincoln Project,” asks “broadly conservative (or classically liberal)” politicians to impeach Donald Trump and fight his reelection, I remain wary of this newfound interest in protecting America from the “scourge of Trumpism” in the name of preserving the union. Especially when that call comes wrapped in Civil War references, since it was faux patriotism revisionist history that created the Tea Party and ultimately a post-truth America in the first place.
Plus, if their club cared so much about lies and the death of decency in political discourse, they would have written this open letter in 2016, when Trump was onstage mocking disabled reporters and laughing about McCain’s POW status. But back then, there was an actual election at stake. I’ll be interested in how committed they are to “order, civility, and decency” if it comes down to Trump against Sanders or Warren in 2020. [New York Times, AP]
Because no one in the Trump administration seems to know or care about the fact that there are, in fact, many countries located just below Texas and California, the administration recently signed a particularly cruel agreement to send asylum seekers to Honduras, regardless of their country of origin.
The agreement, signed on September 25 is similar to a previous arrangement that sent asylum seekers to Guatemala. However, the Honduras agreement is the “first to explicitly state that if Honduras or another country rejects the individuals’ asylum claims, they won’t get another chance to apply in the United States.”
Members of Congress pointed out the horrifying ramifications of allowing the countries asylum-seekers are attempting to escape to decide their fates:
‘Calling Honduras ‘a narco-state that is every bit as unprepared to participate as the other partner nations of Guatemala and El Salvador,’ Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona), the only member of Congress born in Guatemala, said, ‘These agreements are anything but safe – the Trump administration is rejecting our moral obligations and shipping asylum seekers to the very same danger zones that they are fleeing.’”
The administration could begin sending Guatemalan asylum-seekers to Honduras as soon as next month [L.A. Times]
In other barf
- I imagine that the New York Times calls Rudy Giuliani every night around Ambien hour and just lets him ramble himself to sleep. [New York Times]
- The Centrist Democrats are going to vote for impeachment. [Washington Post]
- The XVIII Airborn Corps would like you to remember all the war criminals we lost at the Battle of the Bulge. [Washington Post]
- Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear “scaled back” a plan a predecessor’s plan because it would almost certainly kill constituents, which is what we’re counting as a victory these days. [Courier-Journal]