The loud angry words of politicians attract a lot of attention which is great for the media. The daily stories of conflict between the Democrats and Republicans provide the press with plenty to report but there isn’t any actual progress. It seems that Washington will always be known for the clashing of the political parties just as much as the traffic of the Beltway. And it’s as if no one expects anything to change.
President Trump announced an immigration plan and before he unveiled it The Washington Post wrote that it’s “already is facing skepticism from lawmakers in both political parties, and there appears to be no clear path toward advancing the plan through Congress.” What a big surprise! And Trump calling the Democrats the “open borders party” does not help the plan’s chances.
Trump’s merit-based immigration plan favors immigrants with high skills over those with family ties. According to The Washington Post, this is “another test of Trump’s willingness to stump for a plan that could face opposition from border hawks and his ability to forge bipartisan support at a time when he has inflamed Democrats over unilateral immigration actions, including declaring a national emergency to pay for a border wall.”
A major immigration bill has not been passed by Congress in three decades. Neither Obama nor George W. Bush was able to solve the immigration issues our country faced. So now it lies in the hands of Trump administration, but it doesn’t look like much progress is expected.
Then there’s the abortion issue. Governor Kay Ivey just signed Alabama’s anti-abortion law on Wednesday that bans almost all abortions, including cases of rape and incest. “The Human Life Protection Act” bans all abortions in Alabama except when “abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk.” Doctors performing abortions would face 99 years in prison under this new law. This is the nation’s most restrictive measure ever passed since the 1973 landmark case, Roe v. Wade.
The Democratic presidential candidates and liberals commentators are publicly declaring the law as an assault on women, while some Republicans and conservative pundits are defending the bill saying its time has finally come. But the statute won’t go into effect for six months and it will likely end up in Supreme Court. Pat Robertson and other pro-life advocates are expecting the Human Life Protection Act to be struck down, which will lead us back to where we started.
Conflict is expected in every administration, but there’s plenty of details about the struggles of Trump’s administration to create a plan to forward up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East. The Washington Post reported, “President Trump is frustrated with some of his top advisers, who he thinks could rush the United States into a military confrontation with Iran and shatter his long-standing pledge to withdraw from costly foreign wars according to several U.S. officials.”
In addition, “Trump grew angry last week and over the weekend about what he sees as warlike planning that is getting ahead of his own thinking, said a senior administration official with knowledge of conversations Trump had regarding national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”
Then there are the countless investigations. The Mueller probe has been going on for two years and both sides are still arguing. Attorney General Bill Barr has assigned federal prosecutor John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, which is also being examined by DOJ’s inspector general.
So we have an abundance of issues going on behind closed doors and lots of noise from angry politicians, but there doesn’t seem to be any real movement. Many Americans are ignoring these daily conflicts, along with the presidential campaign that has started prematurely. Tuning out may be the most logical reaction to all of the sound and fury.
