It’s now painfully clear that Democrats in Congress are happy to use the Dreamers as a political football, rather than seek a compromise that lets these young people live without fear of the deportation.
Yes, as the deadline for the government-funding bill arrived, Democrats insisted that all they really want is a deal to protect Dreamers. But they haven’t been negotiating in anything like good faith.
Yes, President Trump’s opening ask was big: In return, he wanted Wall funding plus an end to both the “diversity visa lottery” and to “chain migration.”
But the Dems’ first offer was a joke, including legalization of Dreamers’ parents. And when Trump and his team rejected it, Democrats didn’t await a counter-offer. They went to the press to denounce his (admittely awful) “shithouse” remark.
In tough negotiations, you just don’t leak like that if you want to keep on bargaining. Going public is a bid to stop talks — as this move did, yielding days of noise that did nothing to help those 800,000 young people.
There’s plenty to compromise on: the extent and duration of the protections, the amount of new border-enforcement cash and so on. It’s unlikely the prez would insist on getting all his initial demands: That’s not the way of “The Art of the Deal.”
But Dems figure they’ll come out the winners on any government shutdown — and if the Dreamers don’t get protected, it’ll be a great issue for this fall’s campaigns.
The Democrats may read the politics right, but that hardly makes them the party of the righteous.