Dems need better arguments for their agenda than ‘Orange Man Bad’

“First you win the argument, then you win the vote.” That advice from Margaret Thatcher has been ignored by President Joe Biden and Democratic Party leaders to their detriment.

Democrats, aided by former President Donald Trump’s denigration of Georgia’s electoral system, which gifted them the state’s two Senate seats, were gifted by voters with the narrowest of legislative majorities: 51 to 50 in the Senate and 220 to 212 (with three current vacancies) in the House. Biden himself won the crucial three swing states by just 42,918 popular votes. 

Incautiously, Democrats plunged into policymaking without making anything like cognizable policy arguments. Trump had reduced illegal immigration by extending walls on the Mexican border and persuading Mexico’s president to hold asylum-seekers in Mexico until their (usually baseless) claims could be ruled on. Both policies were ditched on Day 1 of the Biden administration. The policy argument: “Orange man bad.”

Now, we see the easily predictable results. Border apprehensions are headed toward 2 million this year — the highest since the 1998-2000 boom years. So-called asylum-seekers from Central America have been joined by Middle Easterners, Africans and, most recently, by some 20,000 Haitians, previously settled in Chile and Brazil, huddled under a bridge heading to Del Rio, Texas.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ pathetic plea, “Don’t come,” has been overwhelmed by the evidence that most of those who do come illegally are ushered into the United States and told to meet court dates that everyone knows most won’t.

The likely result is something like 1 million new illegal immigrants in the United States this year. This represents a reversal of the trend. The Pew Research Center says the illegal immigrant population peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, declined as post-recession net immigration from Mexico plunged to zero and leveled off at 10.5 million in 2017. 

During that time, immigration has been shifting from Latin America to Asia and from low-skill to relatively high-skill newcomers. What’s the policy argument for that?

The best that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could summon up on Fox News was, “We do not agree with the building of the wall,” i.e., “Orange man bad” and “the law provides that individuals can make a claim for humanitarian relief,” i.e., asylum.

But as my Washington Examiner colleague Byron York points out, the same law allows the government to require illegal border-crossers to remain in another country pending resolution of their asylum claims. What’s the policy argument for dispersing them, without being tested for COVID, through all corners of the United States?

Now, consider the Biden proposals for $3.5 trillion…