A Bad Year for The Wall Street Journal

Who was Monday worse for? MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal or people on the streets of D.C. selling M.L.K. merch?

I say the Journal. MSNBC hates Donald Trump and opposes him no matter what he says. He could come out against sinkholes and MSNBC would have to be for sinkholes. Monday was just another day at the lunatic asylum.

But the Journal is supposed to be a Republican newspaper and, for decades, its most impassioned advice to Republicans has been: more wars and, above all, more immigrants!

Then along comes a New York Times-Ipsos poll — consistent with a half-dozen other polls over the past year — showing that Trump’s single most popular issue is his “mass deportation force.” And Trump’s second most popular issue is his promise to stop intervening in other countries’ wars — for example, by sending billions of dollars to Ukraine.

Both of these positions would be different from yours, Wall Street Journal.

Nearly 90% of Americans (87%) support deporting illegals who’ve committed crimes. About two-thirds (63%) support deporting the illegals who’ve come in the last four years under Joe Biden. A clear majority (55%) support deporting every illegal in the country — or as the Times puts it, “everyone living in the United States without authorization.” In other words, illegals just lost the Electoral College vote and the popular vote.

But since the 1990s, the Journal has been denouncing “the GOP’s anti-immigrationists” for sending a “cramped, pessimistic message,” and exhorting Republicans to be like Ronald Reagan, who “celebrated immigration.” (This was back when the illegal alien population was estimated to be about 2 million, compared to well north of 40 million today.) The paper routinely champions Republicans who adopt the WSJ/Ramaswamy position that any given immigrant is better than any given American. Then, they invariably go on to lose.

Trump, the biggest “anti-immigrationist” of them all, got more votes than pro-immigrationist John McCain. Today, more Hispanics want to deport illegals than voted for either Trump or McCain. Is it still the official position of the Republican Party that winning is preferable to losing?

Most recently, the Journal was flacking for the Democrats (and one idiot Republican from Oklahoma — what’s the matter with you, Oklahoma?) and their so-called “border security” bill that would have written into law the entire Biden policy on immigration. Which was to defy existing written law on immigration.

As is now conceded by pretty much everyone, the main reason Trump won all seven swing states, the Electoral College, the popular vote, and “Employee of the Month” at McDonald’s was precisely because of Biden’s great idea to throw open the border and drag in more than 11 million illegals, many of whom were covertly flown to locations inside the U.S. under the cover of darkness, never to be heard from again until they were arrested for murder.

MSNBC’s approach to the poll is to deny reality, which is actually Item No. 2 in their correspondents’ stylebook. On Monday, Joe Scarborough cited the Times-Ipsos poll, but rushed to assure his viewers that an “overwhelming” percentage of Americans don’t want to deport illegals who’ve “played by the rules.” (Other than that one rule about not sneaking into our country illegally.)

By “overwhelming,” Scarborough means “a minority” or — for you math majors out there — “less than half.” Specifically: 42% think some illegals should be able to stay, compared with 55% who say they’ve all gotta go. To put this in perspective, more Americans want abortion to be illegal in almost all circumstances than want any illegals to stay.

Contrary to the Journal’s cheerleading for our involvement in the Ukraine war, 60% of voters agree with the statement, “We should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate on problems here at home.” That includes 75% of Republicans.

Remember when the WSJ’s Rapid Response Team slapped down Gov. Ron DeSantis for saying Ukraine’s “territorial dispute” with Russia was not as important as America’s own territorial dispute over its border with the entire rest of the world?

The Journal sneered at DeSantis’ “naivete” and warned that he would come to regret questioning whether Ukraine’s border is one of America’s VITAL NATIONAL INTERESTS. “[H]ow to explain [DeSantis’s] puzzling surrender this week,” the editorial asked. It then went on to cite a series of irrelevancies, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Robert Taft and “GOP isolationism.” Also Reagan, Reagan, Reagan. At the Journal, it’s always 1980, unless it’s 1939.

If DeSantis had sneered right back at the Journal, 75% of Republicans would have agreed with him. But instead, he semi-backtracked by floridly denouncing Vladimir Putin, then wandered off into digital currency, term limits, school choice, abortion, a constitutional convention and a million other micro-issues notable for not being immigration or ending foreign entanglements.

Reagan ran and won on two issues: winning the Cold War and cutting taxes. Trump ran and won (at least twice) on two issues: immigration and no more foreign adventurism. He didn’t run on the Cold War because that’s over, Wall Street Journal. Good news: We won. And he couldn’t run on immigration in 2020 because he hadn’t done anything about it. Here’s hoping his second term will be different!

I wish great Republican leaders like DeSantis would learn the good things about Trump — helpfully compiled in “In Trump We Trust“! — and not keep reverting to the standard Republican playbook, advanced by the Journal. (School choice, one of the Journal’s favorite hobby horses, just lost 65% to 35% in Kentucky — a state that Trump won by 30 points. It’s not a winning issue, Republicans. Please stop taking political advice from the Journal.)

Most interesting, the Times-Ipsos poll found that Trump is not even especially popular. He is viewed “more negatively than any other president about to take office in the last 70 years.” But his issues were a runaway hit! So much for the “cult of personality.”

Trump’s a good negotiator. How about he makes this deal with the Journal: His mass deportation force will allow one illegal alien rapist to stay for every WSJ editorial writer who self-deports?

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