Tell Me This Is Journalism. Please.
The New York Times charts new territory in propaganda headlines.
After Democratic big city mayors started publicly wailing about the costs of doling out millions to feed, clothe, house, educate, medicate and entertain thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants, the story could no longer be hidden. But ever up to the task of spinning news that it’s hard to continue shoving behind the curtain, the New York Times came up with a brilliant headline — a headline that gives '“spinning” a whole new meaning. Here it is:
G.O.P Gets the Democratic Border Crisis It Wanted
If memory serves, the original headline was, “G.O.P. Gets the Border Crisis It Wanted.” I guess that one had eyes rolling to an extent even the Times couldn’t ignore, so a quick if only modest change was in order.
Of course any version of a straightforward headline would be something like, “Democrats Rebel At Huge Illegal Immigration Costs Their Policies Made Inevitable,” but I’ll be 4000 years old before I see anything like that in the NYT.
The Times’ story is, however, more-or-less straightforward, as these things go:
When Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas began sending migrants and asylum seekers from the southwestern frontier to New York, Washington and Chicago, he vowed to bring the border to the Democratic cities he said were naïvely dismissing its costs.
It wasn’t naively so much as dishonestly and arrogantly, but still…….
A year later, the migrant waves he helped set in motion have put northern “sanctuary” cities increasingly on edge, their budgets stretched, their communities strained. And a border crisis that has animated Republican politics for years is now dividing the Democratic Party. Humanitarian impulses are crashing into desperate resource constraints and once-loyal Democratic allies have reluctantly joined Republicans to train their fire on President Biden.
Some of it was humanitarian impulse, true. More of it was simply the idea that having a border, and the confidence in the right to national sovereignty that enforcing the border entails, is so much white supremacist bunk. Yet more of it was the idea that the costs — enormous costs, as it predictably turns out — could all be shoved on the tiny sliver of American citizens who live near the border, while The Much Finer People who hang out in New York, Boston, Chicago and other interior Democratic enclaves could continue to concentrate their energies on defunding the police, increasing the availability of dangerous drugs, and other such “compassionate” programs.
Eric Adams, the mayor of the nation’s largest city, declared this week that without a federal bailout and clampdown at the border, swelling migration “will destroy New York City.” The nation’s second-largest city, Los Angeles, has promised to sue Mr. Abbott.
Sue Mr. Abbott for what, exactly? Giving immigrants the opportunity to go to the jurisdictions that never (until recently) tired of boasting how much better life was there, and how much more “welcoming” and “inclusive” — and generous — they were than those racist, retrograde wahoos down south?
And the liberal mayor of the third-largest city, Chicago, began pleading last month for the White House to step in. “Let me state this clearly: The city of Chicago cannot go on welcoming new arrivals safely and capably without significant support and immigration policy changes,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
But the small border towns that by themselves had to foot the bill for Mayor Brandon’s previously breezy compassion could go on welcoming the armada?? My goodness how easy compassion is when someone else has to pay for it.
Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a liberal Democrat, has declared a state of emergency, activated the National Guard and started petitioning the White House for help.
The migrants on state-funded buses from Texas are a fraction of the total number arriving in northern cities. Texas brags that its “Operation Lone Star” has sent more than 13,100 migrants to New York City since August 2022, but the overall strain there stems from the total, more than 110,000. Some of those migrants have family in New York, while others are attracted to the city’s history of welcoming immigrants.
So we learn (later in the story, of course) that it’s not really Gov. Abbott’s busing at all, it’s the underlying Democratic policy of not enforcing the border.
Endless Republican news conferences at the border and threats to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, were dismissed as political bluster….Now, suddenly, some Democrats are sounding remarkably like Republicans.
“Now” being when the bill arrives on the desk of the people who thought limitless, standardless immigration was a fine idea when only other people had to deal with its outcroppings.
But the surest sign that the Left is in extreme angst is the Times’ confession that even their usual patsies aren’t being fooled this time.
Even more moderate Republican voices have praised the move.
“The reality is, Abbott was shining a light on existing issues that nobody was talking about,” said Will Hurd a moderate Republican and former House member from a Texas border district now running for president as a fierce critic of Donald J. Trump. “Blue governors and mayors are having to deal with what Republican governors have had to deal with for three years now.”
Normally, spreading the costs to those better situated to deal with them, and the gauzy appeals that we should all “work together,” are the Left’s standard mantra. But I’m not hearing any of it now.
When even the New York Times is bailing out, ridiculing the Left has probably become too easy. Still, for all that, my friend Ann Coulter does it better than anyone:
Today’s immigrant crisis is never going to end. More than one hundred thousand migrants have already arrived, and there’s no end in sight. With the city rushing to give them handouts-- free housing, “culturally appropriate” meals (three times a day), 24-hour snacks, popcorn machines, TVs, Xbox game consoles, ping-pong, foosball tables, and phones for making free international calls -- they’re not going to stop coming….
We’ll be paying to clothe, house and feed them forever.
Already city services are being slashed to take care of the “migrants” (the latest euphemism for illegal aliens).
The timing couldn’t be better. Apparently, the city’s licked crime, homelessness and poverty -- and taxpayers from all over are moving to New York. City services are running like a top, the streets and sidewalks gleam, and 8 million New Yorkers are living in peace and harmony.
But Ann saves her best for roasting to a delicious crisp the NYT headline that I featured at the beginning of this piece.
If pointing out something bad that will hurt your political opponents means you wanted the bad thing to happen, then how about these headlines:
Democrats Get the Trump Election Tantrum They Wanted
Democrats Get the Abortion Ruling They Wanted
Honest journalism was really, really wonderful……………………if I remember correctly.