The ‘Do Nothing’ Strategy

Credit: Getty Images

Since the security of the U.S.-Mexico border is a top issue for many Americans, the Republican Party is betting that their strategy will win the day … or at least the presidential election. But it isn’t much of a plan.

The strategy: Do nothing.

The reason: Because Donald Trump said so.

Americans of varying political persuasions are convinced that the border is a disaster of epic proportions. The Republican plan is to continue fanning the flames of public fear. They often repeat claims that the border is now a sieve allowing, among other dangers, terrorists to flood into the U.S. At the same time, they claim it’s not so bad that it can’t wait to be dealt with until next January. 

How does a GOP candidate run on that? It’s akin to saying, “I know the building is on fire, but only Republican firefighters can put it out. They’ll be along to help. In 11 months. Maybe.”

When was the last time “do nothing” was employed successfully in a crisis? After Pearl Harbor? No. How about 9/11? Nope. If we are genuinely under siege, as Republicans insist, how do they convince independent voters that waiting is worth it?

The fine print on the long-awaited, much-negotiated Senate immigration bill was released on Sunday night. It’s a bipartisan effort that had a honeymoon of less than an hour, so it’s not even worth outlining here since there is zero chance it will ever become law. It quickly became a contest of who could trash the bill most. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was “dead on arrival.” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said, “The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House.“ Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik called it “an absolute non-starter.” In other words, compromise is dead in an election year.

All of which left conservative GOP Senator James Lankford, an author of the bill, in the position of criticizing members of his own party. Lankford told CNN:

“It was funny for me just to be able to watch some of their conversations last night from members that I've talked to that have said to me, ‘Hey, I really need weeks to be able to review this. It's really complicated.’ And then within an hour, they were coming out in opposition,” he said. “It was like, so much for the weeks I need to review it. I can tell now the weeks of review wasn't actually to review, it was just to try to kill it, stall it.”

To make matters worse, an additional $60 billion for Ukraine is tied to the border deal, as demanded by Republicans. Funding for Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza are also tied to it — again, at Republican insistence. So killing this bill doesn’t just mean the border can continue to be an issue Trump thinks he can win on; it also jeopardizes Ukraine’s ability to continue fighting Russia, along with other key security and foreign policy needs.

To sell their non-strategy, Republicans are once again spewing a false narrative about the Senate bill, claiming it provides amnesty for undocumented immigrants already in the country. It does not. Perhaps they didn’t read the bill, since these counterfactual claims were put out moments after it was made public. 

President Biden on Sunday was quick to call out Republicans for wanting it both ways. “If you believe, as I do, that we must secure the border now, doing nothing is not an option,” he said in a statement. “House Republicans have to decide. Do they want to solve the problem? Or do they want to keep playing politics with the border?”

Clearly, it is the latter. They are convinced it’s an election winner, not just in the presidential race but across the board, and hope it will give them control of not only the White House but both houses of Congress, as well. Together with their already heavy majority on the Supreme Court, Trump republicanism would then have command over all three branches of government.

Another reminder of what’s at stake in this pivotal election year.

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