Being fairly conservative, I consume political news regularly. I cringed when I saw the story about Governor DeSantis sending a planeload of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Using a bunch of Venezuelan folks to make a political point didn’t sit well even with me and my conservative leanings. My first thought was “why are republicans doing their damndest to ruin any chance of the red wave that is forecast for the elections in November? Don’t they understand the optics of the TV coverage?” Governor Abbott shipped migrants to Washington DC and had the buses drop them off in front of the Vice President’s home, while Governor DeSantis sent a plane with migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a ritzy island just off the Massachusetts coast. On the surface, both actions seemed mean and cruel. By the way, congratulations to the churches in Martha’s Vineyard for quickly stepping up to feed and shelter their unexpected guests. Once again the republicans managed to look mean by comparison.
Then the progressives managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For weeks we have seen the mayors of New York and D.C. call press conferences to beg the federal government for aid to help them care for the multiple busloads of unanticipated guests that have been arriving in their cities. That isn’t news, just background info that many of us pretty much ignored. But then within 24 hours the folks in Massachusetts re-rounded up (is that an acceptable phrase?) the guests, put them on yet another bus, then the ferry and deported them from the island to a mainland military base on Cape Cod. Martha’s Vineyard kicked them off the island! Now, Martha’s Vineyard is a summer playground for well-to-do tourists. Somewhere around 150,000 visitors are welcomed, cared for, fed, housed and even pampered each year. But 50 or so migrants landing there was an emergency? Now that Labor Day has signaled the slowing of the tourist season, a few empty bed and breakfast owners couldn’t have been supported by Commonwealth funds so the guest could enjoy a week or so of life on Martha’s Vineyard? Nope, on the bus and off the island! Martha’s Vineyard managed to outsource their emergency within 24 hours.
But that is not all. While trying to point out how brutal the Governors’ action were, we were reminded that these poor folks didn’t actually come in to Florida when they illegally entered our country, they probably entered into Texas or Arizona and the Feds moved them to Florida! After all, if you are going to enter the US illegally, it is much more difficult to walk into Florida from the south than it is to slip around the fence into Texas or Arizona! That, in turn, reminded us that the Biden administration has been shipping planeloads of Undocumented Democrats all over the country for 2 years. The first flight I remember was a plane arriving at a small airport in Westchester County, NY in the dark of night so no cameras or press could document the arrival. It seems there were entirely too many nosy witnesses at LaGuardia or JFK airports, so another airfield was found. It seems that criticizing Southern Republican Governors for doing EXACTLY what the Biden administration has been doing for two years is a bit hypocritical.
In the reporting of the Martha’s Vineyard incident, even ABC’s Good Morning America let slip some interesting facts about the impact on Texas Border towns. El Paso, Texas is flooded with on average, 1,300 uninvited guests coming across the border onto their streets every day. That’s 26 times the number of people who arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, once. How is El Paso supposed to cope with that human tragedy? What city could possibly handle that volume of men, women and children? Assuming everyone takes Sunday off from the illegal border crossing business that is 7,800 people per week; over 33,000 per month and 396,000 per year into one city! For comparison the official population of El Paso is only around 680,000. Yet we see NYC Mayor Eric Adams, in charge of a city of around eight million residents, begging the feds for assistance with the 11,000 immigrants he has received over two years. Mayor Adams actually said it was a crisis. In two years NYC has been saddled with the influx of 11,000 people, while El Paso deals with 3 times that in a month.
I now understand the actions of Governors Abbott and DeSantis a bit better. I was uncomfortable with treating people as cargo, but the southern states are unconscionably saddled with an enormous problem that has been created by the foolish policies of the Biden administration. The previous administration had a much more reasonable response to the border crisis. Not a complete handle on the crisis, but certainly far less damaging to the southern states.
There is still a bit of a cringe worthy factor involved, but another part of me has to say “Well played Governors, well played.” You managed to get the national media to headline your crisis for 3 or 4 days.
Now, for the love of Mike, can we find a way to get the Republicans to focus on three priorities until the election? They are:
1. THE ECONOMY, inflation, cost of energy, cost of groceries, etc.
2. THE BORDER CRISIS, the human tragedy, stopping the flow, the impact on southern states
3. CRIME IN OUR MAJOR CITIES.
Aggressive Retirement 