> guy has no capacity nor will to think in second order effects
Maybe we're looking for the wrong effects. Most crime in America is not committed by illegal immigants. Getting rid of violent criminals through immigration courts faster isn't going to result in any crime drop a voter would notice.
The part people will notice is wage inflation. And that's, simply, a numbers game. Furthermore, it's not violent criminals who are competing with Americans for jobs, it's the law-abiding hard-working ones. The ones whose worst offence since crossing the border was having a taillight out.
If you're being Machiavellian, the target is those honest migrants. The ones on dole or committing crimes aren't creating enough problems. Their role is rhetorical. (And honestly, if they get worse, it isn't like people will vote for Democrats. Perverse incentive.)
I tend to default to Hanlon's razor [1]. But it's difficult to call a guy who has won the Presidency twice, in remarkably different situations, an idiot.
Eh, “blame the minorities to get elected, fail to solve actual problems” is the easiest political play in the book.
It doesn’t take a genius to come up with that one.
Says more about voters and our information environment than it does about Trump.
Actual solutions to complex problems tend to be complex. Fake solutions can get away with being 3 word slogans. The latter has a huge structural advantage in politics, especially in our current information environment where people can’t focus on a single problem for more than 5 seconds at a time.
