Yeah, But The Democrats

Nothing I hate more than the Both-Sides crap, so this is not that.

But there is definitely room to criticize the Dems - and harshly - when their response to something as shitty as Trump's Muslim Ban is as wishy-washy as some of the weak tea coming from our "leaders".

Jemma Portnoy, WaPo (the whole banana):

ROANOKE, Va. — Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) confirmed Monday that permanent legal residents — green card holders — are subject to President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning refugees from entering the United States.

Kaine said he received the clarification during a phone call with officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He plans to go to Dulles International Airport Monday afternoon.

He was also told that, unlike other immigrants, green card holders are allowed to board planes and fly to the United States. Once they arrive they will be questioned and can obtain a waiver allowing them into the country.

Kaine said he doesn’t believe the order should apply to these residents at all.

“The fact that they’re still saying the order applies to them but then there’s a waiver of it, it’s still a little bit odd, so I’m confused about that still, so more work to do,” he said during a tour of a library in downtown Roanoke.

He said the same procedure applies to people given special immigrant status, such as translators who worked with the U.S. military.

Kaine said he was told refu­gee families already approved and working with a resettlement program will be allowed entry at least for the next week or two.

At political event in Blacksburg Sunday night, Kaine said, he learned about a family who fled Syria and have been living in a United Nations refu­gee camp for almost four years.

Catholic Charities expects them to arrive in Roanoke Thursday, but they feared the family would be detained or barred from entering the country.

Kaine said supports intense vetting, but it should not be based on country of origin, but rather individual circumstances.

“I don’t think you should single out certain countries and especially single out people who have been victimized by war crimes,” he said.

"Tsk tsk naughty naughty" will not do here, Senator. Get up on your hind legs and make a ruckus. 

They go low, we go high? Fine, but sometimes those high ideals require a very lowdown fight.

The Wingnuts set the rules a long time ago - bringing their Creeping Authoritarian agenda into very sharp focus in the 90s - and since then, even when the Dems have managed to get in the game, they always seem to insist on playing from behind.

Now, we can have a nice long discussion about how the Dems doing the reactive thing is in keeping with the traditions of Due Process and cool-headed deliberation, but it looks way too much like appeasement now. And let's try to remember that the Daddy State moves very quickly - the fact that they issued the EO without running it through channels shows us how fast this shit unfolds - while a properly-functioning democratic system is intended to take its time.

So it'll have to be, "You come at my knees and I'm gonna take your fuckin' head off".

Because we can either defend our institutions now or see can them fall like dominos.