Immigration Man

A couple of border-state Republican governors have been sending migrants to Democratic-run sanctuary cities in the northern United States, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida - which is not a border state unless you consider its tenuous proximity to the Bahamas or Cuba - went them one better by sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard in a deliberate attempt to instigate the most embarrassing incident to happen to the Democratic Party in Dukes County, Massachusetts since Ted Kennedy made a wrong turn and drove his Oldsmobile into a pond and swam away with a young lady still in the car.

DeSantis, running for re-election as governor of Florida in November, wanted to show up the liberal elite who live and vacation in Martha's Vineyard (and, of course, Chappaquiddick) by giving them a taste of what states on the southern tier of the country have to deal with on more regular basis.  He made a few strategic errors, however.  First of all, most if not all of the migrants he sent to Martha's Vineyard were Venezuelan; they'd been escaping the left-wing dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, whom Republicans hate with a cold passion.  Many Republicans happily welcome Venezuelan immigrants to this country to show up Maduro.  What would DeSantis have done if he couldn't send them elsewhere in the United States, send them back to Venezuela?  Send them back to live under the very sort of left-wing socialist government he despises?   Second, the people of Martha's Vineyard were happy to receive these migrants, because people on the island have a history of welcoming outsiders.  It's why many black families have vacationed there for decades, in fact.  They gave the migrants a warmer welcome that they would have gotten if they'd stayed in Florida.  Third, DeSantis sent them there under false pretenses, promising them "work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance – in order to induce them to travel," according to Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based lawyers' group, which is calling for DeStanis to be criminally investigated.

Alas, none of that matters. DeSantis achieved exactly what he wanted - to make Americans stop talking about abortion and voting rights and start talking about immigration, an issue that Democrats are trusted in handling well as much as an elephant can be trusted to bring you a bag of peanuts.  The Republican elephant just motivated the peanut gallery to come out and vote in November  - not just for DeSantis in Florida but for Trumpist candidates in other states.  

Democrats somehow thought that they could play Republicans over the loss of fundamental reproductive rights, but given that immigration has been an issue for longer than the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion has been, they forgot one thing in taking on the Republicans - you can't play a player.