Out of step with the GOP

I never thought I'd live to see the day when one of our country's two political parties – and one that I once believed in – would become a dangerous, anti-constitutional anarchist movement whose only viable platform is cruelty that is disguised and labeled as Christian Nationalism.

I never thought the Republican Party would come to this. Or stoop to this.

The latest indignity – it feels like these indignities are happening every day –  occurred last week when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – kidnapped Venezuelan asylum seekers in Texas, brought them to Florida and then flew them  – all on the taxpayer's dollar – unannounced to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts to make a political statement about a perceived failed government immigration policy (never mind that southern border immigration has been an issue for both political parties over the past several decades).

Martha's Vineyard, a small island, is a wealthy liberal enclave and sanctuary location. DeSantis, who styles himself as a potential presidential candidate, saw this as an opportunity to slap "woke" liberals. It is nothing more than a cruel and immoral – if not illegal – political stunt designed to play to the Republican base.

DeSantis apparently lured the asylum seekers with promises of jobs, education and housing, which might make him liable to kidnapping and human trafficking. We'll see. The immigrants have filed a class-action suit against DeSantis for discrimination and violating their due process rights, and a sheriff in Texas where the flight originated is conducting an investigation. 

(It's interesting to note here that local churches and clergy in Martha's Vineyard have provided food and shelter to the immigrants, demonstrating the true spirit of Christianity, while this circus plays itself out).

The whole episode is very hypocritical when you consider that the Republican remedy for the immigration crisis under former president Donald Trump was to separate children from their parents – some of them infants nursing at their mother's breast – in an effort to discourage people from coming to this country in the first place.

What a brilliant policy that was, huh?

DeSantis' move seems to be gaining favor among other Republican governors, who are bussing immigrants North. Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell thinks this is a great idea, another indication where the GOP, a party that is now aligning itself with QAnon, is leaning. I guess they support this because they have no solutions of their own and thus subcontract the building of their platform planks to conspiracy theorists.

There is one path to a solution, and it doesn't entail making political pawns out of human beings. Put the onus of immigration reform on Congress. That's where the real power to do anything lies anyway. And it also holds members of Congress responsible for their actions.

But I feel like all I can do is hope against hope that this country will come to its senses and return to the reason that made it the greatest democracy on the planet – and the reason people from other countries seek the promises enshrined in our Constitution.

 The greatest promise, of which, is dignity. And not just for the immigrants, but for the rest of us, too.