Is the "migrant caravan" Trump's 2018 October Surprise?

[jmowreader]

Discuss among yourselves.

[brooklynite]

1. We'll wait for you to start.

[jmowreader]

3. Okay, I shall.

I think this is about all he's got.

Trump desperately needs to shut down the Blue Wave if he wants to be anything more than a lame duck president, because you know the man isn't going to sign anything he doesn't like and the only things he likes are bills that make America worse. He really believes he can bring his voters flocking to the polls if they feel threatened, and they feel threatened by immigration.

Whether he engineered this or not is unknown - he very well could have, but it would have been tough - but he's playing it for all it's worth.

[brooklynite]

7. Response...

He DIDN'T engineer it; these things have been happening since 2010.

This may turn out base voters, but that's not likely to help in the suburban districts where he's needing female voters.

[DrDan]

11. do you really think he could have "engineered" this? c'mon

He has a good economy . . . and he has his SCOTUS candidates seated . . . and he has his massive tax cut. He has things to tout.

But I do agree with you that sewing fear among his cult is his current strategy.

[MoonRiver]

13. He's definitely turning out voters because of fear.

Fear of HIM.

[Kaleva]

2. It could backfire on him.

Hard not to feel compassion for people fleeing crushing poverty and violence. CBS News Live 24/7 was highlighting some of the stories these people had to tell such as one woman who was fleeing Honduras with her three small children because gangs had killed her husband and she feared that she and her children would be next.

[Hoyt]

4. Hatred of Hispanics was what broke trump out of the GOPer primary pack.

Until he went after Hispanics, he was headed for a primary loss. He, then, went after BLM, and here we are.

[TomSlick]

5. This happens every year about this time.

It's a matter of seasonal weather. Poor people can't move across Mexico and the deserts of the American SW in the summer.

Trump is making a mountain from a molehill to stoke his base.

[dalton99a]

6. Trump and G.O.P. Candidates Brandish Race and Immigration to Sway Close Election

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/us/politics/republicans-race-divisions-elections-caravan.html

Trump and G.O.P. Candidates Brandish Race and Immigration to Sway Close Election
By Alexander Burns and Astead W. Herndon
Oct. 22, 2018

President Trump on Monday sharply intensified a Republican campaign to frame the midterm elections as a battle over immigration and race, issuing a dark and factually baseless warning that “unknown Middle Easterners” were marching toward the American border with Mexico.

The unsubstantiated charge marked an escalation of Mr. Trump’s efforts to stoke fears about foreigners and crime ahead of the Nov. 6 vote, as he did to great effect in the presidential race. Mr. Trump and other Republicans are insistently seeking to tie Democrats to unfettered immigration and violent crime, and in some instances this summer and fall they have attacked minority candidates in nakedly racial terms.

Mr. Trump is now railing daily in speeches and on Twitter against the migrant caravan moving north through Central America, and on Monday called it a national emergency. The caravan has dominated conservative talk radio and Fox News, where there has also been loose speculation about a link to terrorism. The apparently groundless inclusion of “unknown Middle Easterners” to the caravan echoes Mr. Trump’s longstanding practice of amplifying fears about Islamic militants on the campaign trail.

“That is an assault on our country and in that caravan you have some very bad people and we can’t let that happen to our country,” the president said at a rally in Houston on Monday night. Mr. Trump suggested without any proof that the opposition was involved in instigating the caravan. “I think the Democrats had something to do with it,” he said.

[Cicada]

8. Here is how I respond

I point out everyone of us would be in the caravan if MS13 told our son join or die. Or told our wife and 13 year old daughter service us or die. That everyone would run for their lives, everyone. Then I confess that I am to blame. And this is true. I created MS13 when I bought their drugs. Obama created them, w bush created them, we Americans who bought their drugs created them. The people in the caravan are not the bad guys. They are innocent victims. We American criminals, with our partner criminals in MS13 are the bad guys. Blame us. Don’t blame our victims running for their lives.

[lunamagica]

9. Wonderful post. Worthy of an OP. Thank you for saying this.

[Maxheader]

10. I don't remember these immigration migrations from central americu

taking place during the obama years...Does that mean these people
think cheetgoz is an easy touch? Or simply that the controversy
with the usofa people is to their benefit?

[Cicada]

12. Our successes in Mexico and Columbia moved the trade to central america

[malaise]

14. Yes. n/t