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4D Sunday, November 25, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com VIEWPOINT Trump flipping on immigration makes for a wild ride This time of year, President Trump should be thankful for the immigra tion debate. It is a distraction that steals the public’s attention away from administration flubs, GOP election losses and policy failures. It’s a tool to fire up his base, especially those folks who say they care about the rule of law but really worry that America is becoming too brownish. And it’s a way to oversimplify a complicated issue that revolves around supply and demand as well as a need to balance workforce demands with legitimate concerns about whether foreigners are properly assimilating. If you’re a president who doesn’t mind breaking apart society and dividing the American people for your own benefit, the immigra tion debate can be incred ibly useful. But it must be handled with care. The issue often slips away from Trump. Promises get broken. Lies get told. Initia tives are reversed. There is backtracking and double- talk. The White House will RUBEN NAVARRETTE ruben@rubennavarrette.com get everyone all worked up, and then say: “Oh, never mind.” Indeed, if all the policy discussions were attractions in an amusement park, immigration would be “Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride.” Here are some recent twists and turns: ■ Trump promised a “big beautiful wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border that would keep out illegal immigrants and illegal drugs. But he misled his supporters into thinking that Mexico would pay for it. When Mexico took a hard pass, the wall got downsized to barbed wire and fence repairs. Last week, during a visit to the border near San Diego, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — who you’d think would have empathy for people looking for work since, according to media reports, she could soon be without a job herself — proudly sur veyed the metal structures and declared her mission accomplished. ■ Trump said early in his presidential campaign that any wall that his administration built would have a wide “door” to let immigrants come in legally. And, in recent weeks, he has repeatedly made the case that America welcomes legal immigration as a way to fill vacant jobs. Yet, by any measure, this adminis tration has been extremely hostile to legal immigra tion. It pursues policies that would whittle it down to dangerously low levels, and punishes legal immigrants who have been forced to rely on public-assistance programs that they paid for with their taxes. ■ Trump tried to gin up votes for Republicans in the midterm elections by mak ing a big spectacle of dis patching 5,800 U.S. troops to the border. Supposedly, TOY ■ Continued from 1D Both he and Kimberly Mosley, president of the Chicago-based American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, expect a post holiday shakeout. Retailers that are new to the business might struggle if they can’t convince consum ers to think of them as desti nations for toys or if they’re unable to offer the expertise and selection of dedicated toy stores, Mosley said. “We don’t expect they’ll want to stay if they’re not successful,” she said. In the meantime, inde pendent toy store owners said they’re leaning into strategies they were already using to fend off competition from Toys R Us, other big- box chains and Amazon, like carrying more unusual toys parents might not find in a bigger retailer’s toy aisle, providing extra services like free gift wrapping, or advis ing shoppers on toys that would fit a child’s age and interests. “If you came into the store and said you’re shop ping for your 3-year-old nephew, we’re not going to let you buy a 1,000-piece puzzle,” Building Blocks’ Nguyen said. Megan Morrison, 61, of Highland Park, said she likes buying gifts for her three grandchildren at Beanstalk because the store will deliver toys already assembled, sparing parents the headache. Beanstalk also will hang on to gifts and drop them off the day before Christmas or Hanukkah to help parents thwart impatient kids who like to snoop, Hillman said. Even parents who buy toys online and at big-box stores said they liked having a local option too. The Gruby family has bought toys at Toys R Us, Amazon and Target, but Benjamin, 6, likes the built-in entertainment at Beanstalk. He tried out the store’s whack-a-mole, darts and basketball games on Monday while he and his dad waited for his mom. Target and Amazon seem to sell many of the same things Toys R Us did, but Beanstalk has more spe cialty toys and employees who “can help with what’s trendy,” said Michael Gruby, 39. If nothing else, most indus try watchers say consumer spending has been healthy and shoppers appear ready to buy this holiday season. Both Nguyen and Hillman are optimistic enough to take on extra space. Build ing Blocks recently opened a third location in Chicago’s Lincoln Park area. Hillman took over a store on the same block as Beanstalk and her two kids’ clothing shops. For the time being, it’s filled with over size items that look impres sive under a tree but didn’t fit in jam-packed Beanstalk, like toy kitchens, foosball tables, child-size taco and ice cream stands and a Bentley-brand stroller that converts to a tricycle. After the holidays, Hillman plans to replace the toys with baby and toddler apparel. Toy manufacturers also increasingly seem to rec ognize the importance of working with smaller stores, said Rick Derr, who owns a Learning Express Toys franchise in Lake Zurich, Ill. Over the past few years, he’s been able to get prod ucts from toymakers that previously only worked with larger retailers and get access to new toys before they make it to national chains’ shelves. Local retailers tend to have strong relationships with customers, which allows them to give manu facturers immediate feed back on reaction to a new product or strategy for pro moting it, Derr said. That’s valuable to manu facturers, who are trying to react more quickly to what customers want, The Toy Association’s Pasierb said. It’s also in manufacturers’ interest to keep a variety of toy retailers healthy, he added. There’s another reason Derr is optimistic about sales this season: Ever since people began speculating about whether or not Toys R Us would make it through the holiday season last year, toys have been on consum ers’ minds. There was news coverage of the closing sales and the impact on toymak ers. More recently, other retailers have been heavily promoting items expected to be popular holiday gifts. “When toys are in the news, good or bad, it helps us,” Derr said. “Our whole year has been very, very good.” MATTHEWS ■ Continued from 3D universal basic income, free college tuition, higher taxes on companies and the wealthy, massive green energy spending and a ramp- up of regulations on business. While Sherrod Brown can claim to be a long-standing member of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing — coming in 10th place in GovTrack’s 2017 ranking of the most liberal senators — he may not be as radical as the party’s movers and shakers. Perhaps more importantly, he just seems like yesterday’s news. The Republican leadership struggled in the last presidential election with how to deal fairly with so many candidates. Demo crats may face a similar dilemma. Those who don’t poll well after only a short period of time should voluntarily drop out so that a small number of viable candidates can more effectively share the limited amount of media attention and cam paign contributions. If Sherrod Brown is not a viable candi date, it will become obvious to most people fairly quickly. The bigger challenge will be getting Democratic candidates who are trailing far behind to accept what the voters already know. Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation. He holds a PhD in the Humanities from the University of Texas. Readers may write him at IPI, Suite 820,1320 Greenway Drive, Irving, TX, 75038 HERSHEY ■ Continued from 3D ERAs with the same inten sity he brings to trade deficits and unemployment rates. A doctor’s son, Brown has an undergraduate degree from Yale that should appeal to the Demo cratic elite but also has graduate degrees from the Ohio State University, which confirm him as a real Buckeye. If he gets in the race, Brown’s 1986 divorce could become an issue. His Republican opponent this year, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, accused Brown of domestic violence. Brown’s wife at the time, however, denounced the GOP attack and has hosted fundraisers for her former husband. If Brown were to win the nomination, Trump would be in an unlikely position to bring up the divorce. It’s hard to imagine any of the women who say they’ve been mistreated by the president raising money for his re-election. In addition, Brown cur rently is happily remar ried to popular syndicated columnist Connie Schultz. He may not be an instant front-runner, but he has the ability and personality to streak past the Demo crats’ current collection of has-beens. William Hershey is a former Washington correspondent for the Akron Beacon Journal and a former Columbus bureau chief for the Akron Beacon Journal and Dayton Daily News. He is co-author of Mr. Chairman The Life and Times of Ray C. Bliss. Readers may write him at 261 W. Schreyer Place, Columbus, Ohio 43214 they were going to repel an approaching caravan of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 migrants and refugees. The stunt didn’t work. Voters chose health care as their top issue over immigration. And, as soon as the election was over, Army Lt. Jeffrey Buchanan told Politico that the troops would be heading home in time for Christmas. As they leave, the troops can wave at the caravan, which has now started arriving in Tijuana. ■ Finally, remember when Trump got the nativ- ist right wing all worked up over a promise to scrap the 14th Amendment and end so-called birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants? Well, forget it. That was never a serious idea. That was just a cruel tease intended to manipu late the hardliners. Accord ing to The Washington Post, now that the midterms are done, White House officials are freely admitting that Trump has no plans at the moment to follow through with an executive order that would end birthright citizenship. Are we having fun yet? Trump still seems to be hav ing a blast with his favorite chew toy: the immigration issue. I’m not having fun. It’s surreal to watch someone who got so many breaks in life due to his father’s money and connections talk about the importance of only letting in immigrants with “merit.” It’s absurd to see someone who has, throughout his business career, cut corners and violated regulations sud denly emphasizing the importance of following the rules. And it’s ridiculous to have someone who has — at various points in his life — paid little or no taxes, taking full advantage of existing loopholes and creating new ones, accusing others of “gaming the system.” Nonetheless, let’s give Trump credit for know ing his audience. He has a Ph.D. in human nature. He figured out that Ameri cans — whether in politics, media or the town square — just love to talk about immigration. Imagine how much better off this country would be if they, and the president whom so many of them sup port, actually knew what they were talking about. Ruben Navarrette writes for the Washington Post Writers Group. SUNDAY CARTOON GALLERY DANA SUMMERS I Tribune News Service BILL BRAMHALL I Tribune News Service {m&> -<• WHO'S WINNING?. SCOTT STANTIS I Tribune News Service MIKE LESTER I Washington Post Writers Group To submit letters: Send by email to letters@ gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files) or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes.com. Include name, hometown and phone number; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to one per writer in a month’s time on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Letters not the work of the author listed or with material not properly attributed will be rejected. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters and other commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times.
