GOP ESTABLISHMENT JUST DOESN’T GET IT: I heard Bill O’Reilly state last night that Donald Trump’s immigration reform plan–which among other things, calls for deportation of illegal immigrants–was unconstitutional because it would deny due process. That is patently ridiculous, since to my knowledge, no one is advocating deportation without all the process that is lawfully due to an illegal immigrant. Federal law classifies many immigrants as “deportable,” and they are deported with regularity, though the percentage of “deportable” individuals who are actually deported is very low.

Now, along comes Rich Cromwell at the Federalist, who asserts that Trump’s immigration plan would “Make America a Police State“:

[Trump] promises to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, triple the number of ICE workers and have them cooperate with local gang task forces, mandate nationwide e-verify, return all criminals to their home countries, install a policy of detention rather than “catch and release,” and defund sanctuary cities, among other measures. To satisfy the “they took our jobs” crowd, he details plans to put American workers first through a series of bureaucratic hoops. . . .

If that’s your jam, then jam on, but if you want to actually have a smaller state with less bureaucracy and government intrusion, then Trump is not the droid you seek. His plans to make America great again increasingly look like Obama on stilts with a big bag of cocaine and no limiting principles.

Utter nonsense. So if a GOP candidate wants to build a wall, beef up ICE, deport illegal immigrants, detain illegal entrants, and defund sanctuary cities, they are functionally indistinguishable from Obama? Huh? Please.

I have been called a Trump “cheerleader,” which is amusing, since while I don’t hate the man the way some apparently do, I’m far from endorsing him. There is a principled concern about whether Trump is a conservative, and that triggers opposition from those whose “conservatism” litmus test centers around certain issues with which they and Trump part company. I get that. But for others who self-identify as conservative, Trump’s position on issues–immigration in particular–combined with his intrepid approach to the media and political correctness, is enough.

GOP establishment is trying so hard to discredit Trump that they don’t seem to realize that they are angering a large portion of their own constituency, which is hungering for leadership and a willingness to openly defy P.C. norms. To paraphrase Hamlet, me thinks they dost protest too much, and it is beginning to backfire on them and cause them to take openly hypocritical positions.

Indeed, they are now taking the position that deporting illegal immigrants is wrong. Oh, how the establishment loves to talk tough on immigration when it suits its purposes of ginning up conservatives on election day. But when a candidate comes along who actually wants to do something about the issue–and isn’t afraid to defy political correctness to do so–the GOP establishment suddenly cries foul, and brands him a fool, dictator, or police state zealot. The necessary implication is that the GOP establishment is all hat, no cattle on immigration.

No wonder increasing numbers of those who self-identify as Republican now openly abhor the party, and it totters on the brink of implosion.  But hey, I’m sure that’s all Donald Trump’s fault, right? Time for some GOP introspection.