I am taking the time today to address the question of why ICE is going to only certain cities. Take a look at the map above, it shows you where ICE and Border Patrol can “Lawfully” work. And now compare it to the map of Party affiliation (by county) below:
With just a little work you can see that most of the enforcement is in either blue or “purple” counties. With some very significant outliers. These outliers are what I want to talk about. They are going to become very significant in the coming year.
The thought has occurred to me that the Trump/MAGA leadership/influencers have either forgotten or never knew. The American people don’t react to people trying to frighten them in the way they expect. Americans don’t give up and acquiesce to the demands being made. We get “MAD”. We take action. Just over 60 years ago the government tried to lie and frighten us into fighting in a war they never really showed us why we should. It took some time but eventually the American people got mad and took action. And the action was not where they were looking.
Back it 1968 the “Chicken Hawks” thought the anger was about the “War” and all they had to do is look like they were getting us out and everything would be just fine. The problem is that once Americans get angry they keep going at all the things they are angry about. An they insist on fixing the problem. That is why we had all the changes in the post “Watergate” era. Ronald Reagan understood this. That is why he was able to make the changes he did. The problem is this time the GOP doesn’t have a Reagan ready to step up. All they seem to have is a bunch of “YES Men”. This does not bode well for the Party.
If 2026 goes the way 2025 went the country and the conservatives in particular are in for a rough time. How rough is anybody’s guess. I expect, at a minimum a large exodus of moderate conservatives from the GOP. Where they go and what they do is going to tell just where we go from here. I don’t see a lot of them becoming Democrats. They might join the Randy’s of the independents but I don’t expect them to stay independent. They could form a new Party. Not very likely but it is possible.
Also possible is that the moderate conservatives take back control of the GOP. They could denounce MAGA and Trumpism and take over Party leadership. The problem is that to do this takes party leadership to do something they haven’t been doing. Openly disagreeing with Pres. Trump and the MAGA influencers.
What I’m on the look out for is non-liberal influencers telling people what Pres. Trump and his people are doing is wrong. An why it is wrong from a conservative viewpoint. If this happens then nonMAGA conservatives will have the support they need and looking for to stand up against Pres. Trump and MAGA.