i'm reading all of these opinion pieces on trump "cancelling" daca (and if you present it in those terms, you're wrong to start off with), and they're all getting it wrong on an empirical, factual level. this isn't an error in analysis. it's an error in fact.

and, some of it is feigned, no doubt - it's easier to go with the flow than it is to rock the boats. if everybody is misinformed, why would it be the media's role to correct them? it's far more profitable to just capitalize off of their ignorance.

but, some of it seems sincere, and it's all rooted in a set of mental gymnastics that lead to the following conclusion: a very large number of americans seem to actually want to live in an empire. they just want trump to pass immigration reform by decree, and they don't seem to understand why there was a problem when obama did it. i suppose there's a level of pragmatism underlying a desire for results, but i'm pulling out something a little deeper, here - and, in act, especially on the pseudo-left, that has been criticized so strongly for it's authoritarianism.

i've lived most of my life concerned about creeping corporate fascism on the right, and with good reason. but, you don't see these arguments on the right - this kind of flat out contempt for congress as some kind of obsolete instrument.

the contemporary left seems to truly be more into enlightened despotism than it is into democracy. and, marx' biases in favour of the form aside, that's something that intellectuals on the left ought to be addressing more seriously.