Can liberals pivot, support Trump if he does the right thing on immigration?

President Trump has apparently reversed his reversed reversal of a reverse, and is now saying he'll support a path to citizenship for nearly two million dreamers in exchange for some kind of enhanced security that might include parts of a wall and restricting family-based visas to spouses and minor children. Democrats are likely to fight the stipulations, but it's a pretty sweet plum they'd be turning down. Doing right by that many people, getting that many hard workers out of the informal economy and into jobs with protections and obligations to pay taxes--this is no insulting offer on the table (if that's really what's on the table, and of course, with Trump, it's hard to know if what he says today is what he'll stick to tomorrow).

I never liked Trump. I've disliked him for at least 25 years, long before I dreamed he'd be stupid enough to think he could be president. I thought he was a braggart, a bad businessman who covered over his lack of acumen with showmanship, a blowhard, uninformed, and all the worst parts of New York. I haven't really changed my opinion. I saw his picture on a wall today in a government building, and it still made me sick over a year after his inauguration. I get the visceral rejection from liberals (and many conservatives) of Trump and all that he is.

But if liberals do not embrace this offer--and, moreover, embrace and praise Trump for making it--who will? Trump was brought into office by a far right who thought he'd give them something they hadn't dreamed a politician would offer. That isn't to say most of Trump's support was from the far right, but they did swing the vote for him, and it'd be hard for him to govern without the shadow they cast. But earlier in January, these members of Trump's base threw a fit when it seemed Trump was going to be reasonable about immigration. In fact, immigration hardliners have been riding him hard for a while, making their support conditionally available if and only if Trump fulfills their rather impractical and inhumane dreams on immigration. 

What this means is that if Trump really follows through--if he puts a reasonable deal on the table of a path to citizenship for that many people in exchange for reasonable demands on immigration enforcement--then liberals have to come out with enthusiastic and unequivocal support. Yes, that means we will have to show President Trump some love. If we don't, then supporting the dreamers becomes a politically suicidal move for him. He's not going to be able to lose support in one place if he doesn't pick it up in another.

A path to citizenship for 1.8 million by law and not executive order really would be great for America

That doesn't mean we've got to promise to vote for the guy, but it does mean we've got to recognize that this would be a politically courageous move on his part. He'd be risking irritating his base in order to do the right thing.

Long before 2016, I had dreamed of an outsider coming to the White House. So much of Washington does need remade. We really did need a straight-talking iconoclast. Much like the women who said they wanted a woman president but just not Clinton, though, Trump wasn't the iconoclast I was looking for.

But here's where an iconoclast can work in ways nobody expected. Trump is unstable, but if in this one case he's unstable like a fox enough to irritate his own base, should we balk at embracing this particular mood of his? Should we begrudge saying that an actual law passed by Congress and signed by the President protecting the dreamers--an accomplishment rivaling anything in the Obama era--was a great achievement? It's what we want. Why bite the hand willing to give it to us just because it's attached to an insufferable egoist?

Democrats can squabble over the particulars of what the Republicans want in return--how much to pledge to the wall, whether special cases can't be made for humanitarian reasons, etc. But what's out there now already seems close to a good deal. It's possible that legal challenges to the wall will keep most of it from ever getting built, so why fight too much over saying yes to it?

If this deal goes forward, Trump will need support. He'll have it from me. If a deal passes in which 1.8 DACA dreamers are made permanently safe by Congress, I will post a picture of me wearing one of those stupid MAGA hats on this blog. It'll be like when Ohio State and Michigan fans make bets that the loser of the game has to wear the other team's colors and post it on Facebook. Only unlike Michigan fans, I won't be disappointed. I'll gladly wear a hat with the stupidest political slogan of all time if the author of that slogan does the right thing by so many people.