SUNDAY READ: Aikido-like strategy thwarts Trump's anti-immigrant agenda

BY USING a technique or strategy employed in Asian martial arts, the Democrats have twisted Donald Trump into a position he doesn't like, but is forced to accept.

The battle over immigration, which includes DACA and a radical overhaul of America's immigration policies, is also a battle of fighting philosophies by pitting traditional western values of having a winner and a loser in every confrontation; versus the eastern philosophy of winning by having your opponent think they've just scored a win, also.

By leaving DACA off the table in the wheeling and dealing preceding this budget bill, Democrats essentially removed Trump's biggest bargaining chip in order to get all that he wants in the immigration policies he proposes, which includes cutting immigration in half, removing family reunification (maligned by Trump as "chain migration") as the key priority for immigrants and allowing immigrants with "special skills" to remain in America and bring their families to the U.S.

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Democrats are hoping that the court ruling that mandates DACA to remain in effect will buy them time to work out a simple up-and-down vote on DACA without all the rigamarole that would be involved if linked with Trump's harmful immigration policies.

Aikido, perhaps provides the best example of what is happening on the budget bill. Faced with a clash of views over immigration/DACA, instead of having a physical confrontation, by using only the gnetlest of movements, rechannel the opponent's (Trump) energy to send him hurtling past his objective, neutralised without his chief weapon (DACA) to use against the Democrats' unwillingness to vote for his immigration plan meant to slow people coming from Asia, Africa and Latin America, thus putting off for decades the inevitable colorization of America.

In Aikido and other Asian-originated martial arts, conflict is seen as unavoidable, but in the the cut-throat arena of western capitalism where the Trumps of the world operate, we're too quick to assume that any given conflict is also a contest – a zero-sum game, in which one side wins by making the other lose. 

Treat a friendship, job or marriage like a contest, and you've already determined how you'll respond: by trying to score points until someone admits defeat. (Often, that'll be you. And even if you "win" a battle with a partner or friend, the damage to the relationship may feel like a loss.) 

"You know why on some days it seems as if everybody's winning but you?" the authors of Aikido In Everyday Life ask. "Because you've bought into an imaginary, arbitrary system where everything's a contest and there are no ties – just sudden-death playoffs." You can only lose a contest once you've agreed to play by its rules.

The point of Aikido isn't to pretend that conflict doesn't exist, or that you should claim the moral high ground and refuse to fight. It's that there are other ways to fight. You could use the tactic they call "doing nothing": pause, temporarily offering no response while your opponent exhausts his arguments, or even starts to argue himself round to your side. 

Or you could choose "aiki", the highest principle of aikido, which translates roughly as "blending" with the attacker, then turning his or her energies away from confrontation to resolution. How? First, seek "confluence" with your opponent, for example by conceding that his feelings are understandable, or that she might have a point. Then, use the surprised pause that follows to take the lead, reframing the problem as a shared one. 

Instead of fighting Trump's anti-immigrant views by attempting to block all his proposals, the Democrats have given him some money for border security, but not enough for the Damned Wall,  give additional money for ICE, but not enough for the full-fledged Gestapo and not enough for the thousands of new detention beds for would-be deportees.

By not including DACA in the budget, the Democrats have removed Trump's hostage, that he wants to exchange for his lamely disguised racist immigration policies.

When faced with such hardline opposing philsophies, ask yourself: is this conflict a contest? It probably needn't be. Every thrust needn't have a parry or riposte.

Trump's aggressiveness was turned against him and he still doesn't know what happened.
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