However much of a full-spectrum conservative she may have been in the past, it’s been clear for awhile that she’s now a single-issue voter:

I don't care if @realDonaldTrump wants to perform abortions in White House after this immigration policy paper. http://t.co/l7nq8gN7i5

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 16, 2015

Here she is with Margaret Hoover affirming that fact in the starkest way:

Ann Coulter feeling the Bern? The conservative commentator says Sanders has supported immigration policies that could earn him her vote, adding she’d be willing to overlook “the rest of the socialist stuff.” pic.twitter.com/8vH4LAWmVP

— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) April 17, 2019

She’s not joking, but one way to dismiss the seriousness of her point is to shrug and say that Bernie’s not going back to his “strong borders” views of 10 years ago under any circumstances and Coulter knows it. She’s specifically offering a what-if which she and everyone else understands won’t come to pass, on the order of “I’ll vote for Obama once he becomes a Republican.” Even Bernie doesn’t have enough progressive goodwill stockpiled to survive a Democratic primary in 2019 if he shifted towards border hawkishness. This is a party, after all, that treats racial and ethnic identity as no less important than class identity. Sanders arguing that we need to keep poor Latinos out to protect the wages of poor Americans just won’t hack it. If nothing else, it reeks of nationalism — and since when do ambitious socialists draw the limits of the cause at national borders?

Here’s the thing about Bernie, though, which may keep Coulter interested in him for the next year or so: He’s clearly uncomfortable with the extent of the left’s craving for open borders. He’s willing to bow to them by adopting a more permissive attitude towards illegal immigration but he makes noise regularly to signal his misgivings. Ten days ago he warned lefties that fully open borders would attract poor people to the U.S. from all over the world, which is sort of the point to advocates of the idea. Bernie won’t go there, though. We can only take so many, he insisted, a terrifying reminder that the country’s most prominent supporter of Medicare for All is more serious about the limits of national resources than his own base is. He signaled his skepticism of open borders again at that Fox News town hall a few nights ago:

“We have a problem at the border, a serious problem … We need the proper legal processes at the border so that these issues can be adjudicated to determine whether or not people or should be entitled to asylum,” Sanders said April 15.

When asked where the migrants could be kept prior to their asylum hearings, Sanders responded by saying, “What about building proper facilities for them right now? That can be done right on the border.”…

The government needs more immigration judges to quickly process asylum claims by migrants, Sanders said. “You’re coming into the country? Are you really fleeing violence or is it another reason?’ You need to have many, many more judges to expedite the process,” Sanders stated.

The Ocasio-Cortez left doesn’t want people turned away just because their claims of persecution back home are bogus. They want them admitted essentially as a matter of right, because they’re seeking a better life. Bernie’s sterner answer at the town hall was noticed by border hawk Mickey Kaus, who tweeted about it approvingly and was then retweeted by Coulter, further evidence that she’s intrigued by his maneuvers on immigration. It would be some ideological journey for her to go from stalwart Mitt Romney fan to Chris Christie enthusiast to “In Trump We Trust” author to ridealong on Bernie Sanders’s socialist revolution in the span of less than a decade.

Tell me this. Among the various arguments made by righties against illegal immigration — cultural, economic, political — one that turns up in almost every critique of comprehensive immigration reform is electoral, namely, the fear that millions of illegals will vote Democratic once they’re granted citizenship. “They come from statist systems. Give them a ballot in the U.S. and they’ll opt for statism here too, especially with Democrats promising them the sun, moon, and stars in benefits to win their votes. We’ll end up with socialism.” Now here’s Coulter claiming that the alleged nightmare scenario, socialism, is actually … just fine as a trade-off so long as it means keeping low-skilled Mexicans out. What’s left of the electoral argument against amnesty?