The Trump administration finally admitted defeat on the census citizenship question on Tuesday. And what a disastrous exercise is was, from start to finish.
The wisdom of asking people on the census about citizenship is a moral judgment that people are free to make. (Opponents claimed it was a partisan power play to dilute the political power of Hispanics; supporters argued it's important to get an accurate count.) But how the administration went about trying to get it done is another matter entirely. And now the whole thing has now ended, unceremoniously and perhaps appropriately, with what wound up being an empty threat from President Donald Trump to try to delay the 2020 census.