The right wing media have deliberately misinterpreted a recent poll. The poll result indicated 57% of the American people, actually those who were polled, want something done about the mess created by our current immigration policy. In addition, the poll indicated 42% of the people polled did not want the president to make the corrections. Ask the question, if the people want something done but do not want the president to do it who then should do it. It has to be the government that does something. They know about the three branches of government. The supreme court cannot, or at least should not make law; therefore, if the court can not do it and they do not want the president to do something, that means they want Congress to do something. The recent election proved beyond a doubt that the people were disgusted with the failure of Congress to do anything. This cannot stand-alone as an argument; (type in Obama accomplishments in a Google search, there are many, many articles (433,000 results to be exact). There is no doubt he is a great president and has accomplished a lot. Clearly, President Obama who is not dragging his feet, it is the “do nothing” Congress.
There is only conclusion possible for the explanation of the disparity in the poll results; the people want immigration reformed but do not want the president to do it. Of course, the right wing media, like typical attorneys, twisted the results to mean the people “hate” Obama. They do not hate Obama, rather, they hater that government is not working and want it to work. The Republican congressional leadership recognized that, which is why we heard them say they do not want a government shutdown. They tried that and it backfired on them for the reason I just explained; people want a functions government. Of course, there is the Tea Party enigma, the radical element of the Republican Party who claims to be the base patriot base of that party. Their nonsense is obvious, destroy the IRS, the EPA, the Departments of Commerce and the Department of Education; the Vietnam nonsense; destroy villages to save them. They want to destroy the government to save it. What is so unfortunate is they have a dangerous foothold in Congress through political manipulation of primary voters. Intended or not, Obama’s decision on immigration has worked to create a crisis. The basis of the crisis is not simple to understand.
Down through the years people have sorted themselves out into the conservative Republican and liberal or altruistic Democratic Parties—not in any sense sorted in a rigorous way. The adjectives social and economic apply, and expectedly, economic and social conservatives fall into the Republican Party just as economic and social liberals fall into the Democratic Party. To have good balanced government, we need both, we need conservatives just as we need liberal in government. We maintain this delicate balance by willingness on the part of both parties to compromise. We have shaped our government according to this principle.
The fight over immigration fits the pattern. Xenophobic conservatives adamantly do not want to share our “common” wealth with strangers, people who did not work to create the wealth and easily indentified because they are some way different. Altruistic liberals are not so rigorous in classifying and identifying people. The electoral process has slowly evolved to the point where we have primary elections to choose candidates. Although the people are involved in both stops in the process, people with the extreme liberal and conservative beliefs are most influential in selection candidates in the primary elections. Once the party extremes select candidates, the entire electorate makes a final decision. The candidates modify, or lessen the extreme positions they took in the primary elections persuade voters to elect them to office. Once voters elect office holders, they compromise, which results in moderate governance. In some cases with time and in other case of unusual circumstances, radical elements are able to gain a majority hence gain influence—minority rule. History is replete with examples. Most of the examples that come to mind are more extreme, by far, from anything that could or is happening in the United States. However, thanks to the open process we have in the united States, I think we are all aware, certainly the politically savvy are aware, of the battle taking place in Congress between the extreme rightwing or Tea Party and the more moderate Republicans in our congress. Through the primary process and other manipulations of the political system, this extremes faction has amassed enough power in congress to mount a serious threat to the leadership in those bodies. The current congressional leadership seems unwilling to challenge them; they have allowed the extreme element to bring the work of congress to a halt.
President Obama is aware of this and decided to take steps to get something done. He chose immigration as a timely topic. He acted within the law by executive authority; nevertheless, he brilliantly challenged the Republican controlled congress to act to override his authority, which they have the constitutional right to do. He embodied the magic in his decision in that simple declaration. To challenge his authority, the congressional representatives, who have been so critical of immigration reform, will have to record their vote; that is put their name on a bill voting against Latinos, Asians and other immigrants. This is hard for them as politicians to do because some of them, not all of course, but some, come from districts where these ethnic groups make up a large portion of the voter block. They do not want a vote. The place “between the rock and the hard spot” Obama has created for the extremists is that they do not want the congressional leaders to bring up the immigration issue for a vote. The only way they can prevent that from happening is to try to take over congressional leadership. The current leadership represents the main stream Republican Party. In other words, by doing what 57% of the American people want, Obama has crated a situation in which the main stream Republican Party has to get rid of, or at least, reduce the influence the extremes has in their party. It will make for better government for us all. It will make the government work again, which I read from the poll data that 68% of the people want. We have win-win president—brilliant!
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