Immigration: More Politics
Than Policy
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
I am not a big fan of intransigence.
I don’t like it when people take a position and refuse to alter
their view regardless of mounting and insurmountable evidence.
I think too often we jump on the “flip-flopper” bandwagon when a
politician changes his or her view on certain issues. Sometimes,
flip-flopping can be a good thing. Sometimes, flip-flopping is a
means to reach consensus on issues that need legislative attention.
But then again, sometimes flip-flopping is just plain disingenuous
and overtly political.
So anytime a politician changes his or her position on an issue, I
don’t immediately assume he or she is a political hack. I like to
look at the issue and try to determine whether the flip-flop may or
may not have been warranted by changing conditions.
So here’s a position on the issue of immigration:
“There’s no denying that many blacks share the same anxieties as
many whites about the wave of illegal immigration flooding our
Southern border – a sense that what’s happening now is
fundamentally different from what has gone on before. Not all these
fears are irrational.
“The number of immigrants added to the labor force every
year is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a
century, If this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers
provides some benefits to the economy as a whole –
especially by keeping our workforce young, in contrast to an
increasingly geriatric Europe and Japan – it also threatens to
depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans and
put strains on an already overburdened safety net.”
Immigration recently has been in the spotlight. President Barack
Obama Thursday issued an executive order that would grant
quasi-legal status to some 5 million undocumented immigrants.
A move like that also would surely embolden millions more aliens to
cross the border into the U.S.
And a move like that would certainly exacerbate the problems spelled
out in that aforementioned position on immigration policy.
As you may have figured out by now, that earlier position was
articulated by then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama. It came from his 2006
book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Stunningly, those are precisely the arguments his political
opponents are using today against his proposed executive order.
So there is no argument that this is a giant flip-flop. But is it
justified? Is it warranted? Is it good policy or is it just blatant
politics?
Sorry Mr. President, but this one falls down on the side of
political hackery.
He made such an eloquent argument against the influx of undocumented
workers in 2006, I can’t see any reason beyond the barest of
politics for changing his mind this week.
How could his position have evolved to that degree? We’re still in a
down economy with slow growth and high unemployment.
If anything, immigration’s effect on the American workforce is more
pronounced today than it was in 2006. So how in the world could the
president believe that flooding the U.S with even more immigrants
today won’t “threaten to depress further the wages of blue-collar
Americans” as he said it would back then.
And what about that “overburdened safety net?” Surely five million
more immigrants would have a direct, negative impact on that.
Besides, if immigration was a super important issue to him, he could
easily have passed reforms in his first two years in the White House
when he had both houses of Congress on his side.
So if he didn’t change his mind because he believes it’s great
policy – which he clearly doesn’t – he changed his mind because he
believes its great politics – which he probably does.
He was reluctant to do the executive order on immigration before the
election because he and the Democrats thought there was a chance
they could maintain control of the U.S. Senate. There were a few
races where that executive order would have hurt the chances of
Democrats.
But that was then and this is now. Now, it’s all about getting a
Democrat elected to the White House in 2016 and winning back some
House and Senate seats to boot.
This executive order plays well with Hispanic voters – a
voting block the Demos desperately need to be successful in the next
election.
It’s also about goading Republicans into doing something extreme –
something like impeachment or a government shutdown.
That way, the president can whip up his political base, paint
himself as a victim, paint Republicans as evil and obstructionist,
and turn the tide of his falling poll numbers.
It’s not always the case where a flip-flop is purely political.
For example, President Obama has said there would be “no boots on
the ground” with regard to U.S. military action against Islamic
extremists in the Middle East.
But I can see where, going forward, conditions on the ground might
change. Based on the advice of his commanders, there might be a time
when ground troops are needed. I wouldn’t necessarily call that a
political flip-flop. That could be a case of just getting the policy
right.
Not so much with his executive order on immigration. It’s not about
policy. It’s pure politics.
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