It looks an awful lot like vote-buying doesn’t it, the President unilaterally granting amnesty to nearly a million illegals? That’s the take I expect the Romney campaign to use: President Obama is pandering to the Hispanic vote, and — yet again — bypassing both the Democrat Senate and the GOP House.
The problem for Republicans is, vote-buying works. And Democrats are very, very good at it.
Of course, you can’t get something for nothing. And in this case, Obama risks alienating more than 20 million un- and underemployed Americans. “Look at how Obama is spending all his time on illegals, when I was born here and haven’t been able to find work for two years.” That line of thinking applies to plenty of legal immigrants, too.
As someone who is very strongly pro-immigration, parts of the President’s selective amnesty (let’s call it what it is) appeals to me. Nations at least since Rome have granted cititizbineship to foreigners who don the uniform. And it seems silly and self-defeating to force kids to stay underground their entire adults lives, when they were brought here by their parents.
As a libertarian, I’m horrified — but not at all shocked — that Obama would make such a huge policy change unilaterally. It’s all of a piece, of course. President Bush defined his “compassionate conservatism” with the line, “When people are hurting, government has got to move.”. Now that’s about as far from small government as you can get. But Obama’s take is even worse. His attitude is, “When Congress won’t give me what I want, I’ll simply take it.”
Now that’s about as far from constitutional government as you can get, whether small or large. Our visiting-guest-constitutional-lecturer-in-chief either does not know or does not care that there are legal limits to his power.
Of course, that’s not Obama’s worry. And to an extent, neither is his reelection. He’s always played a long game, and here his game is to turn Hispanic voters into the next Permanent Democratic Minority Block, alongside African Americans. If he can make that happen — and he just might — then for the sake of his party, that’s worth losing the White House for four years. Hispanics are the new blacks, in the sense that they’re now America’s biggest single minority — and growing.
Anyone who can put 15% of the electorate in his party’s pocket, forever, has left a legacy — even if the economy stays in the tank, or his signature domestic legislation is overturned or repealed.
Because for a Progressive, there’s always tomorrow to grow the government again. You just need to buy enough votes to get there first.
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