And what I think needs to be said again, is that all Obama did was issue work visas to people who were here. He did not grant them citizenship, and even though the move may be popular among Hispanic voters, it did NOT create a new voting block of 5 million new Americans, and given that the Republicans told him point blank that taking this action would make a negotiated agreement impossible, it is unlikely they will have ANY shot at citizenship en masse until 2017 and a new President. We can and should make the case that he never negotiated in good faith, and for that reason set their cause BACK. He did not move it forward.
And this is/was a hugely unpopular move, because it doesn’t take professional economists to see Mexicans who don’t even speak English doing jobs that used to be done by middle class Americans, and realize that they are coming here illegally, and depressing wages. I have personally heard this story from 3-4 people. Remember, I’m on construction sites constantly, and talk with both the white guys and the Mexicans. I’m always gathering data. It’s what I do. I am curious. And this is first hand data. I don’t blame the Mexicans. I would do the same thing in their shoes.
But at the same time, anyone who has the first inkling of a sense of loyalty has to grant that our job is to protect Americans FIRST, particularly when our economy was already in the crapper. Democrats, with this move, have signaled more or less overtly that their primary sympathies are with the world, and not ordinary–or even exceptional–Americans. Hillary seems to think it would be great if America became a massive refugee camp. After all: she won’t have to live with the consequences. She lives on the mountaintop, and always will.
So Obama doesn’t get a massive voting block, angers many people even more, is driving a wedge between Democrat moderates and the radical wing that he answers to, and overall is sinking with no way back up.
Let time take its toll. Nobody is expecting miracles out of a Republican Congress, but they certainly do not want more of the same.
Keep pounding daily on Obamacare (and I do think pushing a repeal through the House and Senate is worth doing, so Obama has to veto the bill to protect what has become a very unpopular policy), IRS targeting (someone should go to jail), the targeting we just found out about of Sharyl Attkisson (someone else should go to jail), Fast and Furious (jail), NSA snooping (massive retasking, which they are quite capable of), the undeclared war with ISIS, and the near certain role Obama’s policies played in placing Stinger anti-aircraft missiles in the hands of the Taliban. And whatever else I’m forgetting. The list is too long to keep track of without notes.
A sea change appears to be happening gradually, in which more and more people are waking up to the dangers of unaccountable, unregulated, law-breaking government. This shift is happening across the spectrum, and cross-aisle alliances will be shaky for some time, but I think Obama has made clear that putting unrepentant radicals in charge has consequences. Prior to Obama, I don’t think most people believed the Democrats could possibly have veered that far to the Left. Democrats owned messaging. Republicans were constantly on the defensive.
But now, we can speak our truths, and increasingly reach audiences willing to listen. That has not been true for 50 years or more. It took Carter to create Reagan, and even then Democrats controlled Congress from roughly 1960 to 1994. And we are getting better at messaging, better at pounding home the moral superiority of allowing people the freedom and the economic wherewithal to create their own lives and own destinies.