Noah Rothman:
Bloomberg View columnist Francis Wilkinson is apparently thrilled about the worst humanitarian crisis to impact the United States in years. Why? Let’s check his latest column which piqued the interest of MSNBC’s bookers.
Wilkinson was apparently invited on the program to discuss a June 27 dispatch, “Immigration Reform Dead. Obama Is in Trouble.” In that piece, the columnist laments that the current crisis has all but thwarted hopes for reform in the remainder of Obama’s second term, and might even alienate pro-immigration reform activists more than he already has.
But Wilkinson really did not spend that much time talking about his dour column from June 27 because, on July 7, he had an epiphany: this border crisis may not be the disaster for Obama he had originally suspected.
In “Obama’s Midterm Surprise: Immigration,” Wilkinson made an about face and asserted that Democrats should be elated about the crisis on the border.
He begins by noting that Obama is in a genuinely tight spot and does not have any perfect options for dealing with the immigration crisis. Republicans, Wilkinson writes, cannot be appeased.
“Any executive action of that breadth would produce high-pitched wails from nativists along with calls for impeachment from those Republicans too decorous to demand that Obama be drawn and quartered,” he submits. How kind.
He also concedes that Republicans do have some electoral momentum which could propel them to a Senate majority in the fall. This is a prospect that Democrats might welcome, he writes, as a Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would have difficulty corralling a majority out of “a base split between a faction hunkering down in the 1980s and one fleeing for the 1890s.”
This is a slick observation for one presumably supportive of the party that backs 20th Century models of unionized labor, is bitterly opposed to the private sector technological advances that have made the U.S. the largest oil and natural gas producer on earth in just four years, and remains resentful of modern automated wonders like ATMs. But I digress…
Wilkinson goes on to suggest that this immigration crisis is a blessing in disguise for Democrats as it puts immigration reform on the front burner and might energize the Democratic base. Maybe, though it is just as likely that this issue will fail to energize Obama voters just as have efforts to elevate issues like the environment, the Koch brothers, Hobby Lobby, racism, and the invidious horrors of the First Amendment.
To sanction and encourage an invasion by foreign nationals, and pull personnel from their positions of patrolling and enforcement of the border, to become servants to said invaders, all in order to change the political balance of power in a nation can only be considered a treasonous act.
@Ditto, #1:
Republicans had better come up with a better pre-midterm meme than that one. All Obama has to do is point out that the biggest surge in illegal immigration occurred during the Bush years, that his own administration has been more effective at deportation than his predecessor’s, that undocumented children are arriving and cannot be removed because of bill that was signed into law by his predecessor, and that House republicans have failed to respond to the problem in any meaningful fashion.
@Greg: Then that would be another lie. You are much more than a low information voter Greg. You are a true believer. Do you bow every time Obama appears on TV? Do you salivate when Obama speaks? Have you rated a night in the Lincoln bedroom yet? You deserve at least a week!