I hope the country got it right last night. Not because I agree with the Republicans on the issues, but because I hope the mid-term elections bring some good to our nation.
But I fear that all we will get is continued gridlock and political posturing in preparation for 2012. We can all agree to disagree on health care, the stimulus, the war in Afghanistan, etc. But when it comes to the need to fix our dysfunctional immigration system—the nonpartisan issue that unites many of us—I have difficulty seeing the good in last night’s election results.
I worry that Rep. Lamar Smith, the expected chair of the House Judiciary Committee, will use his gavel not to fashion an historic overhaul of the broken immigration system, but to thwart any meaningful effort to fix it; that he will take us back to the mean spiritedness that resulted in the passage of the infamous H.R. 4437 which would have criminalized the undocumented. I fear that Rep. Steve King, the likely chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, will use his newfound subpoena power not to design a safe, orderly, and fair immigration policy for America, but to embarrass the Administration by dragging President Obama’s aunt up to Capitol Hill to interrogate her about her asylum status.
I hope I am wrong. I hope the new House majority will seize the opportunity to do the right thing and reach across the aisle for the good of the country.
The voters spoke loud and clear yesterday. This election was about the economy; about jobs in the midst of a jobless recovery. But now it is time to set aside partisanship for the good of the country. And that includes working in a bipartisan way to fashion an immigration policy that will,
- Attract the best and the brightest to our universities, research institutions and industries;
- Create a system for skilled and unskilled workers that promotes our economy and enables employers to grow their businesses;
- Legalize 11 million unauthorized immigrants whose full participation in the US workforce will increase the wages and working conditions of all Americans by adding $1.7 trillion to the gross domestic product over the next 10 years, add $5 billion in consumer spending, and create nearly a million jobs; and, of course,
- Zealously guard due process and the rule of law.
In 1989, in his final address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan described his vision of America as a shining city, humming with commerce and creativity, where “the doors were open to anyone with the heart to get here.” He understood that our nation’s strength is its openness; its celebration of creativity and new ideas.
We can only hope that those who claim his legacy heed his lesson.
I hope you’re right, David, and I commend you for thinking positively and invoking sunny and much needed reform wishes. I believe that is vitally important, and I admire that you articulate those hopes so well.
But Tea Party developments, and a recent New Yorker article reporting the nuttiness that underlies kindred thinking by Glenn Beck, not to mention the old John Birch society (whose “ideas” Beck has been reviving) move me to assume (yet again!) the Gloom and Doom role that is more consistent with your fears and those of the other commenters.
Given that I am grateful to have found immigration law practice as a vocation, I realize that I myself really ought to default to the sunnier view of things. But what does come to mind is a line of dialogue in that wonderfully comic film, “Galaxy Quest,” a film I commend to your attention. I refer to the moment when the group of actors from an old Star-Trek-like TV series find themselves, for real, on an alien moon, watching from behind some rocks as a swarm of diminutive creatures gather smiling around one of their own who is limping and clearly unwell.
The character played by Sigourney Weaver makes some admiring, cooing noises to the effect that it is lovely to see these creatures looking after their own. The character named Guy, who has stumbled into this beleaguered group of actors as an extra from one old episode, says to her and the rest of the group (if memory serves):
“Didn’t you guys even WATCH the show? First they’ll get mean, and then they’ll get ugly…”
The New Yorker article reported that Glenn Beck has about 2 million listeners at this point. That means there are hundreds of millions of people in this country who are not his fans, a great statistical pool of people who can, it is to be hoped, perpetuate reason vis a vis, among other things, extremist nationalism. And, I’m surprised to find myself adding, I even think there are some feelings among those animating the raging Tea Partiers, that, intelligently redirected, could be constructive. But I do think we’re seeing some of the getting mean, if not the actually getting ugly. My fear, probably shared by other participants in this thread, is that we may underestimate the potential destructiveness of these clearly emotional, if largely misguided and downright delusional, developments, or overestimate the readiness on the part of the American public as a whole to voice our disapproval of this movement.
I most heartily concur. My only comment is that it I hope the practice of functional partisanship in Congress (and the Nation) can be rehabilitated. It is a necessary part of such a diverse nation as ours. Unfortunately the vociferous extremists spewing vitriol have shut down rational conversation preventing the formation of concensus.
UNTIL THE ABOVE HAPPENS THE TRUTH IS: Americans are all about “change” in principle [compare electoral results 2008 v 2010], but practically they will engage in little or no “action” to achieve it [review the last 10-20 years].