It's About Time, Mr. President--And It's Still Not Enough

In national elections, the two-month period between a big election victory and assuming power is a time when our national politics is basically in a victory-lap mode.  The party that wins is predicting that their good times will last forever, the party that loses wonders if it will ever win again, and the media is gloating about how they predicted the outcome all along (even if they didn't).  Rarely does anything happen during the two-month period to rain on this predictable parade.

Enter Barack Obama, stage left, pulling a giant thunderhead labeled "executive action on immigration reform."

For some of us, to extend the theatrical metaphor, the arrival of the president and executive action has been a little bit like waiting for Godot--something that seemingly would never happen, while we passed the time watching our vaudevillian politicians demonstrate the meaninglessness of life.  As it turns out, God writes better drama than Beckett did.  Godot, in the form of Obama, finally showed up, and in a big way.  And Republicans are furious.  To be sure, their anger is in theory based on the President has allegedly abused his power.  But history, the thing that conservatives supposedly worship, proves them wrong.  So that argument, much like the President's next budget, is dead on arrival.

Of course, their fury might actually account for something, if they could manage to unite around a united course of action.  And the corporate media are waiting for them to do just that; there's nothing they like better than beginning a headline or a news story with the words "Republicans United."  But that may be easier said than done.  Republicans may think, for the moment, that they can paper over their very real differences on the issue by talking about "outreach."  But real outreach means giving something to voters that goes beyond sloganeering, and the immigrant community knows it, even if the GOP doesn't.

For Democrats and their supporters, especially for those in the immigration community (immigrants, and their advocates), this is in fact a tremendous opportunity to spike the punch bowl in the Republicans victory party.  One is forced to wonder where we would be politically, had Obama gone against the wishes of red-state Democrats and issued his executive orders back in the spring.  Would the outcome in November have been significantly different?  It's certainly hard to imagine how it could have been much worse.

Putting 20-20 hindsight aside, here are the steps the Democrats should take to climb through the window of opportunity that the President has opened for them:

First, use the orders as a launch pad for a renewed effort at passing a comprehensive immigration bill.  As you have no doubt read by now, somewhere between 4 to 5 million undocumented people now have a chance to live their lives openly, thanks to Obama's executive orders.  However, that leaves somewhere between 6 to 7 million in the shadows.  This is because the relief provided by the orders depends fundamentally on either being a parent, or entering the U.S. as a child.  For those who do not fall into either category, Obama's actions offer no help.  And, even if they did, there would still be a desperate economic need for changes to provide more visas for foreign guest workers and investors, and faster processing times for petitions currently backlogged for decades.  That's right.  Not years.

As for foolish and empty Republican rhetoric about poisoning the well, or playing with matches, not only should it be ignored, it should be defied.  Obama should make a commitment not to sign anything until Congress sends him a bipartisan, comprehensive bill.  If they send him the bill previously approved by the Senate, fine.  If they send him something better, fine.  If they send him something substantially worse, veto it--and tell them to go back to the drawing board.  Tell them that their two previous years of stubbornness have helped allow a human rights crisis to fester, and that it will no longer be tolerated.  That stubbornness, combined with the magnitude and inhumanity of the problem, justifies a hard-line stance.

Second, use the orders and the effort to launch CIR as a vehicle for launching a broader argument in favor of economic fairness, and legislation to achieve it.  Much of the what-went-wrong analysis for the Democrats has focused on the absence of a strong message focused on economic inequality, and I agree with this.  Immigration reform is a key part of addressing inequality; it has been documented beyond doubt that immigrants, documented and undocumented, generate more in tax revenues than they receive in public benefits, which creates a bigger "pie" for all of us.

Far from being a weapon to use against Democrats in their efforts to broaden their base, immigration reform provides an opportunity for tying the needs of immigrants to the broader economic needs of voters--bank reform, a higher minimum wage, infrastructure repair, voting rights, union organization, student debt, and so on.  Democrats continuously shoot themselves in the foot by failing to understand that these are the types of issues that cross the North-South divide in our politics.  Immigration reform could a key in helping to bridge that gap in time for 2016.

So congratulations, Mr. President.  Thanks for spiking the Republican punch bowl.  And urge your allies in Congress and across the country to find other ways to crash the party.  Perhaps the outcome will be an even bigger and better celebration in two years--for the undocumented, and for all of us.  After all, all of us except for Native Americans are immigrants.  It's time to embrace that fully.  It's good politics, and, more importantly, it's the right thing to do--which is what our politics are supposed to be about in the first place.