Immigration reform becomes just like economy – not Obama’s fault, but not part of solution either

President Barack Obama on Monday used his common theme while speaking to the National Council of La Raza.

OBAMA: He needs to fight

He would like to take action in the area of immigration reform that would bring federal policy more in line with the real world (instead of the hostile vision that too many conservative ideologues have). It’s those ideologues who are keeping him from acting.

THE PRESIDENT IS correct that when it comes to immigration, and many other issues that involve ethnicity, it is the ideologues – in the form of the Republican officials whom they got elected to office – who are causing the problems.

I do believe on a certain level that Obama is sympathetic to our concerns, whereas many of these ideologues are not.

But listening to Obama tell the group on Monday, “I need a dance partner here, and the floor is empty,” makes me wonder if he really believes what he says, or if he knows he’s just giving us “half” the story and hopes we don’t know enough to find the holes in his account.

Obama does have political obstacles these days on this issue.

BUT BY BEING unwilling to use his authority because he’s afraid of the political fight that will arise, he’s showing that (at best) he’s timid. Too timid to be worth anything to us.

The problem with the Republican rhetoric being spewed these days about Obama and Latinos is that they try to ignore the fact that they are the obstacle that the president is afraid to challenge – instead trying to make him appear to be apathetic.

It is why GOP efforts to “turn the tables,” so to speak, on Obama aren’t going to be all that favorable. The best they can hope for is to make some Latinos so disgusted that they don’t bother to cast ballots. Ideological trash-talk is going to force many to ultimately vote against whoever wins the Republican presidential nomination for next year’s election cycle.

Now having said that, I also must admit to having some problems with those Latino activists who want Obama to impose some sort of short-term solution. Coming up with a way to impose a change through executive order won’t accomplish a thing long-term.

BECAUSE ANY SUCH order Obama gives would ultimately be among the first things rescinded when some future Republican official gets elected president (which is going to happen someday, it isn’t natural for the office to stay in one political party’s hands for too long).

An executive order would be used by the ideologues to stir up even more hostililty toward immigration reform (as though the ideologues need more reasons to be hostile).

So when Obama told La Raza, “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting, I promise you. Not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works,” he’s merely telling the truth.

If anything, Obama is showing that he’s not the hard-core liberal spewing alien ideas that the conservative ideologues want to believe he is.

THE PROBLEM IS that there are some people who will never want to give so much as a millimeter of concessions on this issue. For Obama to be part of the solution, he’s going to have to show a willingness to take them on.

It’s a lot like the Congressional activity that ultimately resulted in the Civil Rights Act taking effect nearly five decades ago. The Southern Democrats of old were determined to fight this issue to the death, and many left the political party because they thought their northern colleagues sold them out by aligning with Republicans to pass the act,.

Now, the children (or grandchildren, in some cases) of those people are providing the bulk of the backing for the movement that wants to keep the convoluted mess that comprises our current immigration policy, or openly oppose even the lamest attempts (such as California’s version of a DREAM Act, which really does nothing) to benefit those individuals.

Obama’s apathy comes across as dignifying the ideologues in a way they do not deserve. The sooner that Obama works to make people realize that these people are the extremists, the quicker it will be that the real majority makes sense of the situation.

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