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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

Senator John "Do Nothing" Cornyn (R-Texas)

Apparently Senator Cornyn is having some trouble with the notion of legalizing the approximately 12 million people in the US that currently have no legal status. Most senators (including Cornyn) agree on the need to shore up border security and crack down on unlawful employment. However, when it comes to addressing the 12 million who are already here, Senator Cornyn proposes we do nothing. His solution is that we simply enforce the laws, and then wake up one morning to realize they have all returned home. Well, guess what? It won’t happen.

There are two options. You either force the 12 million back home via caravan and plane or you establish some sort of mechanism for establishing or reinstating their legal status. As I write this, Senator Cornyn has not endorsed or proposed any form of either option.

Rather than show a little political courage and at least stake out a position, Senator Cornyn prefers to snipe at the current bill from the back bench and do nothing. Texas deserves better than a do-nothing senator.

The problem

I think the main problem the GOP has in this (other than they probably wish Bush hadn't brought it up) is that what they really want - the unreasonable, no-amnesty, you-all-have-to-leave red meat for the base - isn't feasible. It isn't politically feasible, not really. It is not morally feasible, although the way some of them talk, you might wonder if they aren't capable of making that kind of reprehensible decision. It isn't even logistically feasible.

Any option that doesn't admit the moral and realistic aspects of immigration reform, they can't do, because they'd be eaten alive by their base who can't stand the thought of amnesty or even a path to citizenship. It is a hugely complex issue, but there has to be some room to compromise, somewhere. Cornyn is part of the group that refuses to dig in and figure a thing or two out. Hutchison too.

Hijacked By The Right

The immigration debate has been hijacked by nativist from the far right. Cornyn and Hutchison are merely pandering to a minority of public opinion at the expense of serving the will of the majority. Around 63% of the American public supports a path to citizenship (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/15/polls-show-americans-sup...). According to the same poll, if the path happens to be labeled amnesty, support drops to 54%. So even when senate posers like Cornyn wrongly call the bill amnesty, a majority of America continues supporting it. Democratic lawmakers have to clearly and loudly communicate that nothing was accomplished on immigration due to Senators like Cornyn. The issue got hijacked.

They're Eager

It is not morally feasible, although the way some of them talk, you might wonder if they aren't capable of making that kind of reprehensible decision.

They're not just capable of making that moral decision, Josh.

They're eager, dare I say giddy, to make it.

The manufactured outrage that, if acted upon, would kneecap the lifestyles of so many of it's most rabid supporters is built on the classic uber-conservative idea of "getting mine then pulling the ladder up behind me so no one else can dilute what I've earned." If you listen closely, you can hear this sentiment in quite a bit of conservative political rhetoric.

I think the big problem for Republicans is that they find themselves in a perfect storm over this immigration legislation: They're going into an election year with an inflamed base (inflamed at them moreso than Democrats) that is largely defining their political choices based on a single issue (immigration) where what the base wants (jail them, deport them, fill the Rio with alligators) and what the money wants (amnesty and more lax rules to increase the cheap, off-the-books labor pool) are simply cannot be reconciled.

And who is stirring the pot? Their historically unpopular lame duck President whose boots they've been fervently licking for six years.

I know, isn't it great?

It's just a solid mess of lack of political foresight. I love watching it. But only because it's not us doing it for a change.

Though I just can't grasp how the logistics don't get pushed more. Moral, yeah; political, whatever. But the fact that it's logistically infeasible is to me a fantastic understatement. Twelve MILLION people across the nation, and two million of those in Texas, meaning distributed over an area roughly the size of France. Get them all out? *Really*? Let's say we settle for getting half of them out — how do you identify six million people? How do you transport them? You can't criminalize them; we could empty every prison in America and still not have enough space for all of them. So we'd have to find some way of transporting millions of people. How do you do that, exactly?

You simply can't get rid of undocumented immigrants that are already here. So it's either continue to let them live as unregistered immigrants, or get them registered and paying income taxes along with the payroll taxes they're already paying. How is that not a winning argument for Republicans? I just don't get it.

It's Like Christmas in Summer

Watching all this lobbing of rhetorical bombs within the Republican ranks is a real treat. Part of me thinks it's partially because they're taking all their pent-up frustration with Iraq out on the immigration issue because not even their base is going to get that fired up about Iraq these days.

The completely impractical aspect of it as fascinated me too, George. I think part of it is driven by people who have never spent time in California or Texas, although it is amazing to see how many people we have in Texas who support these crackpot "deport 'em all and let God sort 'em out" schemes.

But let's face it: At heart, these are the same people who thought that Iraq didn't need a post-invasion plan and the same people who think that terrorism is a Manichean abstraction that can be defeated with message control, bumper stickers and shopping.

They don't do plans. They don't do details.

They don't do reality.

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