Republicans have threatened everything short of second amendment solutions over Obama’s plan to improve the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) program, and they probably should. If Obama makes it easier for certain categories of people to stay in the country then Cleek’s law dictates that the next presidential candidate for the GOP must write an oath in his own blood to end that program and anything related to it the millisecond he takes office.
People who vote already Republican will respond of course and that might eat into Jim Webb’s hypothetical margins, but I think only a small number of adjectives can adequately describe the effect that stark pledge would have on hispanic voters in America. Terms like electric or galvanizing get you part way there. And once people who don’t vote start voting, they usually stick with the team that brought them there. Any Republican who can count the number of hispanics who do not yet vote (it’s a lot) will feel roughly the same way about DACA as Democrats do about reapportionment.
Even so I doubt that apeshit GOP rage will have as much of an impact as people think. If DACA doesn’t pan out Republicans have plenty more in that binder of excuses for blowing up the government. But more to the point that I strongly suspect that a few hours from now a certain grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri will announce their decision and go home. And then some other things will happen. Front page center only has room for one story. Sadly, I do not think incremental adjustments to immigration policy will compete.
Cermet
So what you are saying is that rioting and killing of protesters (black, of course) can be a good thing for President’s Obama’s executive immigration order?
drkrick
Hasn’t Tom Coburn actually threatened Second Amendment solutions?
Tim F.
@Cermet: Not really. I think that two things happening at once will make it harder for the less noteworthy of the two to make news. ‘Good’ is a relative measure.
SatanicPanic
In English language media. I suspect it will linger a bit longer in Spanish language media.
Tim F.
@SatanicPanic: ‘zactly.
max
Even so I doubt that apeshit GOP rage will have as much of an impact as people think.
This is a pretty bog standard post-election freakout. Given how many threats the usual folks have been making all along (I mean, Fox News was begging for a military coup in 2010!), they have to keep amping up the threats just to be heard. They’re simply trying to keep the base happy, keep the donors happy, and intimidate Obama.
It was a mistake to decide to do this earlier and not do it. This kind of frothing would have been very usefully demonstrative during the summer.
Any Republican who can count the number of hispanics who do not yet vote (it’s a lot) will feel roughly the same way about DACA as Democrats do about reapportionment.
They feel roughly the same way about everything single thing Obama does in much the same way as Democrats feel about reapportionment.
max
[‘The rage junkies need lithium.’]
Cermet
@Tim F.: Sorry – I was just making a joke on the logic of the post and in no way, or manner believe that you, Tim, really meant such utter and complete nonsense … please do remove my comment if you really think that people, in general, will take my post as serious and in any way consider it a reflection/fact on what you really meant!
beth
Well, except actually passing legislation, right?
Belafon
@beth:
If they did, they’d:
1) Actually go on record as taking a position.
2) Wouldn’t have this item to get their base riled up about.
dmsilev
@beth: That’s crazy talk.
schrodinger's cat
Where does Hillary stand on the immigration issue? Does anyone know. As for Webb, I don’t get his appeal at all.
mai naem mobile
Its not just Latinos. Theres illegal Asians and Europeans too.
schrodinger's cat
@mai naem mobile: I remember reading that there are upwards of 50,000 Irish citizen in NYC itself who have overstayed their visas. I don’t think the GOP will have any problem with them, am I right?
D58826
Not exactly OT but it is about Texas so I guess it still falls into the category of GOP stupid. A jury in Galveston found a man not guilty of all charges in the case where he kept his 9 year-old son locked in a wooden crate.
It really is hard to beat Texas justice.
Tim F.
@Cermet: Don’t worry about it. Sarcasm can be hard to read on the internet. That’s not even on the extreme side of stuff I interact with on a regular basis. It’s actually a semi-reasonable interpretation of what I said, just phrased more strongly than most people would.
D58826
@schrodinger’s cat: I read something similar about the Boston area. However I’m sure Cong. Peter King will have no problem helping out as needed. He had no problem helping raise funds for several IRA front organizations a few years back. That they were labelled terrorist organizations by the Brits was just a minor detail.
Belafon
@D58826: Do you have a link?
chopper
Long as the gop’s apeshit rage is caught on camera for future attack ads.
schrodinger's cat
Tom Coburn has threatened civil disobedience, I wonder what that means.
Seanly
I think the Republicans have maxed out their share of the white electorate. I’m white and I will never vote for a Republican over a Democrat (yes, I know anecdote is not the singular of data). Aside from the abused children of snakehandlers & quiverful couples and idiot frat boys with Ron Paul flags out their dorm windows, I don’t think the younger generation is geared to support Republicans. It’ll take some time to win back the states and remove voter suppression and aggregating, but eventually the Democratic Party will dominate.
Republican dog whistles to the worst aspects of my 79-yr old father-in-law will only continue to alienate the growing minority populations.
The other day I got a questionnaire from the Democratic Party. I told them that we need to concentrate on jobs, jobs, and jobs, We can’t be Republican-lite and shouldn’t listen to the hacks at WSJ & NYT editorials except Krugman.
schrodinger's cat
@Seanly: There are some people who do fall the both sides do it shit. I have a friend who voted for Bush, then was annoyed with his multiple failures, voted for Obama twice and now has thrown her lot with the GOP again. I don’t get her logic or the lack thereof, I wonder how many of her are there in the electorate in general.
D58826
@Belafon: Sorry no it was several years ago during one of the other immigration freak outs. It may have even gone back as far the the Bush(43) era freak out. just remember it because people like Peter King were going off the rails in protecting the southern border from illegal Mexicans and Arab terrorists while ignoring the part they played in hiding/funding IRA gunmen.
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
Oh lord, all.
Apparently, folks are now claiming that Obama is only “allowing” spanish-language networks like Telemundo and Univision to show his speech, because he’s too scared to face the English-speaking public.
You know, while simultaneously acting like he’s a dictator for ‘slamming’ the networks for not kowtowing to his demands to show his narcissistic speech, and the like.
I genuinely hate this country at this point. I really do.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
And it’s not just illegal immigrants who are affected by this stuff. Controls on illegal immigration are actually pretty popular among legal immigrants and non-white citizens, plenty of whom have the same “I (or my family) followed the rules, why can’t current immigrants” reaction that white citizens do. Where the Republicans are going off the rails is that they’re letting their xenophobia show and using immigration as an excuse to mistreat anyone who doesn’t look and act sufficiently “American”. Laws like Arizona’s “papers please” law piss off Latino and Asian citizens, who know they’re likely to be targeted because of their appearance and who see it as proof that the Republicans don’t accept them as Real Americans®.
beth
@Kryptik, A Man Without A Country: Well CNN is televising it but I’m sure people will say that’s because they’re part of the “liberal media”. This morning on the CNN show with the scoldy blond and the attractive Cuomo boy they had a discussion about the president’s immigration action – with two Republicans! This is what drives me crazy – was there not one single Democrat who could show up and defend the president’s action? Liberal media, my ass.
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
@beth:
I wonder how much it is Dems not being arsed to go on these shows compared to CNN or other outlets simply not wanting to book them.
You know, after all, the election proved that the country wants to listen to the GOP more or some shit.
gene108
@Seanly:
Because you do not connect with the GOP does not mean you automatically connect with the Democrats.
From the youngins I know, they seem to distrust the hell out of the system and this helps the GOP, because they are not trying to establish any trust in the system, other than they’ll enable more IGMFY.
Villago Delenda Est
@mai naem mobile: Illegal Europeans don’t count, you know.
No brown skin. Not part of the problem.
The problem is BROWN SKIN
Valdivia
Absolutely. I have been following Jorge Ramos of Univision on this and he has squarely blamed Boehner and the Republicans for not passing immg reform. I think Obama should have done it before, but of course the Senators up for election simply couldn’t abide that so it was delayed. Same crew will make awful noises in the next few days.
Tree With Water
I saw the same scenario play out in California, when the state’s republican party whipped itself into an hysteria-and-out of their ever loving minds over hispanic California. Lest we forget, Mexico stole the land from the natives long before the United States stole it from them. The entire state south of Sonoma county can no more divorce itself from that heritage than a child can biologically deny its parents. But not to hear republicans tell it, not back then (and not now, either). That’s when the tide turned and the state went blue. The democratic party now has the power to vitally cripple the GOP if it plays its cards here wisely. Let’s hope it doesn’t prove another missed opportunity.