Republicans confront own worst enemy on immigration – The Washington Post.

To read this article in The Washington Post click on the title immediately above.

November 20, 2014 President Obama will act unilaterally on immigration Thursday night, a move that will spin Republicans into a frenzy as they assess their options to stop the administration from halting the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants.

via Republicans See an Upside to a Government Shutdown Over Immigration – NationalJournal.com.

Click on the title immediately above to read the article in the NationalJournal.com.

In what they called the “most comprehensive post-election review” ever made of an electoral loss, the Republican National Committee and a group of project co-chairs unveiled a report today saying that they need to open their playbook and put their “cards on the table face up” in order to win presidential elections in the future.

via RNC Completes ‘Autopsy’ on 2012 Loss, Calls for Inclusion but No Policy Change – ABC News.

Click on the title immediately above to read the ABC News article.

After their loss in the 2012 elections the Republicans’ announced that they would revamp their Party by building a larger and more inclusive tent.  Whatever they did, it didn’t work.  So they gave up and reverted to their old ways of doing things following the extreme right-wing takeover of their Party.

It is easy for me to imagine why women and people of color would be hard-pressed to stand with or want to become a part of the GOP even if they are as conservative as any Republican.  Why, you might ask?  Here are a number of reasons why starting from the top.

Look at the rainbow of colors and great gender diversity of the Republican leadership, look at how long and hard they have fought against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) although it has helped millions of poor and middleclass people, look at how many states – most of them controlled by Republicans – have refused to expand their Medicaid program and hurt thousands of people who desperately need health insurance in an effort to derail the ACA.  And there is more.

Look at how since the ACA has become law they have continued to try to dismantle it, even pushing their challenges to it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Look at all of the roadblocks that they put up in order to prevent legitimate, eligible voters from voting in the 2014 midterm elections.

Finally, look at how they have gone after women by trying to dictate to them the choices they should make regarding their own body and how hard they have fought against equal pay for equal work.  Looking at those holding the Republican leadership positions in Washington makes it hard to imagine that they can build a larger and more inclusive tent.  If they are struggling at this level, to imagine that they can do something greater would require a perfect mastery of the imagination.  It could be compared to one’s ability to see the Andromeda Galaxy, which is the most distant galaxy that can be seen by the unaided human eye; it would be a formidable stretch even with a near perfect night sky!

There is no doubt that the Grand Ole Party has many stalwart conservative politicians who have ideas that would be beneficial in helping America to prosper and grow but those ideas are no longer put on the table and discussed because they are predetermined by those who currently control the Republican Party to not be conservative enough.

Right now the GOP is like a great ship at sea with the ability to move only straight forward or starboard.  Until this problem is corrected the Party’s future is not bright; their destiny is predetermined and eventually they will crash.  That would be a great loss to all Americans, not just Republicans.  Where are the Republican statesmen?

Eulus Dennis

To read the article by ABC News on how the Republicans planned to revamp their Party after the 2012 elections loss search “RNC Completes Autopsy on 2012 Loss, Calls for Inclusion Not Policy Change.”

Ever since the completion of the midterm elections President Obama has publicly stated time-and-again that he is going to use his executive power to do as much as he possibly can to begin to fix America’s broken immigration system.  This created a conundrum among Republicans in Washington and they immediately began to scurry around seeking a solution that would prevent him from moving forward with what they perceived as an overt threat to yet again abuse his presidential power.

Among the solutions that they are considering are another government shutdown and even impeachment.  Everything is on the table they say.  To support what they view as the lawlessness of President Obama and the severity of the situation, some of them evoked statements that Jonathan Gruber, who was a consultant to the Obama administration on Obamacare in 2009-2010, made calling the law intentionally vague so that it could take advantage of the ‘stupidity’ of the voters.  President Obama denies that Americans were duped into passing the healthcare law.

According to an article in U.S. News & World Report by Kenneth T. Walsh, ‘congressional Republicans expressed outrage at the deceptions described by [Gruber]’ and that Obamacare was falsely presented to the public to insure its passage.  I believe that this is just another expression of the vitriol that Republicans have for this president and another opportunity that they just cannot pass up to damage or destroy his legacy by branding him and dismantling Obamacare.

Congress has had ample opportunity to debate and work to fix our immigration system and still have not done anything.  The bipartisan bill passed by the senate has languished in the house for almost 18 months and continues to do so without being voted on.  Although during all this time they have done nothing to address this problem, they fume and threaten impeachment when President Obama even talks about using his executive power to make an effort to fix it.  Why is that?

The outrage that Republicans express at the president’s announcement that he will use his executive power immediately in an effort to begin to fix the immigration system rather than waiting until Republicans are in full control of the congress is just as disingenuous as the outrage they expressed during the early stages of Obamacare.

I wrote about this disingenuousness in an article titled ‘The Republicans’ Affordable Care Act Charade’ that was published in the Daily Camera.com about a year ago.  I reprinted it here and it immediately follows this article in the event that you would like to read it.

Reprinted on 11/18/2014 for your convenience

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was controversial and created political battles between Republicans and Democrats when it was a bill and continues to do so since it has become law.  Republicans fought relentlessly to prevent the ACA from becoming law and since it has become law, voted at least 40 times to repeal it.

In the meantime, in conjunction with continuously working to repeal the ACA, they have made efforts to sabotage it in any way possible in the hope that they will gain additional support from stakeholders – both inside and outside of congress, who will join them in their efforts to repeal it.  Their latest effort to sabotage the ACA via Republican Fred Upton’s bill has garnered some success and has the GOP all but visibly salivating at the prospect that this victory will be the edge that they need to finally derail the ACA.  Some GOP lawmakers were even giddy about this victory while spouting that even 39 Democrats voted for the Upton bill.

I was deeply saddened to see that 39 Democrats voted for this bill but I was especially surprised to see that Representative Tammy Duckworth was among those 39 Democrats listed.  I was surprised because I have been aware of her position on various issues and this vote did not fit that profile.

It is important for anyone who is of voting age – whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independent – to remember that there are things in the ACA that are beneficial to them.  Some of these things are already in effect.  For instance, insurance companies can no longer deny insurance to anyone due to a preexisting condition.  And, children can remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they are 26 years old.  If the ACA is not successful, these things along with other requirements in the ACA that make insurance companies more accountable will be lost.

Under the circumstances, those who want to keep these benefits and are represented by elected officials who are working to repeal this law should let them know that they do not want it repealed.  It is also important for young voters, especially college students attending colleges and universities outside of their home state, to know that some of the same lawmakers who are working to repeal the ACA are also working to make it harder for them to vote.

The world knows that the Republicans outrage at the ACA rollout debacle and deep concern that some Americans lost their insurance coverage and now cannot access the ACA website to get insurance is disingenuous.  That means that the 39 Democrats who abandoned President Obama and voted for the Upton bill are aware of this too.

I can understand that some Democrats might feel pressure to take the safe political road because they are up for reelection in 2014.  What I can’t understand is why after weighing what is at stake for all of the American people versus accumulating points toward their reelection they would choose the latter; especially when the 2014 election is so far away.  In every walk of life that I am aware of, leaders are expected to be strong and do the right thing.  So even if the election were tomorrow I expect our leaders to do the right thing.  They should circle the wagons around President Obama and do the right thing: thank you President Obama for doing the right thing.  Stay strong!

I am a proud Democrat and I believe that the leaders that we choose must have more faith in those who put them in office.  Although too many of us do not follow politics and too often fail to see the big picture, those leaders that we select to represent us must have confidence in their own ability to ultimately explain to us why they made the decisions that they made.  Many decisions have been made by our leaders at one time or another that some of us agreed with while others didn’t.  But that is the nature of things; common ground is the common denominator of life.

In school I was taught that there are large and small common denominators and there are the largest and the smallest common denominators.  I was also taught that when you reach the smallest common denominator, that is as far as you can go.

My admonition to those 39 Democrats who voted for Representative Upton’s bill is for them to reflect on their vote and in conjunction with their responsibilities as our elected leaders, truly determine if they had reached their smallest common denominator.  If they had reached it, then they had a charge to vote like they did.  If they had not reached it, then they should put that vote behind them and make sure that as they move forward they always assure in advance of their decisions at what point they are on the common denominator spectrum.

Eulus Dennis

Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sounded words of reconciliation shortly after the midterm elections ended. He said that the American people want their elected leaders to govern and this is what both Parties should do.  He said that just because there is a divided government …”I don’t think it means [the American people] don’t want us to do anything.”

How ironic it is that the senator who, when he was Senate Minority Leader, said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president had an epiphany and now believes that Democrats and Republicans should work together and govern. Was this sudden awakening brought on by the realization that he will soon be the Senate Majority Leader?  Was the ordinary but striking occurrence that took place the realization that he is the one who must now seek common ground between the Democratic and Republican senators and not just block or obstruct and engage in finger-pointing if he harbors any hope of a meaningful legacy as Senate Majority Leader?

It is also worth noting that these supposed words of conciliation did not come without a rider. There was a warning attached that said if you take steps to unilaterally do anything to move forward on trying to correct the immigration problem it will poison the well and be like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  That meant that any potential cooperation from Republicans would be lost.

It appears that the well has been poison for the past six years because the Republicans certainly haven’t cooperated with President Obama on any initiatives that he put forward. On the contrary, they have balked at supporting him on things that they regularly supported in the past and even withdrawn their support for bills they themselves initiated once he decided to support them.

Senator McConnell said that he would fix the Senate so that it operates again. What a curious thing to say when he worked so hard to break it.  He was not alone in those efforts but there is no getting around the fact that he was the minority leader when he said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president.

But some would say that what Senator McConnell said is behind us and the American people have spoken and given the Republicans a mandate, which was indicated by way of their resounding victory in the midterm elections. Wait a minute.  Doesn’t it still matter what percentage of the American people actually voted in the midterm elections?  Doesn’t it matter that there were new voter ID laws put into place in some states and some people who had been able to vote since the day that they became eligible voters were unable to vote in this midterm election?  Doesn’t it matter that voting days were reduced in some states, voting hours were cut back and there were fewer polling places available?

There is no doubt that fewer people vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. And there is no doubt that a cross-section of those who vote in the midterm elections is less representative of America as a whole than a cross-section of those who vote in the presidential elections.  This is by no means an excuse for those who fail to exercise their right to vote during midterm elections; nor is it meant to in any way demean the voice of those who did vote; but to claim a mandate from the American people based on the results of the 2014 midterm elections without a caveat is quite a stretch.

Eulus Dennis