Don't Let Them Win
By Adam Graham (06/11/07)
The following is a commentary from the Truth and Hope Report(1) Weekend update by Democratic Political Dave Screwtape.
The conservative grassroots is celebrating the death of the comprehensive immigration reform bill. This is a dangerous situation. Conservatives have spent much of the year angry, dispirited, and discontented: exactly the position we want them to be in. Anything close to victory or exultation must be avoided.
For starters, it falls to Democrats to return to the table and work our a compromise that still includes a path to citizenship, dare I say amnesty! We must have the support of corporately minded Republicans in the Senate and House. It may seem odd, but in this debate, we and big business Republicans both have a stake in this bill.
For us, it’s an opportunity to create a permanent voting block. For them, it’s an opportunity to please their corporate masters by providing them a steady supply of cheap labor. Everyone wins in the short term, and we will dominate politics for the next half century once the wave of poor and poorly educated immigrants join our nation’s citizenry.
It’s important that this be done now. If we can get a bill that includes amnesty through Congress, we will have a delightful time watching the GOP implode for the next election. The GOP will split in two and we will roll to the first of many victories in November, 2008.
Proper steps must be taken to insure this happens. First, have Republicans out front on this bill. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC.) has claimed the mantle as amnesty’s best friend and I see no reason to seize it. Having him out front gives the anti-immigration forces a clear GOP face. Also when it comes time for the House to vote, our goal should be a vote of 217-216 in favor. Allow as many members who would be endangered by supporting the bill to vote “no” to lessen the impact to our party.
The goal is to insure that anti-immigration groups (and organized labor) can’t blame us for the bill. If you want to blame someone, it’s all the President’s fault. If we fail to get this done now and get a Democratic President to go along with Congress, we’ll have a hard time blaming the Republicans. This highlights a key lesson I learned in the early 1990s with the First President Bush’s tax increase. If you and a Republican agree on an unpopular measure: blame the measure on the Republican.
We do have a couple factors in our favor on this issue. First, we have those folks who will become lazy and apathetic and let the pressure off Washington now that the amnesty has been temporarily avoided. This will allow money and special interest groups to place the pressure back on to get a bill done.
Secondly, we’ll have those who will fail to realize they won a victory. Such was the case in the 2006 election. The House and Senate Republicans came to a stalemate over comprehensive immigration reform and many people in favor of enforcing the border became angry and pledged to never support another Republican. Of course, these folks might have considered that building a fence was the most Congress could do for their cause with Bush in office. The resultant increase in the Democratic seats in Congress allowed amnesty to have a chance of coming into being.
Third, we’re lucky to have people who are unable to come up with a constructive solution. Resigning their party and pledging never to support a Republican again are just a few ways in which anti-immigration folks marginalize themselves and guarantee that .
Given the presence of such characteristics in the anti-immigrant crowd, our task of defeating nationalists is important, but not all that difficult. The anti-immigration people will take care of half the job for us.
The Screwtape Report is written by Adam Graham. The Screwtape Report is written from a Democratic perspective by a conservative in order to reveal Democratic strategy and thinking.
1) http://www.truthandhope.2truth.com
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