Is the Republican Party coyly planning to stab its supporters in the back?
Recently,
House Speaker John Boehner declared that immigration reform would be
put on the back burner this year because President Barack Obama cannot
be trusted to enforce the nation's laws. Yet, if that is the true
calculus for the decision, why did the GOP release a set of immigration
reform principles in a step-by-step plan just one week before that press
conference? Was the president trustworthy in late January but not in
early February?
Squishy
is as squishy does. The Republican Party has an identity crisis,
veering from decrying the principles of the Democratic Party to
accepting them. It is no wonder the GOP was unable to oust Obama from
his leadership perch in the reelection of 2012, despite the president's
dismal record.
The
major problem confronting the party is that it has become every bit as
untrustworthy as the president. The conservative base is tuning out,
concluding the Republican Party has no "principles" at all — only
claptrap among the ever-shifting sands of political expediency.
The
House Speaker's radical shift within one week raises doubts amongst
both supporters of immigration reform and opponents regarding what the
true plan of action really is.
The
GOP is currently focusing on highlighting the failed Obamacare rollout —
and avoiding any other distraction — in order to win back the Senate in
the midterm elections of 2014. Yet, at the very same time that the
momentum was gearing toward GOP cohesion, Boehner performed immigration
gymnastics, leading the anti-immigration reform crowd to wonder if they
are being played like fools.
Is
Boehner going to solicit the votes of conservatives in 2014 to win the
Senate only to advance immigration reform in 2015? Will this be another
pyrrhic victory for the base, whereby elections are won only to concede
more and more ground to the values of the left?
The
president seems to think so. He said in a recent Univision Radio
interview that "immigration reform will get done before my presidency is
over." In other words, Obama has concluded that even if the GOP wins
the Senate, his agenda will nonetheless be implemented. He is convinced
that the nation's changing demographics have put the GOP in a vice-grip —
either accept the growing number of Hispanics, both legal and illegal,
and cater to them, or be confined to political oblivion.
Yet
what Boehner and Obama fail to grasp is that there is a third
alternative — a groundswell revolt against both political parties that
is simmering now but may erupt at any moment in a manner no on can
predict. There are growing pressures of resistance emerging from both
sides of the political aisle that threaten what Angelo Codevilla termed
"America's Ruling Class", the Big-Government plutocracy that is
currently bankrupting the nation and running roughshod over individual
rights.
The Tea
Party movement, on the right, in conjunction with the libertarian
movement, and the anti-war movement on the left are all fed up with a
class of politicos in Washington D.C. that appear to be transgressing
the nation's core values. While these groups may disagree with one
another on some issues, they nonetheless all agree that the status quo
is untenable.
In
addition, there are long-term patterns of disaffection. The middle and
working class increasingly feel that no matter how hard they try, they
cannot pull ahead economically — squeezed by incessant taxes on the one
hand and high costs to purchase basic items, on the other hand.
The
youth, once the core of Obama voters, perceive a bleak future of
limited opportunities. And our military class — including military
families — is stirring with resentment against both military and
civilian leaders who do not care for their best interests. In addition,
red states are beginning to whisper: Is this federalism for us?
This
means that the days of political doublespeak are numbered, as sooner or
later, the nation's endemic ills will result in leadership changes.
Boehner
may think he is being very clever by appeasing the base until 2014 and
planning to sabotage us in 2015. But what he fails to realize in his
current state of hubris is that a blade cuts both ways.
Grace
Vuoto is the Editor of Politics and Culture at World Tribune, host of
American Heartland with Dr. Grace on WTSB Radio and is the founder of
the Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal.
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