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GOP outrage over immigration will backfire come election time
JNews - Covering the S.F. Jewish Bay Area ^ | November 26, 2014 | Douglas M. Bloomfield

Posted on 11/27/2014 9:47:07 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Michele Bachmann is one of those Republican extremists who will keep Hispanics voting in the Democratic column for a long time.

The Minnesota Republican said President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration will “flood” the country with “millions of unskilled” foreigners “who can’t speak English” but will become “illiterate” voters.

Bachmann’s response was not unusual. The once and future presidential hopeful, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), said the president’s policy would take jobs away from good American workers and give them to illegal aliens.

These over-the-top Republican responses — and talk of impeachment, censure and lawsuits targeting Obama — can only help Democrats by telling the fastest growing segment of the population “we don’t want you here.”

Most Jewish voters support comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship. Many organizations lauded the president’s action, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Jewish Democratic Council, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.

Not surprisingly, the reflexively anti-Obama Republican Jewish Coalition said the president “exceeded his legitimate authority” and “sets a belligerent tone” for the next two years.

There is a fundamental difference between the two parties’ approaches to immigration reform: The president and most Democrats see it as a question of keeping together families who’ve been here at least five years. To Republicans, it is primarily a security issue of rounding up the “illegals” and sending them back while more heavily fortifying the borders to make sure they and others can’t return.

Little wonder a survey by Latino Decisions shows 89 percent support for the president’s policy among Latino registered voters, including 76 percent of registered Republicans.

But this debate is about more than border security and family cohesion. It is part of the larger campaign for 2016 and beyond.

Will the obstructionism of the Republicans cost them the Hispanic vote for years to come? Will the Democrats standing up for these minorities lose votes from the white males?

Having control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans want to be able to go to voters in two years and tell them, “We can govern, and the other guys are failures, so give us the presidency, too.”

The Democrats want to tell voters, “Those guys are obstructionists and incapable of governing.”

With that mindset, don’t expect to see much cooperation — just more gridlock, bickering and accusations.

Bachmann is retiring at the end of this term but is hinting that she may make another run for the GOP presidential nomination. Immigration is sure to be a hot topic in 2016; in fact that’s part of what the dust-up over the president’s action is all about as potential GOP contenders appeal to the party’s right wing, the traditional early strategy in the Republican nomination race.

Three presidential wannabes in the Senate and outspoken critics of the president’s actions are Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Cruz and Rubio are sons of Cuban immigrants.

Rubio was one of the authors of the Senate bill, but once it started getting flak from the tea partiers he did a 180. Cruz wants to punish the president by refusing to vote on any of his nominees. And Paul, reaching for the title of “Most Hyperbolic,” likened Obama’s move to FDR’s executive order authorizing the Japanese-American internment camps.

Journalist Chris Nelson wrote in his Washington newsletter that “Obama forcing the move now would put every Republican presidential candidate in the horrible position of having to denounce his action, and stick to that line, to have any chance of winning GOP primaries and thus the nomination.”

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and others are talking impeachment; Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Iowa) wants Congress to “censure” the president. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks wants him arrested for breaking a federal law he can’t cite; the Kansas attorney general and Arizona’s notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio are preparing to file suit. Some Republicans are threatening to shut down the government until he meets their demands.

It is not as though the Republicans haven’t had a year and a half to come up with a comprehensive reform bill or give the House a chance to vote on the bipartisan Senate bill. They’re too deeply divided to come up with a bill that Democrats could support, and the chances that will change when they control both chambers appear remote.

Cruz, Bachmann and others are deliberately misrepresenting what the president did. There’s no amnesty, no path to citizenship in his executive order, and it does not grant citizenship or voting rights to anyone.

Cruz wrongly called the 2014 election a “referendum on amnesty,” which he misrepresented as opening a path to citizenship. “Exit poll data show exactly the opposite,” reported FactCheck.org. In fact, voters said, by a 51-39 margin, “those living in the U.S. illegally but working should be offered legal status.”

Republicans may be counting on under-voting by Hispanics, as happened in this month’s election, but that was attributed to disappointment in Washington’s inaction on immigration. Since then the president’s executive order has been enthusiastically received, as the Latino Decisions poll showed, and the uniform condemnation of Obama’s action by Republicans is expected to boost turnout in 2016, to the benefit of Democrats.

********

Douglas M. Bloomfield is the president of Bloomfield Associates Inc., a Washington, D.C., lobbying and consulting firm. He spent nine years as the legislative director and chief lobbyist for AIPAC–American Israel Public Affairs Committee.


TOPICS: Issues; Parties; U.S. Congress; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: amnesty; immigration; obama; tedcruz
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Jews are blind. Beginning with Moses God gave them everything they needed, including freedom, and they complained. They just keep supporting those who do not want what’s best for them.


21 posted on 11/27/2014 10:02:44 AM PST by VerySadAmerican
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We head the same thing about the government shutdown last year. No GOP Senate, Dem capture of the House.

We know how those predictions turned out.

We won’t know the issues for the 2016 election for at least another year. A lot can and will happen between now and then.


22 posted on 11/27/2014 10:03:14 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: Jim Robinson

23 posted on 11/27/2014 10:03:39 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Conservatives should never take political advice from leftists.


24 posted on 11/27/2014 10:03:57 AM PST by oblomov
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“To Republicans, it is primarily a security issue of rounding up the “illegals” and sending them back while more heavily fortifying the borders to make sure they and others can’t return”

Do it legally and you’re more than welcome. Breaking our laws is not a good start for citizenship.


25 posted on 11/27/2014 10:06:51 AM PST by jughandle (Big words anger me, keep talking.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Don't you just love all of these liberals who are trying to help Republicans win future elections.....
26 posted on 11/27/2014 10:07:06 AM PST by martinidon
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Would some of these people would be goofy enough to support Israel opening up its borders in Gaza and let the “Palestinians” get the same type of benefits they’re supporting US is giving ?


27 posted on 11/27/2014 10:07:12 AM PST by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: kabar

Bump


28 posted on 11/27/2014 10:07:31 AM PST by anoldafvet (No more Omnibus spending bills!!)
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To: Jim Robinson
And amnesty ensures democrat rule for generations and most likely would transform America into a third-world country (Obama’s ultimate goal).

I fear that current and past anchor babies, along with chain migration, we'll see this outcome anyway. Amnesty will simply expedite this.

29 posted on 11/27/2014 10:09:37 AM PST by umgud (I couldn't understand why the ball kept getting bigger......... then it hit me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The truth is that Hispanics are neither stupid nor naive, like certain other groups that support Democrats. This is not to say that they don’t have stupid and naive members, just that they do not dominate Hispanics as a group.

To start with, many Hispanics do not support illegal aliens coming to live in America. The UFW unionist Cesar Chavez hated illegals, and his unionists even got into brawls with them.

But at the same time, they are not going to support politicians that treat them as a monolithic voting bloc, not as individuals and families. Nor will they support politicians who deride them as people.

So parse it into (good) and (bad).

“Our party supports equality of opportunity, not outcome, so if you work hard and play by the rules, you have a strong chance to prosper. (Very good)

“However, we want to kick all illegals out of the US. (Very bad, not because of who, but what. What kind of government forces out millions of people?)

“We want to close the border to illegal aliens. (Neutral, but leaning bad, because it inherently focuses on Mexicans.)

“Honorable military service should be a path to citizenship.” (Very good.)


30 posted on 11/27/2014 10:09:53 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting tired of the enemy giving us “advice”.


31 posted on 11/27/2014 10:10:44 AM PST by Nateman (If liberals are not screaming you are doing it wrong!)
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To: VerySadAmerican
Jews are blind. Beginning with Moses God gave them everything they needed, including freedom, and they complained. They just keep supporting those who do not want what’s best for them.

Everyone is blind at some level, yourself included. I object to your general accusation against the Jewish people. If you want to bash Jews you picked the wrong forum. If you imagine yourself a Christian send your name in for a full refund, courtesy of the Jews who brought the Gentiles the words of God.

32 posted on 11/27/2014 10:11:23 AM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I wonder if Douglas F. Bloomfield has shared similar outrage on Israel’s policy on illegal immigrants. What is good for the Bloomfield’s is good for the Goyim.


33 posted on 11/27/2014 10:13:16 AM PST by Hacksaw (I haven't taken the 30 silvers.)
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To: oblomov

I guess that the pro-immigration wing of the GOP hasn’t noticed that Obama’s approval rating among WHITE working class is now 27%, across both parties.

A verdict was reached in a little mentioned case in Tacoma WA, a man was convicted of murdering a Somali taxi driver out of anger that the immigrants were taking all the jobs. It was on Twitter, this morning. I guess that the press really didn’t want people to know, so they released the news on Thanksgiving.


34 posted on 11/27/2014 10:15:13 AM PST by Eva
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I love it when a Jewish publication tells me what I am doing wrong when they OVERWHELMINGLY voted for Obammer who would prefer the state of Israel disappear from the world.


35 posted on 11/27/2014 10:15:35 AM PST by Cyman (We have to pass it to see what's in it= definition of stool sample)
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To: Eva

The GOPE has noticed. They just haven’t convinced enough GOPe voters how racist they are for being against amnesty yet. Mitt and Jeb just don’t stop and they just don’t care.


36 posted on 11/27/2014 10:17:54 AM PST by uncitizen (I weep for my country)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Only if illegals are allowed to vote, which is the plan and has always been the case.


37 posted on 11/27/2014 10:18:05 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Republican extremists...over-the-top Republican responses... heavily fortifying the borders...contenders appeal to the party’s right wing...“censure” the president...threatening to shut down the government...deliberately misrepresenting what the president did...

LOL

38 posted on 11/27/2014 10:25:23 AM PST by McGruff (If you like your current Democracy you can keep it. Period.)
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To: perez24

So they said. The left are pretty much always proven wrong on everything. Why should anybody think they are right on this?


39 posted on 11/27/2014 10:25:47 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: jospehm20
It's just the left trying to be optimistic.

I'm more worried about the Eeyore's on our side.

40 posted on 11/27/2014 10:32:52 AM PST by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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