Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/422804
NothingislessimportantinWashington these days than how Barack Obama's execu- tive order on immigration will affect mil- lions of unauthorized immigrants. Obamahasturnedapopula- tion roughly equal to Alabama into taxpayers who can live in America without fear of depor- tation, and this town yawns. All anyone really wants to talk about is whether the Republi- cans will completely freak out or manage to hold it together long enough for the govern- ment to function. And by "function," no one is thinking that Congress will do anything so radical as pass laws or other things imag- ined as normal by the Found- ing Fathers. No, the nightmare scenario for Republicans is a mass of anger and confusion that could derail their plans to govern just as they got control of Congress. Put simply, the right hand doesn't know what the far-right hand is doing. The choice is coming down to suing the President, which no one thinks will work, de- funding the President's immi- gration executive order, which the Republican House Appro- priations Chairman Hal Rog- ers says is impossible, and of course shutting down the gov- ernment in some sort of a leg- islative tantrum. So far, Re- publican leaders have man- aged to keep impeachment off the table, but no one thinks the relative peace will last. That's how angry they are. Perspective was the first ca- sualty in this latest war with the President. Said the com- munications director of Heri- tage Action, "I don't think you could overstate how impor- tant it is." From this we can either infer that Obama's ex- ecutive order is more impor- tant than 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War rolled into one or that hyperbole is a bad quality to have in a communi- cations director. Unfortunately, hyperbole seems to be contagious in our nation's capitol. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is considered thoughtful in Texas, said the President's "executive diktat" showed Obama was "acting as a mon- arch." Sen. Rand Paul of Ken- tucky, who like Cruz may run for president, seconded that emotion. "History will treat him unkindly on this if he thinks he can become king." Republicans seem married to this idea that Obama is em- bracing his inner potentate. According to top Republicans, "Emperor Obama" (Speaker John Boehner) is "abusing his power" (Sen. John Cornyn), possibly committing a felony (Rep. Mo Brooks) and inviting "anarchy." (Sen. Tom Coburn). Imagine your cranky older uncle with a couple too many glasses of merlot in him at Thanksgiving dinner, and you get the picture. This will not go well. The truth is pretty sim- ple. The legislative branch writes the laws, and the ex- ecutive branch decides how to implement them, the lead- ership equivalent of prosecu- torial discretion. Republican presidents from Dwight Eisen- hower to George W. Bush used a total of 20 executive orders on immigration. And Obama is using fewer executive orders than any president since Gro- ver Cleveland. For a lawless monarch, Obama is awfully re- strained. Everyone knows what the smart play here for Repub- licans is, which is why their leaders are handing out big bottles of Shut the Hell Up juice when it comes to im- peachment. Time was that George W. Bush rolled his R's, spoke of "treating Mexicans with respect when they come to our country," and got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. Lately, not so much. Mitt Romney said they could all "self-deport" themselves and got only 27 percent of the His- panic vote, prompting the Re- publican National Committee to offer these prescient words in their "rebranding" docu- ment: "If Hispanic Americans per- ceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self- deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence. It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies," said the Growth and Opportunity Project. The rebranding went on to recommend that the GOP "em- brace and champion compre- hensive immigration reform." There's nothing stopping Re- publicans from saving them- selves by doing that now. Oth- erwise, they could lose the Hispanic vote for a generation, shutting themselves out of the White House for the foresee- able future. Republicans can't stop Obama, but if they fo- cus on passing immigration reform they just might save themselves. JasonStanfordisaregu- lar contributor to the Aus- tin American-Statesman and a Democratic consultant. You can email him at stanford@ oppresearch.com and follow him on Twitter @JasStanford. JasonStanford Will the GOP hold it together? Cartoonist's take RJMATSON Before providing readers with some hopefully refreshing candor and critical analysis of Mr. Obama's (or, by his own ad- mission, Emperor Obama's) fiat ap- proach to creat- ing new immigra- tion laws and pol- icies, I'd like to revisit what Jon- athon Gruber de- scribed as "the stupidity of the American voter." By the way, I've seen next-to-nothing on the devastating (to Obamacare) rev- elations—Gruber's assertions— on mainstream network news (MSM); a slight mention on CBS, a literal blackout on NBC and ABC, and minimalist cov- erage by the Associated Press, has been pretty much it. Last week's column had more reve- lations than all MSM on "Gru- ber-gate." Conservative blogger Jim Treacher provided this appro- priate quote: "Modern jour- nalism is all about decid- ing which facts the public shouldn't know because they might reflect badly on Demo- crats." Hence, the Democrat/ MSM complex deigns to cate- gorize as "stupid" that part of the American electorate that has somehow formed con- victions and opinions con- trary to the delivered wisdom and narratives of the Beltway elite. When Gallup announces a "New numerical low" for Obamacare—yet another poll- ing data point of rejection of the program conceived, pro- moted and legislated through massive deception and false promises—the political and media upper class simply as- sign mental deficiency to the obstinate populace. A 2004 book by Thomas Frank, "What's the Matter With Kansas," is informative on why the liberal elites have such con- descension toward the center- right voting majority. Look it up on Wikipedia.org by title and you will find the theme that al- lows the intellectual left to dis- miss the firmly-held sentiments of such Americans: Their true best interests are served by the programs and policies of the es- tablishment progressive move- ment; meanwhile, conserva- tive leaders try to distract those same Americans from that re- ality by creating liberal "bogey- men" and villains ever deter- mined to make life harder for otherwise free people. Get it? In the liberal para- digm, our collective rejection of expansive government pro- grams, benefits and tax bur- dens—which undermine para- mount ideals of self-sufficiency and industriousness—con- demns us to intellectual inferi- ority vis-à-vis our wise, statist overlords. Don't take my word for it. Bloomberg's Clive Crook is a center-left journalist and self- admitted supporter of Obam- acare and the Democrat's pol- icy positions (he "wants to see them succeed"), and was be- ing honest in "Why Do Demo- crats Look Down on Voters?" "Here's what counts about Gr- uber's comments: His views on the stupidity of the American electorate express the party's reflexive disdain for the very people it hopes (in all sincerity) to serve…but some (political salesmen) respect their custom- ers, whereas others look down on them. "The Democrats' brand of disapproval has a particular quality that puts their party and its good ideas at a perpet- ual electoral disadvantage… Liberals have an exaggerated respect for intellectual author- ity and technical expertise… (They) have an unduly nar- row conception of the values that are implicated in politi- cal choices…(and become con- vinced) that if you disagree with Democrats on univer- sal health insurance or almost anything else, it can only be be- cause you're stupid. "Voters recognize this as in- sufferable arrogance and, oddly enough, they resent it." Leftist critics of this column would be wise to look up Mr. Crook's col- umn by name and read all of it before heaping scorn on my positions, which clearly reflect large majorities of local and na- tional voters. Stupid? Not! Conservatives often echo Rush Limbaugh's "low informa- tion voter" descriptor for the Democrat base. Is this just our arrogance and condescension reversed against our political opposites? I don't think so, in the sense that there's anecdotal and empirical basis for such a descriptor. After the 2008 elec- tion, videos surfaced of Obama voters being asked all sorts of basic questions about our gov- ernment, major political figures and prominent news. The re- vealed ignorance (i.e. not know- ing who Obama's vice president was, or thinking that Sarah Palin really said she could see Russia from her house) was breathtaking. Timothy H. Lee analyzed the most recent poll on the subject, "Republicans More Informed Than Democrats, According to Pew Research," (10/08/14) re- garding Pew's "What Do Amer- icans Know" survey. Look it up by title, or go to DonPolson. blogspot.com and find it posted on 11/19. To summarize, "Out of 12 questions asked, Republicans outperformed both Democrats and Independents on 10," with double-digit leads on several is- sues and small Democrat leads on 2 topics (all listed in article). Moreover, there seems to be a pattern: "In 2012, Republicans outscored Democrats on 11 of 12 items…In the 2011 Pew sur- vey, Republicans outperformed Democrats on every single one of 19 questions," and on 10 of 12 in 2010. Additionally, in a study that must have stunned the liberals at the New York Times, in 2010 the Times reported "Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated" than their opponents. Those knuckle-drag- ging Neanderthals were "more likely to possess a college de- gree…a graduate degree…some college and even to have gradu- ated from high school." Perhaps conservative suspicion and re- jection of expansionist, "trans- formational" government and ballooning benefit programs is actually a result of superior in- tellect and knowledge. Just sa- yin'. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Electoral stupidity or conservative intellect Republican presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush used a total of 20 executive orders on immigration. And Obama is using fewer executive orders than any president since Grover Cleveland. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Congrats,hopetoseeyouinOlympicssome day. Ina Brewer: On story of Hannah Pritchard, 11, becoming a state champion in gymnastics Congrats to Hannah for her hard work. Keep going girl. Jenn Hall: On story of Hannah Pritchard, 11, becoming a state champion in gymnastics Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. 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