Pols in tough spot

It appears our elected officials are between a rock and a hard place.

They’re faced with an issue now on which a bipartisan majority of Americans want action: Stopping illegal immigration. That means closing the border to illegal immigration. If the Republicans do nothing, preferring to salvage what they can of the Hispanic vote, they risk alienating their base and ensuring consequences at the polls. If the Democrats do nothing or obstruct GOP efforts, they probably gain some Hispanic votes, but peel off even more of the moderates they so desperately court.

This should be an easy choice, right? Just follow the will of the people.

Except…

There are a LOT of businesses in this country which like the idea of hiring cheap, illegal immigrant, labor to pick their crops/build their houses/wash their dishes. These businesses have deep pockets when it comes to donating to the political campaigns of their favorite legislation-friendly politician. Shutting the door on illegal immigration could mean shutting the door on all those campaign dollars flowing from the businesses getting rich by exploiting the cheap labor.

The line about Mexicans doing the jobs that Americans won’t do is a load of horse crap too…though it IS true most American’s won’t do the job for the wages paid to illegal workers. As a matter of fact, competition from cheap Mexican workers has been blamed for shutting many blue-collar American workers out of a job. At a minimum, Americans in many blue collar jobs have had to reduce their wage demands to remain competitive with people who are here illegally. And guess what? Many of those blue collar workers vote Democrat.

As Rasmussen says:

“Attitudes towards immigration do not fall neatly along typical partisan, demographic, or ideological lines. For this reason, among others, the immigration issue ultimately has the potential to shake up the current partisan alignment in the nation.”

So our elected officials are faced with the dilemma of pissing off their constituents, who are truly hyped up about this issue, or pissing off their benefactors. The heightened emotions on the part of the electorate have also made it highly unlikely that legislators will be able to pull off some kind of weasely compromise which promises much and delivers little.

There is a passage in Tom Clancy’s Debt of Honor which comes to mind. I can’t find the book now to quote exactly, so I’ll paraphrase: White House Chief of Staff Arnie Van Damm tells President Jack Ryan that in the face of outrage by the citizens, the President’s job sometimes is not to lead, but just to get out of the way and let the will of the people be done.

I think this is one of those times.

We’ll see whether our elected representatives are more interested in heeding the will of the American people or fawning at the feet of their checkbook-wielding benefactors. My advice: do your job, Mr. Senator, the job which I elected you to do – represent the will of your constituents. We gave you power and we can take it away, and no amount of dollars forthcoming from your influence-buying business cronies will change that.