We’re starting to see the set-up. Each cycle the Repubs pick a divisive issue and play it to the hilt-they played on the strong defense image and said only Repubs can protect us, they used the gay mariage issue shamelessly because they knew America was divided on the issue.
So what’s next? Well, since 9/11 there has been a wholesale revamp of the nation’s immigration process and increasingly, immigrants are painted with the touch of the terrorists brush. For legal immigrants or green card holders the changes have made the words expensive and bureaucracy interchangeable. Almost inevitably, things are getting stranger and stranger. Let’s take my family as just one example (and I’m hearing of many more)
My French mother, yes French, has been in this country for let’s see..over 50 years. The renewal of her green card has been routine. Until this year. She is now in her late ’80s and her renewal is caught in a buraeucratic maze. As near as I can tell, a contractor somewhere has ‘lost’ her renewal form even after it was sent by certified mail. The fee has gone up 300%.
My Filipino girlfriend lost her green card 3 years ago. It took over a year, two trips to the the nearest INS Center (takes all day) and $300 to get a replacement card. During the process she was treated as a borderline criminal….and there’s more…
My oldest son lives in Spain where my first grandchild was very recently born (thank you). He is a legal resident in Spain and by being my son is legally registered in France. So, he went to register his daughter Sofia to establish her legal being.
In Spain, it was a 3 page form, free of charge and the lady helped him fill it out. For France it was a similar experience and yes, free.
For the US, it cost 125 euros (about $150) and involves much more paperwork. Plus they have to prove his wife lived in the US for 3 consecutive years after the age of 14. This means they may haveto get high school transcripts or who knows what.
Add to this backdrop the recent highlighting of ongoing issues with immigration, both legal and illegal, and you get the makings of the bogey issue. Immigrants are being painted as worthless, only worth admitting because they take service and agriculture jobs ‘we’ don’t want. They are also being portrayed as a security threat. And, they don’t vote.
Dems will be portrayed as soft on immigration, lazy on borders and so forth. Only Repubs can protect us and only Repubs really care about the American (read white) people.
That’s how it is shaping up, what should the Dems do? Rush to defend legal immigration and call for barriers to illegal immigration? Try to out conservative the Repubs by declaring immigration as a threat to national security? Or defend immigration as a cornerstone of how this country was built? I don’t know. It is a thorny issue and in some states illegal immigration is close to out of control and a problem. Here’s one idea:
Throw a spotlight on how immigrants have strengthened our country. The inventions, life improvements, entrepeneurs, generals, athletes, etc who have come from the ranks of immigrants. Do a history and start spotlighting them on the DNC web site. Something like 100 faces that have changed America. What would you do?
I sure wouldn’t do the spotlighting idea.
Elections are about selling yourself or your ideas as being compatible with (or superior to) the voter’s expectations. Failing that, they have to feel they can “trust” you more than the other guy.
Please (party) don’t waste any time or effort defending the what, 1-3% of the population (0.01% voting pop). It doesn’t sell. Hell, it doesn’t matter.
Especially in light of the displaced peoples of Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina, and the economic shock that its going to create — because of the energy implications and the massive amounts of displaced (unemployed) people.
I mean no disrespect to your family and friends dealing with atrocious bureaucracy in the legal immigration system. That’s a problem, and it needs to be addressed.
But raising it to a focal point of the Democrats would be quite a statement. With all of the crises caused or ignored by Republicans — Iraq, Terrorism, Deficits, Homeland Security, Energy, Katrina, Weakening of the Armed Forces, the lose of high wage jobs for low wage jobs, …
With all of that facing us, if the Democrats choose defending immigration, as important as that is, it only screams they are out of touch with 99% of Americans.
Yes, we need to play in the Immigration Debate. But rather than telling the American People what’s best for them, perhaps we should try to lay out a plan that honestly addresses the concerns people have, and deals honestly with immigration and security. Deliver, vs scold.
In that light, an “education” campaign highlighting the wonderful contributions of immigrants will most likely be received as the ‘elite’ lecturing the common-folk about how inadequate or greedy they are, and we need fresh immigrant blood to do our manual labor and/or tech jobs.
How about we try a campaign that reminds Americans we’re the toughest people on the planet and we can tackle any challenge? Even if that’s an exaggeration, at least it makes people feel good about the numerous challenges that await us as we clean up 6 years of misrule…
Your analysis is spot-on, tho. The Repubs without fail choose an issue where the populist urges conflict with the “live and let live” attitude of the Dems. They set us up to do the right thing (defend a principle), while smearing us and painting a false picture of us opposing “common concensus”.
Until we figure out a way to beat them at this game, we’ll never be the voters first choice. I don’t know the answer, but I seriously doubt its simply a matter of making the best of the cards the Republicans deal us.