So this was an election
where immigration was one of the "more hotly debated issues"? Last I
looked, this was an election about nothing more than the Republican
chant of "we're not Obama" and the Democratic response of "well, maybe
we're not either." For the 36% of eligible voters who bothered to
exercise their right to press a lever, push a button, or hang a chad,
this was a determination predicated on virtually no substantive debate.
And
if Mr. Douthat is so offended by the "Great Betrayal" was he equally
aggrieved when the Democrats held sway in both Houses and the Oval
Office but were thwarted time and again in effectuating policy that the
majority of this country appeared to favor? "Just say no" was no longer
a slogan of the war on drugs, but during the Obama years became the
Republican mantra to undermine every position that the party in "power"
attempted to effectuate.
The President, as even Mr. Douthat
admits, has the authority to move forward on an executive action that
is consistent with an immigration policy both humane and realistic. In
the Republican universe, we can make life less tolerable for 11 million
people living among us, but we are not going to deport them one by one
out of this country. In that world, we may contend we would be better
off without any of them, but that is merely a fiction.
Mr.
Douthat surely favored political maneuvering when it suited the purpose
of the party with whom he cast his lot. With Mr. Obama now flexing his
remaining muscle, there is the faux cry of outrage from the Republican
side of the aisle. Don't seem so shocked that the President would have
the audacity to stand up to his opposition and not merely cave to the
will (and the won't) of his adversaries. Mr. Obama is not betraying his
principles or those of his party, he is merely asserting them.
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