President Obama’s move to provide not only ipso facto amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants but work permits as well, signals that he has come to grips with the notion that he very well may not achieve re-election. It also signals that for the remainder of his tenure he will be pushing through as many Progressive and, essentially, ideological agenda items as he can. With hyper-partisans Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer in control of the Senate, the damage could be significant.
No one should be surprised that Mr. Obama acted – on a political level – to satisfy his 2008 campaign promise to do something in support of immigration reform. But his move to provide legal worker status to what some estimate to be 800,000 people is a provocative move, especially when the U-6 unemployment rate stands at 14.8 percent among legal US citizens. Further, with a solid 2-to-1 advantage among the Hispanic voter demographic, there really is no political advantage to the move sans, currying favor with politically Progressive big money donors.
There is also the very real possibility that this move will anger many naturalized American-Hispanics who came to the country through the legally established process, not to mention those of the same demographic who are currently unemployed or under-employed. Mr. Obama didn’t ingratiate himself to the socially Conservative American-Hispanic community with his embrace of gay marriage and his confrontation with the Catholic Church over the issue of religious freedom. So, there is a very real possibility that this is an attempt at damage control or at least minimizing the damage done to this voter demographic where his re-election is concerned.
The bigger side-effect of Mr. Obama’s decision to provide ipso facto amnesty and legal worker status will play out in the undecided and independent voter demographic, and especially the sub-group of voters that are unemployed or under-employed. Mr. Obama’s announcement laid heavily on emotions and “doing what is right”; social justice, and exhibited little regard for those who already possess citizenship and who are suffering the economy brought upon in large part by Mr. Obama’s economic policies. The bottom line here is that an infusion of 800,000 people into a workforce demographic that is experiencing not only a U-6 unemployment rate of 14.8 percent, but a downsizing of the actual number of jobs available, is a move that heaps more pain and uncertainty onto the unemployed and the economy.
Understanding all of this it is hard to say that Mr. Obama is exhibiting compassion for those in the Middle and Lower-Middle Classes who are desperately seeking employment while struggling to make ends meet (read: pay their mortgages, their household bills, buy food and clothing, the essentials). But those who have identified Mr. Obama and his crew as hardcore Progressive ideologues realize he is fulfilling his campaign promise of “change.” And this is why it is so incredibly important for the politically unengaged to take a crash course in Progressivism so that they can be educated about what drives Mr. Obama and his ilk, if in just a cursory manner.
Read More at gopusa.com. By Frank Salvato, GOPUSA.
Photo Credit: Dustin C. Oliver (Creative Commons)
