Harry Reid's Promise of DREAM Act Vote Must Be Stopped
Harry Reid's Promise of DREAM Act Vote Must Be Stopped
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivered a surprising blow to Republicans by edging out tea party backed Sharon Angle for the U.S. Senate seat that Reid has held since 1986.
In a race too close to call in pre-election polling, many are shocked by the defeat against the poster boy for the liberal elitist agenda that voters resoundingly rejected elsewhere at the polls.
Sen. Reid is attributing most of the victory to his ground game and infrastructure fueled in large part by the well-funded Get out the Vote organization, and also credits Hispanic voters for nudging him over the edge.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Sharon Angle escalated her stance on illegal immigration with an ad campaign that triggered cries of outrage from Hispanic leaders. Seizing the opportunity, Sen. Reid turned to Hispanic voters to save his election, promising in return a vote on the DREAM Act during the upcoming lameduck session of Congress.
The controversial DREAM Act is believed by many to be amnesty legislation giving undocumented youth living in America a path to citizenship. If passed the DREAM Act would reward illegal immigrants currently in the United States and potentially encourage further illegal immigration. This legislation could also limit the opportunities of American youth by taking away slots in universities and also make it more difficult to obtain tuition assistance.
The pandering paid off as a much higher than expected number of Hispanic voters came out to Nevada polls. According to exit-polls, Hispanics comprised 17 percent of Nevada turnout, 90 percent of which cast their vote for Sen. Harry Reid as he narrowly defeated Sharon Angle by 5 percentage points.
Sen. Reid is now obligated to put the DREAM Act before the House and get it passed before January, as it stands no chance of passage under the new Congress. In doing so he will purposefully ignite the progressive left and border advocacy groups into an untimely national debate about further comprehensive immigration reform. An escalation of this debate to center stage creates a no-win situation for Republicans while serving as a diversion for Democrats away from their unpopular taxing, spending, and Obamacare policies.
Republicans could take the stance of refusing to debate the legislation, but doing so after passage of the DREAM Act by the Dems would bring Hispanics down on top of Republicans and give misperceived ammunition to the liberal media that Republicans are the party of bigots.
Republicans could also enter into the debate for political show and then sabotage any passage of meaningful immigration legislation in the House. But this would be perceived as strategic avoidance making the issue that much more heated going into 2012. The next two years would see the elite media saturated with rhetoric of Republican disregard for Hispanic well-being and facilitation of a broken immigration system.
To avoid any firestorm from Hispanics or the left, Republicans would need to move to the center and compromise on the passage of immigration legislation similar to that of the McCain-Feingold bill. This would amount to political suicide for Republicans. The conservative base would turn on them and the independent voters who returned them to probationary power would see it as a failure to prioritize the issues to those of the American people.
Immigration reform is unquestionably needed, but taxes, spending, and jobs are the issues that favor Republicans and Americans. If Democrats are able to pass the DREAM Act before January and exploit the chink in Republican armor that Sen. Harry Reid discovered on Election Day, Democrats will not only hurt the Republican agenda, they will also hurt the agenda of Americans by effectively ending any semblance of bipartisanship needed to fix the economy.
The reality is that Republicans need to see the DREAM Act storm coming over the horizon and concentrate their efforts over the next two months to stop it and liberal legislation like it. Already since the elections ended, many left-wing Democrats are ignoring the message of the American people and calling for Congress to swiftly push liberal legislation like the DREAM Act through before Republicans officially control the House. For the good of Republicans and that of the American people, this needs to be stopped.
- J Michael Nelson
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