By Tom Toth
Republicans have been gifted the opportunity to set themselves up for a landslide victory in the 2014 midterms, thanks exclusively to another one of Obama’s lawless pen and phone executive actions. Will the Republicans take their chance to go for the jugular and sweep the Democrats in the November elections?
As this is being written, phone lines on Capitol Hill have been overrun with livid voters, beside themselves and cynically unsurprised that Barack Obama is preparing yet another executive action that suspends the laws of the land.
This time, Obama is simply implementing an illegal immigration amnesty he’s petulantly demanded Congress enact since his election. According to reports, Obama’s executive order will suspend most deportations, grant legal status to millions presently here illegally, and excuse visa overstays. In essence, the Chief Executive of the United States, whose primary and sworn Constitutional purpose is to faithfully execute the law of the land, is once again refusing to do so, establishing fiat laws and removing those laws he doesn’t feel like enforcing.
For millions, this is a step too far. Regardless of any Republican’s opinion on immigration strategies, “comprehensive” or otherwise, Barack Obama’s plan for historic executive overreach should be met by nothing less than a full political assault fueled by the righteous indignation of every American who will stand up to the failed leadership in the White House. This President has told the world that, because he has lost the political and legislative fight on his immigration plan, he will take legislative power from the people’s representatives and do what he wants, the law be damned.
Of course, this isn’t a pure temper tantrum from the Oval Office — it is, as is the case for every word and decision that’s flowed from the most powerful office the world since 2009, a political calculation. During the last several weeks of fundraising and campaigning, Barack Obama has incessantly referenced Democrats’ habitual failure to vote in midterm elections. This particular decision on immigration is undoubtedly a desperate, “Hail Mary” attempt from the White House to stake the political capital of his party in a gamble on hoped-for excitement from the party’s leftist base.
It is nothing less than a callous attempt to create a voting bloc that will turn out en masse for Democrats, allowing the Party to hold the Senate and retake the House. Yet, history is not on their side. The trend against unpopular, lame duck incumbent Presidents in midterm election is undeniable. Barack Obama and the Democrats are desperate, and this move should be expected to come back to bite them — hard.
There are millions of principled, politically aware conservatives who often choose, for one reason or another, to not participate in every election. And, although turnout in support of Democrats is even worse than Republicans when there’s not a Presidential candidate on the ballot, the aforementioned conservatives remain non-automatic votes in the absence of a candidate or policy issue that warrants their political action. They voted, however, in 2010, when Obama and Democrats in both Congressional chambers force-fed the wildly unpopular Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) down the collective throats of the people, necessitating in the minds of Conservatives a massive grassroots response to curtail the historic government overreach being perpetuated by this radical community organizer in the White House.
The media, shocked at this unprecedented groundswell of everyday people deciding to vote conservative, called these people the “Tea Party.” Obama, ignoring the electoral lesson the American people gave his party in 2010, has chosen to give those same people — already furious about the crisis on the border and the administration’s lawless executive actions to date — a reason to reignite the passionate fight against the administration’s policies and its flagrant disregard for the law.
Republicans, then, need only take advantage. Some, for a myriad of reasons, remain apprehensive to pursue recently proposed structures of immigration reform efforts in Congress. Others are prepared and motivated to pursue a Conservative form of immigration reform that would strengthen the border and restore the rule of law. But regardless of their recent stances, Obama’s action has given the GOP a unifying purpose to get behind the American people, win a landslide election, and return to Washington with an electoral mandate rarely seen from a midterm election.
If Obama follows through with the executive orders as expected, Democrats and the White House will deny that immigration is the reason for the heavy Democrat losses — and they’ll be partially correct.
The United States, historically governed by the rule of law, will as a whole experience a referendum from those whom love this nation of laws in direct response to Obama’s lawlessness and put a functional end to his administration. Political associates beware.
Tom Toth is the digital content director for Americans for Limited Government.
