There is an argument going on whether the President should take actions on immigration now or wait until after the midterms. Republicans are busy making the usual stink, threatening impeachment and there are some vulnerable Dems buying into the narrative that they will be punished along with the President for supporting bold moves on immigration.
I don't buy it and neither does someone who knows a lot more about what the Hispanic community wants, needs, and what changes will fire them up; Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a man who has long been fighting for those much needed changes.
So here's the thing. You know how we Dems are always saying that the teabaggers are fired up and reliably get out to vote? Well it's true according to the U.S. Census Bureau
But..
Another thing we're all tuned into is the absolute need to GOTV, and that is what it takes to win. With the ever changing demographics in our favor we can really help make that happen.
We have a huge demographic that we have not given enough attention to imo. The Hispanic community. And we shouldn't hold off
Question: "Do you see anything getting done before election day?"
Rep. Raúl Grijalva: "I would hope so. I think it's an important enough issue that some decisions regarding relief have to be made before the election.
The calculation that it will hurt certain Democratic candidates particularly in the senate; I think that die has been cast.
The people that are going to be against any form of reform; My colleague Peter King, Ted Cruz in the senate; a delay is not going to be any point of satisfaction to them - they're not for any relief.
And I think the President has raised expectations on the part of many people that support immigration reform and support humanitarian relief for many families in the country.
I think he needs to act before"
Rep. Grijalva speaks on ISIS to begin with (he has a measured approach - imo - but that is not the focus of this post today), then @ minute 2:53 speaks on the need to move now on immigration reform with executive actions as a means to get the work progressing forward.link to Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.): http://grijalva.house.gov/
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) another long time immigration reform fighter agrees
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Check out these numbers. This phased me
Here is the U.S. Census Bureau 2012 Statistical Abstract page: where the stats on the Hispanic turnout can be found :
Table 401. Reported Voting and Registration Among Native andNaturalized Citizens by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010 (pdf)
This is the page to checkout. Table 401(pdf - hover over lower right corner of page & choose full page or + to enlarge print)
Voter turnout/participation rate of Hispanics compared to the white voters: the group that would include the largest number of anti-immigration voters and also the so-called electoral "threat" being broadcast as the warning that Dems must heed - or else
But instead of buying into the threat, look at it another way; it is also where we Dems have a huge un-tapped advantage with the chance to correct a wrong- imo:
voter turnout
Most every analyst
(that's not me) on both sides of the aisle agree on one thing; that turnout is key. The general consensus is that for republicans, the lower the overall turn out during midterms, the better their prospects.
For Dems,especially during midterms, if there is some important ballot measure or some other cause* that fires people up, turnout increases and that favors Dems to win. Not merely a slight advantage, it could change outcomes across the land
Looking at this chart by the Census bureau, we Dems have a very sizable advantage in the amount of headroom or registered yet marginalized voters in the Hispanic community right now.
White voters: 47.2% of registered voters voted | 52.8% did not vote | approx half of registered voters did not turn out to vote
White voters + non-Hispanic: 48.8% of registered voters voted | 51.2% did not vote | again approx. half of registered voters did not turn out to vote
Hispanic voters: 29.2% of registered voters voted | 70.8% did not vote | within the Hispanic community, well over two times the number of registered voters did not turn out to vote
This is what disenfranchisement looks like. What republicans mean to happen with their
"true the vote" unconstitutional voter supression laws and intimidation tactics.
Something we can correct as a cause*. A cause that will fire up many people if we Dems make some noise and stand with our Hispanic brothers & sisters - imo
And these census numbers are a count of registered voters. According to both Reverend Dr. William Barber and Ben Jealous we have a huge number of unregistered voters just waiting for their chance to participate, a large percentage in the South - right in the heart of the GOP stronghold
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For those vulnerable Dems like Sens. Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), who are saying that Obama should not sidestep Congress when it comes to immigration.
Maybe they should reconsider as Mark Pryor himself has done on 'Obamacare' and it's working for him. The dire warnings on making any bold moves sounds a lot like another media hyped false alarm much like the Health care scare. One that provokes the same kind of timidity that will actually hurt Dems who shy away rather than fight forward
So that cause* could be immigration reform. Hammer it out. Ignore the naysayers: "but the republicans in congress won't move". Ignore those voices. We make immigration reform and support of the Presidents executive action proposals a top issue.
We have the numbers. Why wait on it?
And if the RWNJ GOP can't resi$t continuing their Impeachment fleecing scam threats because we Dems decide it's long past time to keep families together, they'll further marginalize themselves and we the people all win something good by doing something good - helping families live and grow up together
These kids who had not seen their moms in years got to see their mothers finally through the barrier of the border fence.
Rachel Maddow covered these Dream 9 activists (video):
Thx for stopping by :)
- time to turn in, be back tomorrow or later on today - that is
Some facts:
the House of Representatives’ recently refused to vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill, S. 744, passed by the Senate last summer. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that S. 744 would significantly reduce our nation’s deficit and spur economic growth.(September 4, 2014)
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An update (6:00 PM PST | Saturday/9/6/2014) from approx. an hour ago which will be airing on Sunday tomorrow:
When asked about the delay on immigration, the President points to the summer politics not the red state Dems.
“What I'm saying is that I'm going to act because it's the right thing for the country,” he said. “But it's going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we've done on unaccompanied children, and why it's necessary.”
“The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” Obama said in the interview, which will air on Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC. “I want to spend some time, even as we're getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we're doing this, why it's the right thing for the American people, why it's the right thing for the American economy.”
(short ad - sorry)
link:
http://www.nbcnews.com/...
Although Chuck Todd, (after the interview without the President present) pushes back preferring his own opinion on that.
So the shrieking, gun toting hysterics by the RWNJ's at the border and the chaos they created, and that includes the GOP, is what f'cked things up. That is my opinion of what the President is saying on that point.