Hullabaloo

Monday, June 18, 2012

 
Losing their sense of decency one young person at a time

by digby

Who says the congress has moved right? I certainly don't see any evidence of it. Well, maybe. Just a little:

Utah politicians accused President Barack Obama of pandering to Latino voters after he vowed Friday to block the deportation of young immigrants as long as they get an education or join the military.

This idea is modeled after the Dream Act, legislation that Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson once ardently supported but have since backed away from.

"The fact that the president would use children as an election-year ploy is offensive," said Hatch, who like many other Republicans also argued Obama’s new rule is an unauthorized expansion of power. "A policy issue like immigration needs to go through Congress."

Hatch, who is seeking a seventh term in November, first sponsored the Dream Act in 2001, and Matheson signed on as a co-sponsor in 2004. The idea has fallen out of favor since then with conservatives, and Hatch and Matheson opposed the measure in 2010 when it fell short in the Senate.

Hatch vocally opposed it then but missed the vote for family reasons.

"I just personally feel that it is brought up at this time for pure political purposes," Hatch said then, "and I resent that."

Matheson took a position similar to that of many Republicans.

"We are a nation of laws, and until we demonstrate that we can secure our borders and address our broken immigration system through comprehensive reform, I cannot support piecemeal measures no matter how well-intended," Matheson said at the time.

They are, quite simply, cowards who are afraid of the most retrograde members of our society --- their own voters. Both of these men know very well that we are talking about young Americans, people who were raised here, educated here and identify as American in the same way their kids and grandkids do. They know that. And yet they are willing to let them be deported.

They once had a conscience, or at least a modicum of decency. Now they have none. Therefore, we have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the congress has moved to the right.


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digby 6/18/2012 09:32:00 AM