New York Times writer Frank Bruni wrote column today titled “Don’t Look Down” discussing the brinksmanship nature of our current political environment. He posits that we have grown accustomed to living near the edge and making changes only when truly forced.
Bruni explains, “As cliff dwellers we deal with nothing until the last possible minute and act in timid, impermanent ways, growing all too accustomed to indecision and a bit too inured to dread.” Click here to read his column.
From the financial meltdowns to debt ceiling debates, our government need to be forced to into real or perceived doomsday scenarios to actually act, and like a student who waits until the night before to finish his or her final project, the results aren’t always for the best.
The United States is on the brink of another “-mageddon, as Bruni puts it “ this time with immigration. Facing a tough re-election road and an impending SB1070 decision, we believe that President Obama addressed immigration in the “timid, impermanent” fashion that Bruni describes. The question that should be asked is: what would a healthy immigration debate look like if we had a President who was a commander-in-chief instead of a politician-in-chief?
Rather than rolling out the most politically popular aspect of immigration reform, amnesty for minors, a real commander-in-chief would propose a balanced plan. This plan, for instance, could include options such as mandating e-verify, eliminating the visa lottery, requiring birthright citizenship be confirmed only in cases where one parent is a United States Citizen, restoring pre-1965 family reunification policies, giving preference to nuclear families, and finally enforcing the laws on the books like Arizona’s SB 1070.
Unfortunately, this President, like Arizona’s former Governor, is more interested in pandering to the constituencies of the partisan Democratic primary voters than governing. Pandering that keeps us teetering on the edge and unable to act in a thoughtful manner.
It is far past the time when we should be seeing this type of leadership from this White House. We are hopeful, given the consensus building skills of Mr. Romney, that the American people will put President Obama in the ranks of former Presidents.
Obama has simply failed to lead this country away from the brink and it is time for a change.