Friday Open Thread [11.21.14]

With the President’s action last night, he was able to simultaneously implement his party’s policy goals while dividing the opposition. That’s why Democrats have the advantage in this fight. Republicans will now go mad, from the conservative media to the conservative legislator. From Ted Cruz talking about Roman Dictators to Bill O’Rielly screaming at an undocumented journalist that he does not belong here to the actual bonafide racist Republicans in the House and Senate screaming about brown people and impeachment.

It was a brilliant moment in his Presidency. And the President delayed it from September because nervous fuck-wit coward congressional Democrats were a-scared of facing the voters with this policy. They are so fucking stupid they deserved to lose. This immigration makes Republicans forget to hide their bigotry and radicalness. It drives them absolutely insane, and they let the people see it.

Ron Klein:

“He’s daring Republicans to offer their sharpest reactions. Everything from government shutdowns to lawsuits to, yes, impeachment will be in the mix, with the driving consensus that the party needs to do something to register its extreme disapproval.”

“He’s daring them to offer and pass a different set of policies. The fact that the substance of the executive order won’t take effect for six months gives the new GOP majority in Congress another half year to do what Congress hasn’t been able to do over the decade immigration reform has been on the agenda.”

Jonathan Capehart:

Through a powerful and emotional address that was a forceful reminder of who we are as a nation and our values, President Obama declared his plan to bring an estimated five million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. […] Today, ‘la promesa de Obama’ will become ‘la accion de Obama.’ The Latino community will remember the courage it took to get here and the tears shed along the way for generations to come,” said Gabriela Domenzain, former director of Hispanic press for Obama for America. “While it’s a bittersweet moment since a permanent fix can only be delivered by Congress, Latino families will know the President’s bold first step sets us on a path to solve a problem many others haven’t even attempted to address.”

First Read notes it’s almost impossible to imagine what GOP-passed legislation might look like. Republicans couldn’t even agree on a political strategy to combat the president’s ‘constitutional overstep’ – the thing that unites them. How will they find common ground on an issue as complex, messy and demographically fraught as immigration reform?”

“There’s a danger here for the GOP if they get too focused on the process and ignore the policy challenge facing them. If they focus too much on tactics, it will quickly frustrate the public which clearly has less patience for gridlock than everyone in Washington realizes. Republicans would be in a very different place on this issue right now and on their criticism of the president’s action if they had ANY bill – even one that might not get presidential support — to show the public. But they don’t have ANY bill… not a singular one that is border security first. Nothing.”

Jeff Zeleny:

“President Obama’s executive order on immigration won’t ever become the law of the land, it can be reversed with the stroke of a pen by the 45th president. But how likely is it that he — or she — would actually do that? There will be pressure on every 2016 candidate to take a stand on whether they would repeal it and erase the protections afforded to up to 5 million people. Republicans know they are boxed in a bit of a corner. Taking something away from such a large swath of people — even while trying to improve their appeal to Hispanic voters — may be an impossible challenge. Will there be any GOP hopeful who says the president’s order should stand? It would be risky, but likely more realistic.”