Cantor Loses; Democrats Declare CIR Dead

At least that’s what I’ve been hearing from heavily involved Dem friends of mine and even Robert Reich. Me, on the other hand, thought CIR was dead when President Obama engaged in a policy of right-wing appeasement by breaking deportation records and supporting a very flawed and weak immigration reform bill which passed the US Senate. Republicans, including Cantor, made it quite clear that the House wouldn’t even consider S.744, and they have made it very clear that anything that looks like a path to citizenship is DOA. Toward the end of the campaign, Cantor reiterated his position. Did we Dems not get this?

So, where do we get that Cantor supported immigration reform? According to something PDiddie posted, Republicans aren’t blaming immigration for Cantor’s defeat. Even the xenophobic fake stats group-think-group (CIS) run by Krikorian doesn’t think so.

Truth be told, Cantor supported some sort of legal status for young immigrants but not their parents. And he was supportive of a status for foxhole fodder bill for immigrants who enlist in the military to get legal status. So, that, basically, made him pro-CIR? Well, according to the most bigoted in the Republican Party, apparently. At least that’s what the teabagger opponent was saying. I don’t get where CIR would pass if he had won and become Speaker, unless the Dems would have accepted an even weaker, more inhumane version of S.744. I’d hate to think that Dems would be supportive of that because it would seem they would just want to get rid of the issue once and for all, no matter how bad it is for immigrants. Nah–I don’t want to think that.

Frankly, I never thought of him as a voice of moderation on the issue–or, any issue. Republicans are just bad, awful people and they are willing to eat their own to double-down on their xenophobia. Cantor just showed weakness and was struck down in the prime of his political career–right-wing-nutty as it was. He won’t help pass immigration reform as a lame duck because he’s probably thinking he can be back in 2016–for something. Most other legislation is probably dead, too, not just CIR.

I’d rather laugh at his defeat, than live in some La-La-World that has me thinking he would have been a help on the issue. If anything, he was a hindrance. Of course, there’s the whole thing about he Obama administration locking up children in adult human warehouses.

There’s a lot more left to discuss, including executive actions and deportation reform. You know, if anyone wants to actually discuss.