House of Cards and Immigration

   This blog will tie in the current immigration reform developments that took place over the weekend with some pop culture/entertainment references.

   This last week I began watching a show called "House of Cards." The show is about a House Majority Whip that is an expert manipulator that uses his experience and finesse to postion himself as high up the political ladder as possible. The last few episodes have given me a new appreciation for the balancing act that many politicians have to strike. Ideas such as political capital were discussed. The main idea that I picked up was how much work goes into creating and passing an agenda.

   In the series, the agenda was education reform. In real-life, the agenda that we are looking at (and is a hot-button issue) is immigration reform. The series shows that much work goes into preparing a bill; not only as something suitable for the creator of the legislation but also passable in Congress. Recently, an immigration reform bill was leaked to the press and the GOP was extremely critical saying it is"dead on arrival." This was common in the show that I was watching and is being played out in real life.

   Another aspect of politics that we can see is in political capital. Political capital is the amount of leverage you have for the accomplishing of your entire agenda. In "House of Cards"the president and the main character attempt to pass education reform. They are successful but as they look to their next issue they approach it with caution. The president says "we spent a hell of a lot of capital on education, we can't afford another fight like that." I believe, as we discussed in class, that President Obama spent a lot of political capital on gun-control and backed off just in time to not waste it all when coming up to his main issue of immigration.

   The lesson that we can learn from the show and this week in politics is that you must be very careful when leaking information. He may have seriously hurt his plan simply by releasing it too early.

Immigration Reform (2-7-2013)

On Thursday, Raul Labrador (R- Idaho) released a statement basically saying that House Republicans will not vote for the proposed immigration reform that Democrats put forth. Democrats are seeking to pass a bill that provides a path to full citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants that are currently in the country.

The problem is that the Republicans hold the house and are saying that they absolutely will not vote for the bill. They state that they will "normalize" illegal immigrants' status (presumably reducing the fear of deportation for undocumented workers)  in this country but will not give full citizenship. The part that is tricky for Republicans is that Democrats are drawing a line in the sand and forcing Republicans to choose a side: compromise greatly or appear anti-immigrant and anti-minority in upcoming elections.

It seems like politics as usual. I feel that Republicans are in desperate need of finding a stance on immigration or they risk not winning another election. Hopefully something changes in their stance because it would be a shame if an issue like this put someone like Hillary Clinton into presidential office.