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.
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