We know that in this great nation not taking an action still says a lot about someone.
While it may not be apparently obvious, as we all learned in microeconomics, there is always the option of not doing anything at all.
And that can have tragic consequences.
Lost amid the late summer drama of the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane crash and the civil unrest in Ferguson, was the nation’s crisis on immigration.
Lest we need a reminder, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have trekked, rode or snuck into the United States under the impression they would not be deported if they made it to American soil.
Not withstanding the irony that a misreading of President Barack Obama’s own executive orders, signed in late June, led to this mess, the administration has been left stumbling over having to deal with a crisis on a very sensitive issue.
It could risk Obama’s rather tenuous standing with the Hispanic population.
That’s not the only issue.
Obama still seeks to maintain his standing among that community, first pledging executive action in June to help stem the tide of immigration.
To that effect, the president has found a solution in punting the issue until after the midterm elections. Republicans then look bad for supposedly not doing anything, when the real culprit is the Obama administration.
As I have said before, nobody is willing to work with an administration that decides it is fully within its power to rewrite the laws as established by Congress.
Of course the president has that authority, but it does nothing to ease tensions between opposing parties.
Nor is it good for interparty relations when the deplorable status quo continues to allow Democrats to continually play the race issue while failing to provide any sort of actual relief or solution to the problem.
Republicans in state governments have been forced to find their own solutions to the problem, with mixed results.
It is clear to me that Democrats simply wish to continue their eternal carrot-and-stick game to get minority turnout while keeping the real issues at bay in a never-ending cycle.
As long as this goal is tantalizingly almost within reach, the president seems content to play the part of Tom the Cat, leading Jerry around with a piece of cheese on a fishing pole while never actually giving it to him.
mjsu@indiana.edu
