Politics By Cynicism

Regrettably, President Barack Obama took executive action Thursday to grant legal status to about 5 million illegal immigrants, thumbing his nose at the American people, who don't support such an action, and at Congress, which has yet to give him what he wants on the issue.

The move, in essence, ensured the last two years of his administration - with a Republican House and Senate in place - will be filled with rancor, bitterness and recriminations. It says he has no desire to work with the new Congress and will continue to go his own direction when he can find a way.

It's, frankly, a weak, cynical and cowardly way to govern.

Indeed, the White House put that cynicism on full display Thursday when it posted photographs of the previous 10 presidents and the encouraging statements they made about immigration on its website. Nowhere does it indicate each of those presidents was referring to legal immigration, and the actions the White House occupant took last night involved illegal immigration.

The decisions to grant work permits for millions and defer deportation for parents of U.S. citizens are actions Obama has repeatedly said he has no power to do, having stated that he is "no emperor" or "not a king" and that he must work with Congress to find a way forward on the issue.

"I do have an obligation to make sure that I am following some of the rules," he said in October 2010. "I can't simply ignore laws that are out there. I've got to work to make sure that they are changed."

But, by now, no one can be surprised the president took such a route, having taken similar go-it-alone executive actions on environmental policy, gay rights and various economic schemes.

Obama and other supporters - and even some Republicans - talk about the "broken system" of immigration, but what's broken is that people continue to flow into the country illegally. When they do, they're either ignored or the laws on the books aren't used to deport them.

Now, with work permits, Social Security numbers and photo IDs, the illegals - if they haven't already - are free to pursue jobs that otherwise could go to United States citizens, many of them the same impoverished citizens the president claims he most wants to help.

The executive order, like the Affordable Care Act before it (which Congress passed without reading it, with not a single Republican vote and with budget trickery), was signed even though it did not have the approval of a majority of the American people.

Only 38 percent support Obama's action, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken earlier this week, while 48 percent oppose it. Even among Hispanics, though the sample size was relatively small, only 43 percent said they approve of him acting alone, while 37 percent oppose the idea.

Even some Democrats are finding the actions difficult to swallow.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she had other plans and couldn't make a Wednesday White House dinner the president gave to brief 18 congressional Democrats on his plan.

Rep. Steve Lynch, D-Mass., a rare centrist in Obama's party, was not invited and does not approve.

"I can never support the president going around Congress, even when it's my own president," Lynch said. "That just sets a bad precedent. Would we be supporting George W. Bush going around us like this? I don't think so. It's the institutional relevance that's at stake here."

The far left Washington Post also seemed perplexed.

Obama's frustration with Congress, it said in an editorial, "doesn't grant the president license to tear up the Constitution."

Still and all, for the last few weeks, newspapers, the broadcast airwaves and the Internet have been filled with arguments about whether the president's action is illegal or can be nuanced to seem legal, but with the signature of his name to an executive order the president has made those arguments moot for the moment.

And whether Republicans in the new year try to undo what he has done with impeachment threats, lawsuits or funding sleight-of-hand remains to be seen. It's been mentioned by some, for instance, that Congress could defund the agency responsible for carrying out the president's immigration plans, but others say such a plan can't be done.

Whatever happens, the GOP is walking a fine line. Going full out against the executive order won't win many Hispanic votes in 2016 and will continue the media drumbeat to paint the party oppositional. But a tepid response may cause GOP voters to stay home in 2016, the way they did in 2012, and hand another presidential election to Democrats.

Obama, though, is walking an even finer line. His brand of cynical, arrogant, politically driven governance has become passé with all but the far left. With a stroke of his executive action pen on immigration, the game is up for him.

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