Political Pandering in American Politics

Only Pandering, Insincerity, and Political Expediency Do I See

By Scott Rohter, May 2012

Two months ago nearly all of the Republican candidates in the Primary were literally “one-upping” each other to sound tougher on illegal immigration… A border fence, NO amnesty for illegals, NO pathway to citizenship, mandatory use of E-Verify, and tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegals! All of these options were being touted by the candidates. About the only candidate who stood out like a sore thumb was Texas Governor Rick Perry with his soft styled illegal immigration policy of granting in-state college tuition benefits to illegal aliens in Texas. But even that little discontinuity was too much for most Republican voters across the country to bear!

Governor Perry’s position that it wasn’t possible to build a fence along our southern border sounded the death knell to any aspirations that he might have had to become our nation’s 45th President. It was a non-starter to most conservatives who want to regain control of our country’s future. And his soft-style Texas illegal immigration policy was the main reason that the TEA Party conservatives never really warmed up to him.

But as the campaign went on, more than just the tone of the rhetoric changed! Newt Gingrich started the shift in position with his soft on illegal immigration answers at the Florida Presidential debates and just prior to the Florida Primary. He said that we had to accommodate the millions of illegal aliens who are already living in the United States, because the Party of family values could not afford to be viewed as breaking up millions of families.

Newt said that we needed to create some sort of a “pathway to citizenship” for illegals who are already living here because it was not practical to expel all of them nor expect them all to return to Mexico. Newt Gingrich’s answers to these questions dealing with illegal immigration spoke to some kind of accommodation and normalization of the status of millions of illegal aliens already living in our country. That was one of the reasons that he didn’t fare so well with the voters either. But in his case there were plenty of other reasons too! Read on…

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