The US House of Representatives passed a law repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that lets young people here without documentation a path to citizenship.
The House vote would put 600,000 so-called DREAMers back in danger of deportation.
An amendment, passed on a 218-209 vote, denies federal money or use of fees to enroll young people in the DACA program, and would not allow those already enrolled to renew.
This isn’t really a national blog, but I’m writing about it because I’m heartened by Patty Murray’s response: calling the vote “something horrible” casts it in moral terms as opposed to just well let’s have a difference of agreement. This is an important moral issue, and it’s important to say so. It’s important to raise our voices that, you know what, this is a really dickish thing to propose. And if it’s for political reasons or for what they actually believe, it’s still immoral. It’s still horrible. And it’s still worth calling out with that language.
Elections have been morality tests for quite some time now. You know how moral your neighborhood is from the yard sign on his lawn. GOP = no morals.
@1,
Sure, but our elected officials on the D side rarely frame it in those terms.
If the much-more-dickish-than-last-term Senate passes it, Obama will veto it. One more thing for the Dems to talk about next year.
yup, Ds, by not telling short moral tales, simply fail to communicate.
here’s how you would add to the tale — point out it’s an anti family move, they will destory families for profit. see? unite it to a mainstream value, family, and make them not just wrong morally but for a really selfish reason. here’s why:
the more people at risk of deportation, the more part of the labor force is afraid and can’t speak up for anything, health and safety, union rights, wages, anything.
the result is cheap labor, weakening labor, now we segue to another D issue…..the fact wages are stagnant, another thing that unites aliens with citizens.
Ds too often explain the policy is merely “wrong” as a policy based on assumed liberal values of compassion. many don’t have that value as their first one, they see things and think in both liberal and conservative terms. we have to make the case to them. not just to liberals.