GOP Rout May Not Deter Obama’s Amnesty

Joe Guzzardi
November 6, 2014
As seen in:
The Cagle Post

During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon urged the “great silent majority” to turn up at the polling place to cast their vote for him. That’s what happened Tuesday night when a higher than average number of voters for a mid-term election showed up to repudiate President Obama and his policies.

Imagine today’s stunned silent majority watching the evening news night after night for the last two years and seeing Obamacare, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, Central Americans flooding into the United States unchecked, ISIS and Ebola with occasional cut aways to Obama playing golf or lavishly vacationing, and it’s easy to imagine why they renounced Democrats aligned with the president.

Defeated candidates unsuccessfully tried to distance themselves from Obama. Races that pollsters had predicted would be tight weren’t close at all: Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, David Purdue in Georgia, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Corey Gardner in Colorado and Pat Roberts in Kansas. In Montana, Steve Daines became the state’s first Republican in 100 years to retake a Democratic-held Senate seat. With results still pending in Alaska, Virginia and a January Louisiana run off scheduled, Senate Republicans have picked up seven seats for a total of 52. In the House, the GOP added at least 12 seats and is set to reach or exceed the historic 246 achieved in 1946 during Harry S. Truman’s administration 60 years ago.

The GOP also showed strength in state gubernatorial elections. Candidates in Maryland, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Obama’s Illinois took control of governor’s seats that were previously held by Democrats

One of the consistently hot button domestic issues during the Obama administration has been immigration. Since his 2009 inauguration Obama has pushed amnesty for unlawful immigrants already living in the U.S. and expanding legal immigration from its existing one million annual total even though working and unemployed Americans would be harmed.

During an October Town Hall meeting, Obama said it would be political “suicide” for Republicans to reject his mass amnesty. But voters responded differently. Republicans who oppose Obama’s legalization earned victories nationwide. Tellingly, voters in deep blue Oregon defeated by a 2-1 margin a referendum that would have granted driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

Republicans said the election results should serve as a warning to President Obama, who has said he plans to take unilateral action to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants before December. Senator Jeff Sessions who ran unopposed said that the immediate emergency for the new majority will be to fight Obama’s disastrous planned amnesty actions.

But Hispanic lobbyists urged Obama not to let the election results deter him. Luis Gutierrez, the House’s leading amnesty advocate, promised that when the polls close at 9:00 PM, his conversations with the president about immigration reform will begin at 10:00.

Should Obama proclaim amnesty for millions of aliens despite voters overwhelming rejection of his immigration agenda, it would represent one of the most defiant acts in political history, but would also be consistent with what many see as his imperial government style.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1987. Contact him at [email protected].