Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Democrats’ DACA dilemma

Image result for DACA images

Here we go again. Democrats are better at talking about DACA than actually fighting for DACA.
The Democrats will not fight for DACA this year, according to news reports:   
With a deadline of midnight Friday to pass spending legislation, dozens of Democrats had vowed to withhold support if Republicans refused to allow a vote on a measure, known as the Dream Act, that would allow roughly 1.2 million immigrants to stay legally in the United States.  
But a group of vulnerable Democratic senators facing reelection in conservative states next year aren’t willing to go that far — meaning the party is unlikely to muster the votes to block the spending bill.
“We’ve got to get it done, but I’m not drawing a line in the sand that it has to be this week versus two weeks from now,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who faces reelection next year in a state that Trump won by more than 18 points. 
Other Democrats facing similar head winds echoed that sentiment, including Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Trump won those states by 42 and 19 percentage points, respectively.
“Realidad amigo”, as they say in Spanish!   
It appears that Democrats will have to make a very tough political call in early 2018. Do we force the aforementioned Senators to fight for DACA or do we avoid that?
In 2010, the last time that the Dream Act failed in the U.S. Senate,  it went down because of Democrats like Max Baucus and John Tester of Montana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas voted “NO”.     
The Democrats have a dilemma: Do we take the Senate or do we please the base? It’s a tough call and senators in West Virginia, et al, are not looking forward to a DACA debate.
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