Governance Test

From IBD:
Posted 4/13/2006

Immigration: Can the Republicans get anything done? That's a fair question, and the party's performance on border security may be the make-or-break answer.

At this point, the GOP is exactly where the Democrats want it to be: divided and, to all appearances, paralyzed. For a party that holds the majority in both houses of Congress, this is a dangerous state to be in as elections approach.

The public has a right to expect that the governing party, in fact, govern. There are pressing national issues on which Congress needs to act. The breakdown in immigration law is certainly one of these. If the Republicans can't even agree on a policy, much less enact a law, they're not doing their job.

If they expect Democrats to help them out, they can forget it. They went that route in the Senate, and the Democratic leadership blocked a widely supported compromise after the AFL-CIO signaled disapproval of its guest-worker provision.
Last year in the House, Republicans realized they had made a mistake by including a provision branding all illegal aliens as felons, but the Democrats — seeking maximum political damage — refused to vote for an amendment removing that language. Bottom line: Whatever Republicans do, they'll have to do on their own.

That prospect isn't as grim as it sounds. Democrats and the media harp on GOP conflicts — between pro-immigrant business groups and hard-core restrictionists, open-border libertarians and the Minutemen, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Tom Tancredo. Yet the party's differences seem less irreconcilable when looked at closely.

It doesn't violate logic, for instance, to want tough border and work force enforcement while agreeing that it's not practical to deport the 11 million or so illegal immigrants now in the U.S. That's simply to say the laws should be realistic and respected. Most Americans seem to hold this view, and it makes perfect sense.

They clearly want the country to regain control over its borders. In one recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, 60% rate illegal immigration a "very serious" problem and 30% say it's "somewhat serious." At the same time, they accept the idea of letting most illegals stay here, if under terms short of amnesty.

In the same Fox News poll, 69% say they favor "allowing illegal immigrant workers who have jobs in the United States to apply for legal, temporary-worker status." Other surveys come up with similar results. A new Los Angeles Times poll shows 63% in favor of "tougher enforcement and a guest-worker plan."

Put another way, two-thirds of the public supports positions identified with Republicans. Even the House bill can be more asset than liability if GOP leaders ditch its red flags (they showed good sense in pledging to drop the felony status for illegals). In a glass-half-full view, Republicans have the makings of a policy that addresses a national need and is more credible, on basic matters of enforcement, than anything the Democrats are likely to support.

But you could say the glass is half empty, too. As long as the GOP doesn't unite behind a policy, no amount of good ideas will help. Republicans need to find common ground among themselves, not with the opposition. If they don't, they risk failing their governance test and suffering the consequences in November.