By David A. Franklin, Jr.
If we hit the memory recall button we would remember that:
• In 2010, then Senate Candidate Rubio came out in support of SB 1070 the Arizona’s “Papers Please Law" while not in favor of the Dream Act. Notably, previous to that time he had expressed “concerns” that the bill would “unreasonably single out people who were here illegally” echoing what his mentor Jeb Bush said. He is no different than Republican lawmakers who worry about risking primary challenges and the rage of a section of the conservative base if they don’t toe the extremist and hate-mongering line. What we are witnessing now is Rubio Version 2.0. The versions will continue to infinity.
• In 2011 Senator Rubio said he was opposed to the “Dream Act because it was a form of amnesty”. He further stated at the time that his family came to the United States legally and he believes that others should follow the law. This claim of how his family came to America is still in question especially since he had lied when he saw the opportunity to evoke sympathy with his claim that his parents fled Castro’s Cuba. This we will recall proved to be a lie since his parents first came to the United States in 1956, three years before the Cuban Revolution in 1956.
Let us give Senator Rubio the benefit of the doubt and let us accept that human beings evolve in their thinking and his hard-line on immigration has been genuinely softened. And let us also give him the point that Cubans cannot truly empathize with the hardships that the ‘real’ Latino population undergo. Rubio and his fellow countrymen benefit from the “Cuban Adjustment Act” of 1966 so he, et al benefitted and continue to benefit from being given a relatively easy shot at the American Dream. This is what many call the “Cuban Amnesty”. This affords in the past and up to the present day Cubans to become Legal Permanent Residents after only one year after entering the country and this courtesy is extended also to those Cubans who cross the Mexican border illegally. There is no “Mexican Adjustment Act” no “Dominican Adjustment Act” nor any “Venezuelan Adjustment Act” and so on so.
Where was the good Senator only months ago in 2012 when the Republican primary candidates and the candidate elect were self deporting, building electrified fence at the Mexican border and constructing a mote with alligators to keep out those who are trying to enter? Was the rising Republican star and 2016 Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio deaf or tongue tied?
He, like the GOP establishment is playing the danger game; the danger of losing the support of hard-line “Anti-Immigration Reformers”, who think that these undocumented immigrants will take jobs that should go to citizens especially with the current unemployment reality. And lest we forget, Rubio and others running in 2014 are cognizant of the danger and risk of being challenged in primaries.
Then there are the neo-conservatives in the persons of Bill Kristol (son of Irving Kristol, godfather of Neo-conservatism), Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and the ‘totem pole climber’ Ann Coulter who said “Rubio’s bill is nothing but amnesty…. a wolf in wolf’s clothing”.
Of course Rubio and his colleagues have considered and planned their escape route should they feel the wind is shifting directions and the bill is being dubbed amnesty. This is almost a certainty since there are those in the party who are dead set against Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This escape route is evidenced by his continued insistence that border security has to come first. Stop and consider ‘border security’. Who will decide that the border is fully secured? I haven’t heard an pragmatic and distinct method of determining this so am left to think that this condition will be dependent on the subjectivity and personal satisfaction of the Jan Brewers and Rick Perrys of this world!
Again, lest we forget in 2010, Rubio won only because the Senate race was split three ways between himself, Charlie Crist who ran as an independent having fallen from grace of conservatives because of his moderate views. Rubio was the favorite in the heyday of the ‘Tea Party’ and former Congressman Kendrick Meeks (D) took votes which would certainly otherwise have gone to Crist.
The Daily Caller reported in an article January 30 that Rubio is attempting to sell his Miami home and will move his family to Washington, D.C. He is fighting a fight of his political life by putting himself in the forefront on this immigration reform issue which represents for him and his party a drastic shift which is driven primarily by the massacre of the 2012 election results. There is a rift within the party on this hot-button issue. We note that as is expected when Republicans fear they might run afoul of their masters Rubio went and pay homage to the mighty Rush Limbaugh whose diet is venom and whose only target is his ego and revenue inflow.
The circus continues and America is on the frontline watching - some cheering, some booing and others just watching and musing what they know will be the sure outcome – civil war within the GOP and a ripping and tearing between factions of the party. Bitter war between moderates, and the right-wingers and the soon-to-be defunct, Tea Party. I would want to say “sit back, relax and enjoy” BUT there is nothing funny about persons not doing the job they are employed to do. Let the show continue, the employers (voters) will issue pink slips come 2014 and 2016 and I predict Rubio will be one such recipient.
And some food for thought. With the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the Rubio family’s entrance into the United States is he a ‘natural born citizen”? Were his parents citizens when he was born in 1971? Can he satisfy the constitutional requirement to be POTUS as it is obvious is his ambition? His own lie about his family’s entrance into the country casts a shadow of doubt.
Oh dear, am I becoming a ‘Birther”? Heaven forbid.
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