I heard it first from \u201cthe man who is so tired of being right about everything that he thinks no one should be allowed to have so much fun.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about Rush Limbaugh, who put an interesting twist on the Senate\u2019s \u201cImmigration Gang of Eight<\/a>\u201d proposal, just one day after it was released. \u00a0Limbaugh asserted that, as Republicans were taking a risk to support substantive immigration reform, President Obama and other Democrats would now hang the Republicans out to dry.\u00a0 He posited that the president views virtually every issue through a political lens, and thus he would sabotage enactment of the bill to deprive the Republicans of the political credit that they would rightfully gain from the passage of a comprehensive bill.<\/p>\n

The next morning (Wednesday, January 30, 2013), Mike Allen of Politico opened his daily brief with<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One of Washington’s top parlor games is whether President Obama “wants the accomplishment” or “wants the issue” on immigration: Does he really want to sign a bill? Or does he think that if Republicans are denied the cover that an ambitious immigration package would provide with Hispanics, the GOP could become a minority party for the foreseeable future?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bottom line<\/b><\/p>\n

The bottom line is that Republicans feel that President Obama is trying to make political hay out of an issue that clearly benefits millions of Americans. I am rather suspicious of this interpretation. First, it strikes me that what primarily separates Democrats from Republicans is that the Democrats have a much higher \u201cCare Quotient.\u201d They care more about the well-being of men and women who are out of work; more for the women who are facing the dilemma of a choice as to what to do with an unintended pregnancy; more for the children who go to school hungry and need mid-day nourishment to survive the day; more for college students who are anxious to learn, but whose college loan costs have become prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n

It is true that Democrats are aware of the political gains that they could accrue from Republican failures, but I don\u2019t think that they want punishment of needy Americans to be collateral damage from hurting the Republicans.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Republicans have frequently stated their clear position to undermine Democrats.\u00a0 The aforementioned Rush Limbaugh does it every weekday.\u00a0 More inside the Beltway, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in a 2010 interview with the National Journal\u2019s Major Garrett, candidly acknowledged<\/a> that he feels his \u201csingle most important<\/a>\u201d job was to defeat President Obama in 2012.<\/p>\n

Republicans didn\u2019t mind abandoning their support of a universal health care mandate if it deprived President Obama and the country of major health care reform.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth conjecturing whether Republicans are more comfortable being hypocritical in their policy positions because a large portion of their constituents don\u2019t find that to be a flaw.<\/p>\n

<\/b>Democrats, at least progressive ones, are often seen as \u201cwarm fuzzies,\u201d while many Republicans are viewed in the words of linguist George Lakoff as \u201cstern father figures.\u201d\u00a0 To the extent that this is true, it makes sense that the Democrats are less likely than Republicans to sabotage the interests of the American people for political gain.\u00a0 Until a comprehensive immigration bill is passed, you\u2019ll hear a lot of Republicans spouting what Rachel Maddow calls bullpuckey, saying that the only interest of Democrats regarding immigration reform is Machiavellian political gain. Give that about as much credence as Rachel would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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