The First Step Is Compromise

It still remains unclear whether the time for immigration reform has come. But after the Senate on Monday voted 67-27 to proceed on Republican Senators Bob Corker and John Hoeven’s amendment to the bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, a potential overhaul of American immigration law appears more likely to happen than any time in recent memory. The amended bill, which the Senate will probably vote on before the July Fourth recess, sets out a goal for 90% effectiveness at stopping undocumented immigrants from crossing the Mexican border; a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants already here illegally; and an electronic system to verify the legal authorization of new workers. This overhaul will only happen if the bill goes through the House of Representatives relatively unscathed. But that’s unlikely, as Oklahoma’s Republican Representative Tom Cole explained: “We have a minority of the [Republican] minority in the Senate voting for this bill…That’s not going to put a lot of pressure on the majority of the [Republican] majority in the House.”

Conservatives’ reluctance to even engage with the possibility of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants makes sense: a poll from National Journal found that 49% of Republican voters would be less likely to reelect a politician who supported a pathway to citizenship. But some Republicans, like South Carolina Senator and member of the Gang of Eight Lindsey Graham, have spoken to the importance of growing the GOP’s Hispanic base. If it is to escape a “demographic death spiral,” Graham argues that the GOP cannot afford to take the blame for the failure to pass the legislation.

And this is where the fate of immigration reform becomes particularly interesting. Graham, who was elected in 2003, enjoys a luxury that fellow Gang members–and Florida Senator Marco Rubio–do not. Rubio was elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave, so his disavowal of fiery Republican voters, who as Rubio himself recognizes will not throw “parades” for him, is a bigger deal. Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin pointed out that Rubio, by joining the Gang of Eight and seeking political compromise, risked what was seen as a likely 2016 presidential nomination. Indeed, Rubio has become the target of ads sponsored by voices on the right, and he’s getting boos from many of the Tea Partiers who elected him. Rubio may survive the next election cycle ,and he may still be seriously considered for the 2016 ticket, but reactions to his compromise with Senate Democrats are enough to clearly demonstrate what is at stake for Republican politicians who do not stick to the dominant party line.

As seen with Rubio’s example, compromise in Washington, D.C. has become politically dangerous in unprecedented ways. Earlier this month, NPR ran a piece on former Senator Frank Lautenberg, whose death marked the first time since WWII that a veteran of that war has not served in Congress. The correlation between today’s political turmoil and the lack of WWII vets in Congress is, of course, not causation. But as Lautenberg once pointed out, “The experience of sharing risk, of depending on someone else for your life, of being able to offer someone else support for their lives, changes the attitude.” In the late 1970s, more than four out of five members had served in a US war. Today, less than one out of five members of Congress are veterans. That statistic may not explain today’s political reality, but it is of note considering the troubles we currently face.

I’m not of the opinion that going to war is what it will take for our politicians to compromise. What seems clear, however, is that the impetus for American politicians to work across the aisle on legislation is diminishing. Voters will probably continue blaming the likes of Rubio for caving into the other side’s demands. But if today’s Americans want to see their country move in a particular political direction, they must first recognize that the American political system was designed to change slowly. And the first step in any direction, left, right or wherever, is compromise.