Immigration Reform and Marco Rubio’s White Teeth

The Republicans have to finally started reckoning with immigrants, hipsters, single mothers and all that riff-raff.

At a time when the Democrats are considering who to count on when it comes to the 2016 elections — Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or maybe the charismatic Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts — the Republicans have to deal with a lot more serious problems. Firstly, no one can get nominated to run for election unless we come up with the same thing once again; namely, Mitt Romney, whom one has heard about quite a bit recently. This resurgence is mainly due to the documentary produced by Netflix, which belatedly shows that Romney could have made a great president after all. Secondly, regardless of the candidate, the party has long had problems regarding changing demographics and the more moderate wing of the party is becoming aware that there is no other choice left — they will have to win somebody over. How about the Latinos? Family oriented, undeniably religious and hard-working — they do not sin by propagating any liberal heresies. That is why some Republicans are taking immigration reform into consideration — or at least, they are pretending to do so — which, after all, can always get abandoned at the right moment. But how will they achieve it so that the Democrats and Obama do not reap all the rewards?

One should start by saying that not every immigrant is the same. There are those who are accepted by everyone; those who Silicon Valley — a place where fresh blood flowing and H-1B visas propel the American economy — would like to absorb. Yes, even the most hardened conservatives become sentimental when business comes into play. In the end, the American dream is for everyone, especially if they bring innovations. Secondly, there are those “innocent children” of illegal immigrants, taken into the country by someone else’s decision; in theory, the question of breaking the law does not apply to them. Here is where the skepticism of the Republicans starts to become tangible, and it is probably here that the dangerous dividing line within the GOP (Grand Old Party — the Republican party) goes: between the conservative camp (with such pillars as firearms, the Constitution, the free market) and the moderate camp (“So maybe we should take those children, shouldn’t we?”). Although, as the infamous “National Review Online” warns, those children are innocent and their guilt cannot be reduced in any way.

“So maybe we should take in those children from Africa or Asia only because it is not their fault that they were not born in the U.S.?” suggests the far right.

Currently, 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. Most of them were not attracted by Silicon Valley, but arrived there entirely of their own volition. This majority claims that they are not interested in citizenship — they would only like to work legally and pay taxes. But according to the Democrats, creating an island inhabited by 11 million half-legal residents is morally uncertain. Even though depriving these people of political representation will get back at the Democrats sooner or later. “Amnesty” for everyone, without strengthening the controls at borders and limiting the influx of newcomers (there are many ideas on how to do that, including building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico), is only a temporary solution to the problem. “And it will be an encouragement to those who follow in their footsteps!” shout Americans who think that immigrants steal their jobs right in front of them — but it is doubtful that any of these protesters would agree to work as a dishwasher for a rate lower than the minimum wage.

The problem seems to be too difficult to solve. So how are both parties going about it? Well, as for now, they prefer to deliberate upon this issue, at least for a while longer. Just in case. In any case, the Republicans managed to cool down and after a week of much noise in the media — after the annual GOP meeting in Maryland — the belated project faded out. Ann Coulter, who — as Chicago Tribune snidely remarks — is always right, called her colleagues to order. As much as the free market really matters, everything has its limits. Coulter has shown those who suffer from compassionate conservatism a report by an aged conservative activist, Phyllis Schlafly, which shows that immigrants will never vote for the GOP. It is because they are anti-American by nature. While as much as 81 percent of those born in the U.S. declare to be proud to be an American, only 50 percent of naturalized citizens share the same feeling.

On Thursday, Feb. 6, John Boehner, the current Republican speaker of the United States House of Representatives, explained that Republicans cannot carry out immigration reform under the Obama administration because they do not trust the president and his people. The reform has to be and will be carried out later, he claims. This is not the first time he has said this; he has always supported reform in theory, but never when it comes to actual voting. It is because he cannot do that, claim political veterans. Conservative representatives would fly into a fury, Boehner would lose his office and, after all, one does not simply do such things in a year when elections to the House and Senate take place.

Democrats do not have any chance of succeeding in taking over the Senate. No one will want to move their rump and go to the election, the people are still outraged about “Obamacare,” so why play with fire?

But one has to start playing with fire. Annually, about 55,000 young Latinos enter the voting age — they are the children of those who came here to clean villas in the vicinity of Washington or to set up shabby takeout restaurants. Ann Coulter has it right this time; those young Asians and Latinos do not find anything for themselves in the Republican rhetoric. Mainly they, hipsters, single mothers and other riff-raff, built the base of support that helped Obama rise in 2008 and also — despite everything — in 2012. However, even the political apathy of young America cannot put us back into the ‘50s.

The white teeth of Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a walking icon of Republican America, will not change much here.