Six years in, still lies and games rather than Hope and Change

It’s all about politics, of course. And aside from the damage done to our system of government, and the setback to civility, yet another predictable result is that it now becomes much less likely we can achieve the sort of national consensus that would lead to a bipartisan vote on permanent immigration reform policies.

Conservatives who support immigration reform in principle (and there are plenty of us) now have an even tougher time persuading fellow conservatives to support such policies. And this, one supposes, is part of Obama’s devious plan. A dirty secret is that many Democrats would prefer immigration reform not to be a muddy issue. Achieving bipartisan support for immigration reform doesn’t fit their agenda. Much better, they reason, to set up a Manichean paradigm, whereby Democrats are the party of immigrants – and Republicans are mere philistine “nativists” who want to deport hard-working families.

Six years into his presidency, and having promised to bring about “hope and change” the president is still playing games. His speech on Thursday night was terrific rhetoric, but who can believe him at this point? Whether it’s his broken promise that “if you like your plan you can keep it” or the recently revealed speeches of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber (who admitted passing ObamaCare necessitated deceiving “stupid” voters), many Americans are finally learning the lesson that there is a huge disconnect between Obama’s uplifting speeches and the policies he actually implements.