Clinton on Immigration: The Left Gets Something

When Hillary Clinton announced for president last month, I wrote "the left wants... something."

"And maybe Clinton can do that," I speculated. "Probably not on foreign policy, and maybe not on economics. Maybe, on social-cultural issues, she can find the right words, the right facet of the record, to persuade enough of the Democratic left to undercut the opposition."

Part of what the left wants, though they don't quite articulate it as such, is for Democrats to attack and challenge the Republican base.

And today, Hillary Clinton brought it.

“Now this is where I differ with everybody on the Republican side,” she said. “Make no mistakes. Today not a single Republican candidate - announced or potential - is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship. Not one.” 

“When they talk about ‘legal status’ that is code for second-class status,” she added. 

“I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship,” she said. “I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive action that would put dreamers with us today at risk of deportation. If congress refuses to act, as president I would do everything under the law to go even further.”

“We should put in place an accessible way for parents of DREAMers & others to be eligible for the same deferred action as their children.”

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 5, 2015

Parents of DREAMers is even more than Obama offered. And I don't see any of Obama's patronizing "learn English" qualifiers either.

This is a poke in the eye... no, that's too weak. This is a giant middle finger to the Stave King, Don't Make Me Press 1 For English, Mass Deportation rural Republican base. This is culture war. This will enrage the right, and launch infinite rants about The Dummycrats Packing The Voter Rolls With Illegals.

It's relatively safe, because it's supported by almost all Democrats, most independents, and the business wing of the Republicans. Only the Know-Nothings, with their disproportionate clout in Republican primaries, is opposed.

But the Democratic base will love it precisely because it will make Steve King and his ilk foam at the mouth, far more than the socialist musings of Bernie Sanders will. That's just economics. To the nativists, this is identity. The denunciations coming in 3... 2... 1...