The Democrat and Republican parties gained their power by consequence of elected officials banding with one another. This is fine, but when we walked into polling stations in 2008 we chose to elect a representative, not a party.
However, many of these representatives act in a way that promotes the well-being of their party over their constituents.
For example, when debating the issue of immigration reform, there will be, no doubt, some Democrat House member or senator who will attempt to present his party as the undocumented immigrant’s only hope for reform. However, Republicans like George W. Bush, John McCain and others fought for such reform in 2007 at the expense of their own political standing.
It would seem, therefore, that those who wish to pass immigration reform should work with compromise in mind — empathy for the plight of immigrants lies on both sides of the political aisle. Yet casting one party as evil and one’s own as good works against compromise and bipartisanship.
What about those who decide their role in government is to fight for a supposedly higher cause, like political ideology?
We see this take on government as nothing less than egotistical and shortsighted. By dedicating a political term in office to solely liberal or conservative goals, a politician limits his hold on commonwealth.
Who has ever proved liberalism or conservatism to be without error? Who has proven that either is the only means to commonwealth? In fact, one could argue that history proves that both ideologies hold a little bit of truth and error.
Consequently, the public servants of our nation should seek out the truth in both ideologies and apply the good in them, hopefully, to solve our nation’s ills. This means elected representatives must hold the cause of their country higher than their ideology. Otherwise, blind loyalty to an ideology will keep an official or a congress from passing the best legislation for our country.
We see an example of this in many Republican responses to immigration reform. Due to the political climate of our country, any step toward reform means satisfying the needs of both ideologies. However, some Republicans immediately cast reform efforts as amnesty, something their political ideology is against.
Such a response demonstrates not only a lack of a compromising spirit, but it also shows a lack of common sense. Common sense tells us there is no way to humanely deport 14 million or so immigrants living in this country undocumented.
Meanwhile, states like California, Arizona and Texas must continue to pay for the cost of hosting these undocumented immigrants as Washington, D.C. fails to come up with a viable immigration overhaul.
There is one other reason that causes elected officials to act in a close-minded partisan fashion, and it is the lowest reason of them all — survival.
Some House and Senate members seem to believe their only reason for working in Washington is to find ways to stay even longer. In other words, these elected officials leech money, power and personal esteem out of the political system for their own selfish interests. Meanwhile, America must endure the high costs associated with our current immigration system.
This is despicable no matter what party or ideology an official claims to belong to. However, we would like to point out that such a motivation illustrates that an official cares for self over party, ideology and even country.
Thankfully, there is a bipartisan effort in Washington in response to current problems associated with illegal immigration. Spearheaded by Democrat Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, this effort seeks to satisfy the morals of one ideology and the beliefs in law of the other.
On their bipartisan effort, Graham said: “We’re not going to mass-deport people and put them in jail, nor should we. … But we need a system so they don’t get an advantage over others for citizenship.”
Well said, Sen. Graham. We hope that many Democrats and Republicans join you and Sen. Schumer in your effort to make immigration reform a reality.