Disappointed Democrat Will Still Vote for Obama, No Matter How Shoddy His Immigration Record
Say, Democrats who are bitterly disappointed in President Obama's immigration record, isn't a shame that you have to vote for him anyway in 2012? What's that, you don't have to? As the Huffington Post notes, don't tell the family of
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of President Barack Obama's most vocal critics on immigration, was sitting at dinner with his family a couple of weeks ago when his youngest daughter began talking about the president's "terrible" deportation record.
"If they invite us to the White House, I won't go," the 24-year-old said, according to Gutierrez.
His wife, though, summed up the family's mixed feelings on the president and immigration. "Yes—but you should clarify that notwithstanding that, we're all voting for him," his wife said, according to the congressman. "We can be angry, but we cannot vote for" Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Far be it from me to advocate voting for Romney, but story is still completely gross in that it demonstrates perfectly how political politics turns out to be.
Gutierrez threw his support to Obama in 2008, when many Democrats in Congress backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Four years later, Gutierrez said he wants Obama to win a second term and will help campaign for him. But he said he won't muzzle his criticism, no matter how much the campaign pushes.
"You just can't, otherwise it's you're the bullshitter again," Gutierrez said. "Like, 'Oh, don't you worry about all of those hundreds of thousands of children who don't have moms and dads, that isn't anything.' No, you have to. It is significant and important that a lot of people understand that we grasp that."
The Obama campaign has asked Gutierrez to tone down speeches calling out the president for deportations and immigration enforcement programs, a source with knowledge of the conversations told HuffPost. The Obama campaign declined to comment.
I guess props to Gutierrez for not shutting up about immigration, which clearly a big-deal issue for him. But his family's attitude of having to vote for the Democrat is such a perfect snapshot of all that is wrong with the two-party system. And while Obama's record on immigration is appalling, the Republicans continue to invoke Reagan for every issue except immigration reform and Mitt Romney is vaguely, but strongly opposed to measures like the DREAM act. There is no really pro-immigration candidate. But that's not a reason to pretend you have no choice when it comes to voting, especially if you're trying to send a message to the president.
Reason on immigration
