How not to solve problems: Congress, immigration and 'the game'

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

Cicero’s pompous indictment of Cataline has been used over and over since 63 BCE – until it itself may exhaust us.  But “how long will you abuse our patience?” is at least worth trying on for style points when it comes to the current US Congress.

Few issues better illustrate the willingness to throw over governing in favor of the “game” of politics than the persistent problem, and now crisis, of immigration.

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump became so furiously frustrated with the refusal of the United States Congress to deal with any part of the problem, that he threatened to take things into his own hands. Trump was certainly correct about this – it is a Congressional problem, firmly seated in the wellspring (as it were) of statutory solutions, and not an issue for the executive branch. He was also right to be frustrated, but he was not alone. On this issue, that frustration has been common to every presidency since the end of World War II, probably longer.

The context is not hard to see. There are at least two vast and complex elements in politics. The first is the process of getting people into office – via appointment, election or otherwise. The second is actually dispensing resources, pushing your agenda into law and acting to resolve difficulties of various kinds. This second array is generally called “governing.”

Problems arise, though, when the majority is not at all clear and the “game” – the struggle for the majority – veers into the (per force, static) governing arena.

And for the past two administrations, this is exactly what has happened. Both parties are jockeying into positions for the game while the nation waits. Immigration has served both parties politically – and neither wants it solved. It’s too rich in voters.

But on immigration there was hope, and it was from the right. Sen. James Lankford is not a compromiser, and he understands the “game.” He is no bleeding-heart idealist when it comes to immigration, either.

Lankford is a deeply pragmatic, America-first Republican senator from the red state of Oklahoma, and his conservative credentials are solid. But he’d gone to bat on immigration with an eye to actually trying to solve the issue. His tough stance on immigration helped to produce a bill, sharply negotiated with his Democratic colleagues, that would help the Congress give the executive the legal mechanics to close the border, boost deportation of non-deserving and unwanted immigrants and begin the long road back.

The bill the Senate produced was a compromise, as is all good policy. But it is, in many (many) ways, a very Republican bill.

The bill was destined to failure in the other chamber, though. The calendar of ridiculous nonsense we’ve been exposed to over the past few terms in the House of Representatives is far too extensive to go into here, and it shows no sign of abating. Failed impeachment indictments, silly bills, endless nattering on. All for perceived marginal gains in an election almost a year away.

The speaker announced that the bill was “dead on arrival” before even bothering to read it – if, indeed, he or anyone else in that august body ever did.

The Senate, unable to stir important support in the House, finally killed the border and immigration sections of the bill in disgust.

The crisis at the border is real. President Joe Biden has been pathetically slow to react (also for political reasons), and feeble, without the proper tools. But the Senate briefly overcame the inertia of the system, moved to act decisively, and once again, the door slammed shut.

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Whether the impetus for this stupefying failure came from within (as the speaker suggests) or from a political provocateur outside the House (as seems very possible), the abject subversion of the interests of the people to the politicking of a few scamming miscreants is plain.

How long must we wait? On this issue, our patience is gone.

R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger and political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: How long will Congress abuse the public's patience on immigration?