The GOP problem? They created their own monster

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

In a particular corner of the American political landscape Republicans have every right to be upset. In that corner, tucked between their indignation and disbelief, his majesty Barack Obama did the unthinkable. He called their bluff.

After the President’s announcement that he’d sign an executive order temporarily delaying the deportation of up to 5 million undocumented persons, the GOP has been left to play a hand they never had. It’s a classic Republican miscalculation, born of their own hubris and distortion of reality.

The myth of the imperial Presidency

Here’s what went down: For years the GOP has been creating a story of the “imperial presidency.” The claim is that Barack Obama is arrogant and out of touch; that he’s abused his executive powers by issuing executive orders, ignoring congress and acting without their counsel. And he may have done all of those things, but that’s not the point. The point is that the GOP told this story, over and over, with such intensity that it became their reality. From base and grass roots to right-wing media, party militants and leadership all believed with fervent faith that Obama usurped the presidency and turned it into something akin to a monarchy.

That’s the Obama they challenged on immigration, the one in their heads. So when the President moved on immigration the reaction was predictable: they threatened to impeach, to sue, to stop him at every point they could.

Obama the tactician

But the Obama they encountered was not the one they expected. The President wasn’t acting from an imperial mind-set, he was calculating four or five moves into the future, gauging reactions. The GOP challenged his Majesty Obama, and they got a political tactician in response.

I understand that Latino voters, activists and leaders feel thrilled and queasy at the same time. They’re happy he took the step, and they wish it had been bigger. And I’m sure Obama and his huddled consultants figured the Latino reaction into their calculus. But the reality was different among Latinos, where Obama was a deporter in chief, where his main legacy was a string of broken promises. Among Latinos the question is why he didn’t act sooner, not if he overstepped the limits of his power. Obama’s gambit is that the Latino thrill outlasts the queasiness.

At this point Obama controls the immigration narrative. Anything the GOP does will be in reaction to Obama’s move. And so far Republicans have remained in character. They’re still riled at the arrogant President and instead of announcing a plan to enact immigration legislation, they’re threatening to impeach, sue and defund – because that’s what you do to a threat you create.

A predictable calculation

It wouldn’t surprise me to know that Obama the tactician saw this coming: there is no ground for impeachment, no high crime or misdemeanor to accuse him of; neither is there ground for a lawsuit, the executive acted within his power (There’s no law to prevent a suit, though. We live, after all, in a litigious society where the knee-jerk reaction to any perceived wrong is to raise a fist in defiance and proclaim “we’ll sue!” But such a thing won’t prevail, and the GOP knows it.); and there’s little to defund, aside from reducing Obama’s proposed border security  increase.

So that leaves all of us tapping our fingers on the table, staring at the Republicans in congress, waiting for them to do something. My advice to them is to scuttle the imperial Presidency story and get to work.