[Dallas News] The trouble with presenting oneself as a unity candidate is that, eventually, you will have to deliver something that looks unifying.
But as we review Beto O'Rourke's plan for overhauling the nation's immigration system, we struggle to find anything to support his claims toward unity.
O'Rourke
Robert O'Rourke - The Micksican
earned our recommendation for U.S. Senate because he set a political tone that promised to pull us away from the bitter partisanship too eagerly embraced by Sen. Ted Cruz.
The country has had enough of endless political warfare, and we were hopeful that O'Rourke might be a candidate with the kind of courage to lead us toward compromise and comity.
Along with Hillary, of course.
What we have seen of presidential candidate O'Rourke suggests that might not come to be.We find little true compromise on the major issues in O'Rourke's immigration reform plan. The nine-page memo is passionate in its defense of immigrants, unflinching in its attack on the border wall, and hazy in its alternatives for border security. While we understand O'Rourke must work to stand out among the packed bench of the primary, he has come this far on a platform that suggested a meeting in the middle that this major policy proposal belies.
Belies: editorialese for 'to give a false impression'
In his presidential immigration plan, we see the worst traits of O'Rourke's candidacy for Senate laid bare. In debates with Cruz, O'Rourke avoided specificity in favor of gestures of unity ‐ gestures that were never finally backed up with unifying policy.
All hat and no cattle?
His immigration plan departs from serious proposals Congress has grappled with that would see increased security as a trade-off for paths to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. His nod to security is to increase staffing and "modernize" our ports.
We applaud O'Rourke's compassionate stance toward people brought here as children, as well as his overall humanitarian approach to immigration. We wish it would more plainly acknowledge the need for security.
Security? On the southern border? When the Dallas homicide rate is nearly triple what it was a year ago?
Through his rhetoric, President Donald Trump has marked "the wall" as a battle line. But O'Rourke cannot dismiss the need for securing the border without alienating many of the Republicans he would claim to seek common ground with.
TW - what about ending a sentence with a preposition?
| I don’t actually have a problem with that in theory, Bobby dear — that’s one of those over-punctilious rules they came up with when certain people tried to force Latin grammar onto English instead of realizing they were dealing Germanic separable verbs. But in this case the entire sentence is awkward, containing as it does both without and with. Were I editing I would send it back to be rewritten. |
Compromise ain't on the table. Yet.