OK, so any number of right-wing voices are letting fly with True Patriot RhetoricTM describing the President's Executive Orders on immigration as "tyrannical", "a Constitutional crisis", and "dictatorship." Well, it is a day ending in "y", so this is to be expected to some degree; in this particular case, however, I found a rebuttal that is almost guaranteed to tie such folks in knots.
Follow me below the Great Orange Colophon to arm yourself (and your Facebook wall)...
The following comes to us via...Fox News.
I know, weird, right? This article appeared on Fox News Latino on November 19th, although it quickly disappeard from their front page. In fact, I even found it difficult to find with that site's search page; I had to (re)locate it with Google. Nonetheless, it's a FINE piece to offer those currently foaming about President Obama's "unconstitutional" actions on immigration. Here's the most bear-trap-laden section of the article:
The Supreme Court has recognized the president’s discretion over immigration law as well. In U.S. v. Arizona (2012), the high court ruled that Arizona’s SB 1070 law not only interfered with the federal government authority to act on immigration, it also interfered with the federal government’s authority not to act on immigration. As Fox News host Megyn Kelly once explained to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on air, "the president does have prosecutorial discretion when it comes to immigration, the Supreme Court made that clear as recently as 2012."
Legalities aside, executive action on immigration is nothing new. In October, the nonpartisan American Immigration Council released a report showing that presidents have taken executive action on immigration 39 times in the last 60 years – going at least as far back as President Eisenhower in 1956. Former Republican presidents Nixon, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush all took unilateral action on immigration. It was legal when they did it, and it will be legal when President Obama does it too. Actually, President Obama has already taken executive action on immigration; his 2009 decision to expand the Secure Communities program and his decision last summer to expedite the removals of child migrants were both unilateral immigration moves.
Imagine feeding this to the right-wingers in your Twitter feed or on your Facebook wall; the only possible rebuttals of even rhetorical substance are that:
* All those Republican Presidents were also tyrants/dictators/unconstitutional,
* The conservative-dominated Supreme Court doesn't understand the Constitution,
* Fox News is wrong, and/or
* Fox News is carrying water for President Obama.
By all means, have fun laying these bear traps in your social media outlets..I'll get the popcorn started.