A couple days after Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform, I posted an entry entitled, "What's Next for America?" In the post I laid out a common sense approach to bipartisan consensus building on climate and energy, and warned against the divisive sparkle of immigration reform. While I do believe that immigration reform is a serious issue worth of serious attention, it will in all likelihood deepen political divides across the country and here in Washington.
Today, major papers are reporting that the White House is gearing up to make immigration reform their next big issue after financial reform, once again leaving energy and environmental legislation to the side.
While it's common knowledge in Washington that this issue can be used to split the Republican party as it tries to remain relevant to the fastest growing voter block in America, states like Arizona are perplexingly provoking democrats into what will most likely end up being a losing fight for the Republican party.
On another note, if you thought conservative anger was out of hand with the health care battle, wait until this fight comes to the hill. This will fan the flame of radical conservatism in America and will expose much of that tinder as race-based, but will either side be able to control the flame? The potential for this anger to get out of hand is a real and somewhat frightening unknown.
How long will Americans have to wait until they get real relief from the financial burdens of rising energy costs? How long will the business community have to wait until they can get a firm answer from the government on what market incubation measures will look like? These are problems that transcend political, geographic, and ethnic boundaries. Energy, environment, sustainability, and climate change are clearly not the answers to the question of what's next for America, and that is a real shame.
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