``Illegal Immigrants Could Not Buy Insurance on New ‘Exchange,’ White House Says..''
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Last night I was playing around looking at US maps of where the home districts were for the members of Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC)
Take a look at this map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Congressional_Progressive_Caucus.svg
For others who may not realize what they are looking at, the smallest dots represent the same number of voters as the largest areas. So the large appearing New Mexico district represents the same number of people as the little blip just east of the SF Bay. Barbara Lee (Oakland) and Ren R. Lujan (Santa Fe). The next near largest area is in the south region of the California Arizona Mexican border. On the Arizona side that's Raul Grijalva, CPC co-chair.
I think there are alot of interesting demographics to check. I have no way of knowing how accurate this is, but I think I can pretty much imagine what's going on in these districts. What it means is that SF-Oakland are not unique at all. The same or very similar kinds of political, economic, and social battles that also involve significant numbers of minority and immigrant popluations are going on all across the country---particularly in areas shown. Notice the two tiny dots in Texas (Dallas, Houston).
Because the population density is so high and the land area so small, you can't even see NYC districts. But they list six CPC members in the NYC area.
Why am I going in to this?
The `no-illegal immigrants provision' will get a very bad constituent reaction in all of these districts. If Lee is representative of the general demographic of many CPC members, then advocacy for immigrant rights and progressive immigrant reform helped put a lot of these members in office.
If they sign on that provision, they will certainly suffer back home. Immigrant rights groups here are highly politicized, well connected to the school systems, teachers, and what's left of public social services, including hospitals, nurses, OTs, PTs, etc.
So not only does Obama get suckier by the minute, he is alienating more and more constituents in the coalitions of his base.
In the past couple of weeks I've been trying to follow the internal politics of the Democrats and their relationship to Obama's policies and actions. The news media keep reporting polls that show O's decline in popularity. The implication is that somehow the middle-ground and so-called swing votes are leaving him. There's seems to be some general assumption that Obama has to keep moving right.
I think this conclusion depends on blaming the conservative Democrats. But I think this assumption is wrong. It's the liberal and progressive wing and their constituents who are in desertion mode.
Just start adding up the issues that Obama has turned into rightwing mush. Financial give away with no strings, while preaching austerity for the rest of us. The wars. No action to looking into or changing the wild abuses of power or blatant violations of civil and human rights...most of which are still going on. A cap and trade energy bill that gives away billions to the oil and coal industries and does nothing to slow climate change or clean up the environment.
BTW Senator Baucus is paring down the energy bill in the finance committee. What that means is the same inter-Demo war we are seeing in the healthcare debate will repeat itself when the energy bill comes out.
There is an education reform policy attached to the domestic stimulus package that sells out the teachers and forces states to comply with even worse provisions than NCLB.
Now we add an immigrant bashing provision to health insurance?
Maybe women's groups missed the little note about no federal money for abortion. I don't know the exactly legal statis of this. Is it a legislative provision or mere an exective branch policy provision. Somebody clear that up for me.
This is important because it is also part of the reason the US stopped paying UN dues, and stop making our contributions to UN agencies that support birth control, AIDs prevention, and women and children health clinics.
So if these anti-abortion provisions are merely executive branch policies, then Obama has just alienated most of the reproductive rights crowd.
I am going to stop. I have talked myself from disillustioned to loathing of the administration and way passed a mere cynicism.
CG
