In a piece at Liberal Patriot John Halpin reproduces a graph illustrating some things that 80% of Americans believe in:
Examining a range of polling from the past few years and trying my best to use reputable polls and exclude ones by activist groups pushing questionable opinion data to defend their issue, I put together this table below showing the contours of what public agreement among eight in ten Americans looks like on basic tests of supporting or favoring various policies. This exercise does not include other areas of potential 80 percent consensus, such as desiring less divisive politics in America or viewing the economy as the most important priority—clearly things most people would like to see their government focus on.
and here’s the table:
I can’t honestly say that I support all of those but I do support the majority of the items with 80% support. In fairness I suspect that were one to change the phrasing or narrow some of those items extremely slightly they would garner less support.
It does bring up a question, however. Why don’t either of our major political parties support all of those measures? Here’s my guess. Their donors and activists don’t support them.
Nearly everyone, as noted, supports deporting illegals with a criminal record, but that’s not what we typically get in terms of policy. It gets broadened out to include other illegals or people here legally but the legality can be revoked, like the Afghan interpreters. Or look at the gun issue. When turned into policy it gets broadened into other restrictions.
So I dont think it is so much narrowing but the broadening, at least for some of these issues that make them unacceptable. In the case of the illegals I think the huge majority of Dems are OK with deporting criminals, assuming due process, but too many Republicans wont accept that.
As to the rest I think it’s a matter of special interests and tribalism with the term limits being a special case where politicians wont put limits on themselves. Sure, a few will talk loudly about it to get some votes but they do so knowing they are safe from it ever happening and fairly few who say they support term limits practice it.
Steve
I agree with you up to a point, Steve. I don’t think the federal government should conduct raids of ordinary businesses where they think that illegal immigrants work on the off chance that they’ll pick up a criminal. However, there’s a circumstance you may not have considered.
Imagine that ICE agents apprehend an illegal immigrants with a criminal record at his apartment. He’s living with his wife, two children, and his brother-in-law, none of whom are guilty of non-immigration-related crimes but all of whom are in the country illegally. Should they only deport the criminal or all of them?
Call these “opportunistic apprehensions”. I think all should be deported because it’s the law.
Sounds OK to me though I would probably say that if family has been here for a long time, say over 15 years, speak English and they are working and have been working all along I would be more inclined to let them stay or at least put them at the back of the list.
Steve
If that were the law I would have more sympathy with that point of view. That is not the law and the law should be enforced.
The reason we are unable to change the law is that the loudest, angriest voices on one side want no one to be deported ever and the loudest, angriest voices on the other want everyone here illegally to be deported immediately. So the law doesn’t change. Enforce the law.