This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

To many Republicans, America is no longer the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Especially if the country provides a sanctuary for immigrants.  So, the country would no longer be “white America.”

After all, some would say, immigrants are not Americans, so why welcome them?  And, of course, that omits a fact about this country – in various ways, all of us are immigrants.

The stunt in this blog headline refers to what a Member of Congress did who wants, above all else, to be Speaker of the U.S. House.  The member, Kevin McCarthy, managed to get out of Washington, D.C. to head to the southern border.

There, he railed against immigration and said Republicans in the House intend to impeach the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Mayorkas, to put a point on it, works for President Joe Biden, not for McCarthy.  But, no surprise here, McCarthy continues to identify issues that can inflame his base.

Here’s how Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman captured McCarthy’s stunt:

“If you are a member of Congress headed to the United States southern border, you will need a few things.  A camera crew, of course — if a politician preens on the border and no one records it, it makes no sound. Comfortable shoes are a must, since you might climb down to the shore of the Rio Grande to gaze determinedly into Mexico, and you don’t want to slip in your wingtips.

“Finally, you must purchase an appropriate shirt.  Ideally, it should be olive or khaki, and it’s best if it has tactical pockets.  If you think someone might say, ‘Who are you kidding with that shirt, Congressman?  Are you going to crawl through the brush in pursuit of cartel assassins?” don’t worry, no one will.’

“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s trip to the border on Tuesday was a reminder:  No stage outside of Washington is more regularly ascended by costumed congressmembers than the southern border.  But, unlike media events that bring useful attention to an issue, when politicians prance around at the border it makes actual reform less likely, not more.”

There is absolutely no reason, Waldman adds, that McCarthy couldn’t have made his announcement from a room in the U.S. Capitol.  But if he did that, he and the other Republican members who accompanied him wouldn’t get to put on their outfits, nod seriously as they listen to Border Patrol agents, and point meaningfully south.

The truth is that Republicans’ desire “To Do Something” about immigration is severely limited.  What they want more than anything else, Waldman says, is an issue they can use to anger and terrify their base, as they reliably do in almost every election.  And the fact that immigration largely failed to produce the results they hoped for in this year’s mid-terms, just as it did in 2020 and 2018, has not deterred them.

That solution to the country’s challenges with immigration would require a comprehensive bill that incorporated both parties’ priorities and reformed the immigration system for the better.  While details would be negotiated, it would almost certainly involve increased border security funding; stricter confirmation of workers’ legal status; a path to citizenship for “dreamers” brought to the United States as children and other undocumented immigrants here a long time; reform the guest worker program so people could come here temporarily to work then return to home countries; and increases in legal immigration.

More from Waldman:

“That kind of a deal would give Republicans what they want, give Democrats what they want and reduce the incentives for people to come here illegally.  The trouble is that Republicans know that if they agree to any kind of compromise, their base voters will revolt, just as they have before when immigration reform was attempted.

“So we’re left with border photo ops, inflammatory TV ads and lurid tales of immigrant crime.  That makes it harder for Republicans to join in a reform effort that involves anything other than building walls and cracking down, even if being ‘tough’ doesn’t solve the problem.”

So, my view is that Republicans are guilty of using immigration to inflame the base of right-wing members of their party.  Democrats are guilty of failing to propose workable alternatives to business as usual – and, if they did, Republicans at least would have to respond to something real. In the end, both parties share blame for failing to right the ship of i