Presidential campaigns

Immigration is a largely debated topic with much of the country being affected. This debate seems to heat up during presidential races. This past race was no exception. John McCain took the typical republican view saying that immigration enforcement needs to be raised and border security needs to be heightened. While current President Obama also, suprisingly, supports immigration reform. Obama beleives we need to have better more secure border, create a new overall system for immigrants to enter legally, remove incentives to enter illegally, and work with Mexico to better improve their economic and social well-being. Although his immigration policy had little if not nothing at all to do with his election, Obama seemed to take the conservative road on this issue. Presidential campaigns in the past such as George W. Bush's re-election campaign had strong policies towards immigration. Because of increasing problems from Mexico in the southwest and the effects of the recent 9/11 attacks Americans greatly supported heightened security along the border, stricter requirements for becoming a citizen, and other policies that will improve the security of a weakened country. This shows how one issue, in this case immigration, can have a large and lasting impact on presidential races.

Conflicted Conservatism

Conflicted conservatism is when a person with mostly conservative views has liberal views as well. This can cause problems especially with those of higher office. It complicates the process of running for office because you do not have a specific party to support you. Conflicted conservatism is seen a lot when it comes to the issue of immigration. Immigration enforcement is seen today as more of a republican/conservative movement. This causes potential problems because someone who considers themselves a conservative may be pro immigration and encourage other conservatives to do so as well. These conflicted conservatives can have a large role in campaign races for both the republican and democratic parties. "The conflicted conservatives dictate normal campaign strategy for both parties." This is because representatives from each party do not know which way to lean in regards to an issue to receive the greatest amount of votes. Polling on this issue shows conflicted conservatism through supposed "biased media" polls. For example largely known as conservative FOX news may have a poll that should oppose immigration when in fact the results prove opposite. Although conflicted conseratism may cause problems, I find it somewhat refreshing because it shows someone can hold their own values and views on issues without having to commit to a specific party.

Should Stimson have focused on immigration?

Immigration is a very well known issue that has been around since the beginning of the country. Without immigration America would not be the same as we know it today. Stimson did not focus on immigration. This could be for many reasons. Though immigration has been around for a very long time the opinion of the public towards it has been relatively steady. Obviously, in the beginning almost everyone was an immigrant and encouraged friends and family to immigrate hear as well. Accordingly, public opinion greatly supported immigration. This trend continued for sometime until illegal immigration became a problem. When this occurred government began taking more action and the public began to realize the severity of the problem. Since then public opinion has gradually flipped to the majority opposing immigration and favoring heavier government action on illegal immigrants. I believe this would have been a good issue for Stimson to cover because it is easy to understand and it is a good example of how public opinion can go from one extreme to another over a long period of time.