How come the Dems with a majority can’t pass the Dream Act?

http://tucsoncitizen.com/in-the-aggr...the-dream-act/

"How come the Dems with a majority can’t pass the Dream Act?
by Hugh Holub on Sep. 24, 2010

So the Senate Democrat effort to attach the Dream Act to a military authorization bill failed the other day. Killed by Republicans.

Of course Republicans argue that attaching the Dream Act to the military bill had nothing to do with the military bill. I would hope that Republicans never again try and attach some unrelated piece of legislation to a bill they support.

The fact that Republicans can act piously that they kept an unrelated issue off the bill makes me sick when you and I know they will do just what the Dems tried to do when it is the GOP’s interest. This double standard stuff just increases disgust with the whole political system.

Lets have no unrelated stuff added to legislation by either party. [1]

Then there’s the argument that the Dems were trying to salvage some credibility with Hispanic voters by trying to do something not really controversial to address a tiny part of the immigration issue…before the November elections.

Of course if you are the majority party and want to stay in office you should try and do something to help your voters out. I’ll bet the GOP would have stuck extension of the Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich on the bill if they could have gotten away with that.

Meanwhile a very excellent piece of legislation…the Dream Act…has been dumped in the gutter maybe to rise again next year…or maybe not. So sad for all the young people who would have benefited…and sad for the country because one cannot even deal with a small issue in the immigration debate without it becoming political fodder.

Whatever else Republicans think they are doing now, they are really alienating a whole lot of people in this country for the GOP’s short term goals. I predict that the GOP’s anti-immigrant posture in 2010 at both state level here in Arizona and nationally is really going to come back and bite them, turning the GOP into a fringe minority party full of xenophobic cranks.

What the Democrats really need to do right now is ask themselves, with a majority in the US Senate, how come you can’t pass any meaningful legislation? You’ve let the GOP minority run you into the ground…and you know darned well when the GOP gets control of the Senate, they will strip you of any ability to use the filibuster rules to stop the GOP from running rough shod over the tax code, regulations to protect consumers, and unleash our crooked bankers to rape and pillage the nation’s economy one more time.

While I can be peeved at the GOP…they are doing exactly what they think their voters want them to do.

What really peeves me is the Democrats are letting the GOP destroy the good ideas and goals of the Democratic Party and making being a Democrat next to worthless in America right now."

I think its because while Republicans are fairly united with similar ideologies, Democrats while under "one" party are fairly splintered with many different factions within. Some democrats do not like the Dream Act or have constituents who don't like it and so cannot vote yay on something that would cost them votes. They also know voting on Dream Act which is pretty controversial would cost them lots in midterms. I was really surprised when 56 Democrats voted yay during the DOD vote. If this was any year but election year, it would probably have been easier to pass it especially with the Arizona debacle.

Republicans however must know that they are alienating the largest growing voting bloc, the Latinos, by continuously blocking Dream Act and other immigration related bills. In my opinion, I think they just don't want to pass something like DA during a democrat held congress. After Lincoln emancipated African-Americans, they voted Republican for generations and after Democrats passed civil rights laws, black people voted Democrat for years and years. Still do I think. Maybe they would be more inclined to vote yay if they hold either the House or Senate.

one word: filibuster!

This, Super majorities are never good. Simply because the minority ends up having more power through the filibuster.

I thought super majorities could break all filibusters. If it weren't for freaking Massachusetts, democrats would probably break Republican filibuster easily, pass the Dream Act, so forth. Like they did with the Health Care Reform :P

We don't have enough seats to have a filibuster-proof Congress. 60 or more, and the Dems could have done virtually anything they wanted. Unfortunately, they don't, and they can't.

Two words: Blue Dog.

The Reps do anything they want with 40,50, and as sure as hell they will do as they please, without apology, should they ever reach 60.

A supermajority was never necessary to accomplish anything in the Senate. And the Democrats are to blame because they drove anyone moderate enough to vote with them out of office. It's Rahm's fault that we have the Blue Dogs who betray their leadership and party to represent Republican interests in their states. Then why the f*** even have them included in the caucus? Look at Specter -Republican who supported immigration reform, even though now he's a Democrat. He was part of the Republican leadership, and had he stayed a Rep, I'm sure he would have pulled several colleagues in line for reform.
Bennet - Republican who supported/supports (?) DREAM Act. Collins and Snowe, too. There were many others who've now left office who had common sense and compassion to get immigration reform done.

We and the country should not have had to come to this point had we not been betrayed by the seven Democrats who voted down DA last time.

the democratic party is a big tent party. meaning they're willing to let traitor democrats or blue dogs be in the democratic party so they could have more number of member in their party and because they're very open minded. in contrast, republican party is a small tent party. their extremism and their ignorance and close minded priciples drive moderates and blue dogs away from their party. there is a saying that should explain why democrats can't do shit even with a big majority. "democrats are pussies and republicans are assholes". its true. democrats aren't tough and they're wimps, they can't get shit done even when they have a good agenda. but republicans are assholes so they bully people around and yell at people and they always have their way even when what they're proposing and their arguments dont even make sense. look at how much shit they wanted got through during bush years (2 tax cuts, declaring 2 wars, etc.) when they didn't even have a big big majority and were in the minority the last 2 bush years.

Watchdogs and filibusters.