Last week’s debate among the Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination yielded more than just the normal press coverage of differences without much distinction. Hillary Clinton’s comments about New York Governor Spitzer’s plans to issue driver’s licenses to otherwise undocumented immigrants puts the illegal alien issue in play in a way that congressional and presidential collusion in 2004 prevented.
One of the more revealing facts that was highlighted after the debate (even though it was known before) was that eight of the hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 attack on this country held driver’s licenses even though they were here illegally. And this issue is not just about driving a car.
Making this an even larger political issue is the impact that a move like this might have on our electoral system. The National Voter Registration Act, known to most as “Motor Voter” legislation, mandates states to recognize a driver’s license as the sole proof of the right to vote. All it takes is the presentation of a license, without any other proof of citizenship, to create a new voter. In New York State that could, some observers say, bring an additional 500,000 voters to the polls. Not unimportant in a political sense is that this legislation was President Bill Clinton’s handiwork in 1993. He promoted it. He signed it. And he and Senator Clinton stand behind it.
No one’s run the numbers here in Connecticut, but the close elections would be a thing of the past since it is agreed that most of these new voters would pull the Democrat lever most of the time, if not all.
Why is this so important politically? Because most of the voters get it. It’s what was called most commonly in the 80s a wedge issue: one that might separate voters from their party to an extent that matters.
The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has been the lead commentator on this story, and he rightly points out that this could be an issue in the Presidential race that has an existing constituency which is already strongly opposed to it.
He stated: “New York State is one of the most liberal states in the country…. 75% of people in New York oppose Governor Spitzer’s plan to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses.”
William F. Buckley also chimes in on this issue, and in an article in the New York Sun reinforces the point that there has been a constant pressure, in places like California, to erode barriers that keep the benefits of democracyólike voting for a country’s citizensóalone. Most voters believe that these rights, of which voting is one, ought be extended to only those here legally. California’s Proposition 187 tested this question and voters expressed their strong preference for legal barriers to citizen’s rights be maintained, but the erosion of those barriers continues apace. This election though, just might be the one where citizens finally get to vote on this issue in clear-cut terms. Nationally. And ironically it might be Hillary Clinton, who last week just might have provided the catalyst whereby those rights-instead of being abridged by administrative fiat and incremental legislation-are mandated at the ballot box with the election of those who see it as a core issue of our democracy.
–nrg

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