We will never forget these tears.
December 18, 2010
In a day that should’ve been a day of progress and celebration with the passage of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a dark cloud taints it with the DREAM Act being denied to our youth by a 55 “Yes” to 41 “No” vote (a total of 60 were needed). The DREAM Act failed to muster the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture to avoid a fillibuster, which  has now alarmingly become the norm for any piece of legislation to pass the Senate, courtesy of obstructionist conservative politicians in Congress. Today I hug all those DREAM’ers and I’m crying with you. The white priviledged got their Christmas wishes, but I guess brown people don’t deserve a Christmas huh?
Asides from the Republicans blocking the DREAM, here’s how some key Senators voted:
Coward Democrats who voted “no”: Nelson (NE), Baucus (MT), Tester (MT), Pryor (AR), Hagan (NC).
Democrats who voted “yes” who need special thanks because it was a difficult vote for them: McCaskill, Conrad, Dorgan, Webb; and a very special mention to Senator Wyden who postponed pre-surgical tests due to prostate cancer just so he could vote in support of the DREAM; God bless him!
Abstained from voting: Bunning (R-KY), Gregg (R-NH), Hatch (R-UT), and Manchin (D-WV).
Republicans who voted yes and also deserve a thank you for their bravery: Bennett (UT), Lugar (IN), and Murkowski (Alaska).
Here’s the complete list of how all Senators voted.
Let’s not kid ourselves: the DREAM Act was always a long shot, but look how far we got in the face of criticism, apathy, selfishness, shortsightedness, and sometimes bigotry from both the left and the right. For the first time in its history, the DREAM passed in the House of Representatives and was a measly 5 votes away from actually overcoming a damn fillibuster!
The defeat still stings nevertheless and it breaks our hearts to see our youth hurt by this, so we got something to say to Obama: Mr. President, our DREAM was denied. What are you going to do about it? You do know you have the executive power to put a moratorium on draconian deportations that have actually gone through the roof under your watch right? I’m talking about those carried out under such flawed programs as the 287-g law that affect those that have not committed serious crimes; I’m also talking about halting deportations of DREAM’ers as well, of course. It’s the least that you could do in light of our political system’s failure to pass some form of immigration reform and in light of your failed strategy that relied on appeasing racist Republicans first with massive deportations of our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins, and friends. It’s the least that you could do in light of your Secretary of Homeland Security bragging about how your administration has broken records in terms of deporting our people and breaking up our families.
Update: Republicans were lambasted on the Sunday talk shows recognizing that blocking the DREAM Act may have been one of the dumbest political moves that party has ever done.