Dems should heed opposition to immigration reform among working-class whites

While some conservative Republicans are itching to impeach the president due to his "wicked design" to undermine the constitution, others in the GOP worry that impeachment hearings centered on immigration reform could hurt the party's 2016 presidential nominee.
That's the view of Dennis Lennox, a columnist for our sister paper, The (Mount Pleasant) Morning Sun, who writes that President Obama's executive order could backfire with the white, working-class -- a bloc that is shrinking by the day within the Democratic Party. 

Here's a bit of Lennox's perspective:
"...The party is still heavily reliant on blue-collar workers and card-carrying trade union members, who have the greatest risk of being displaced by now-legalized illegal immigrants. Think the I-75 corridor from West Branch to Wayne County as well as Macomb County, home of the mostly white, blue-collar, ticket-splitters once known as Reagan Democrats.
"A good example of the political risk is Oregon, where Democrats reliably win. Notwithstanding Republican woes in the Beaver State, it was a statewide vote on a ballot question that proved to be one of the more interesting campaigns in the election earlier this month.


"Had it passed, illegal immigrants would have received a degree of legalization in the form of state-issued driver’s licenses. Not only did the referendum fail, but the results weren’t even close, with 66 percent of voters casting a ‘no.’ The only place it passed was in and around Portland, where gentry liberals far outnumber white, working-class voters. 
"By comparison, the A-list Republican U.S. Senate
candidate received just 37 percent of the vote. This means there is a real opportunity for Republicans, if they can reach common agreement on not only a response to Obama’s executive action but also the political strategy for making their case.