Many eyes are focused towards the Iowa Caucuses are today, highlighting the Republican U.S. Presidential Nominees and the state of presidential campaigning. High on show. Low on substance.

For many paying attention to the way immigration policy is playing out in this election, recent focus has been on Mitt Romney, a GOP front runner in Iowa and nationally, and recent statements he made. He said that if he were president and the DREAM Act were to pass in Congress, he would veto it.

Enter the Democrat/Progressive words of shock and finger pointing. This is additional proof of how much the Republicans hate immigrants, especially non-criminal college students or potential soldiers for whatever invented global conflict comes next. This is additional proof as to why everyone who loves immigrants, especially Latinos who are the perpetual faces of immigration policy, need to support the Democratic Party and vote for Barack Obama. This is what the Democrats use the Iowa Caucuses for, to knock down potential GOP nominees. Mitt Romney has been especially targeted by the Democratic National Committee who have a website and numerous videos focusing on Romney’s flip-flopping in a number of policy areas.

But hold on and wait a minute. Is it just me or does it seem like the Democrats (as a party, not individually) only really started talking about the DREAM Act after it failed a procedural vote last year? If I remember correctly, there were only a handful of Democrats who were really pushing the DREAM Act, especially as a standalone measure. If I remember correctly, for a long time, the party line was Comprehensive Immigration Reform until New York Democrat Charles Schumer beat that biometric horse into the ground, allowing the DREAM Act to be presented as the “oh well” option. And if I remember correctly weren’t there some Democrats who voted against the DREAM Act in that procedural vote last year?

Of course, that was Congress and we are talking about what the President can do. After all Obama couldn’t sign a bill that wasn’t passed so we can’t blame him for the failure of the DREAM Act. Right?
And it seems that the discussions and mentions of what Obama could have done and can do: executive action, deferred action and prosecutorial discretion, have gone quiet as they take away from the get out the vote campaigns/money.

In the grand scheme of things, the Iowa Caucus is an example of everything that is wrong with the current electoral system in the United States. It’s glorified opinion polling and spin on steroids. But if we are going to pay attention anyway, let’s not do telenovela style gasps when Republicans say they are against specific immigration policy that doesn’t include moats, fences, deportation, detention, and death. Let’s not pretend that the Republicans have shown much nuance when it comes to separating the “good” immigrants from the “bad” ones. But let’s not pretend that the Democrats have played with the Latino and immigrant communities any nicer. That would really be dreaming.

And in direct response to what one of our readers, Sylvia, said she wanted to see more of here in 2012 – what can people do? What is the solution/alternative/answer? On a grander scale : the whole caucus is more of a circus. Doing a little bit of poking, statistically speaking the Iowa caucus doesn’t have a great track record of being a good measure of who will be the GOP nominee or even President. Additionally, turnout numbers tend to be low.

In terms of the political issues. I don’t tell people who to vote for. Hell, I don’t even tell people to vote. What I do tell people is to be honest in their analysis and to not be so short sighted in terms of looking at history. Just like it’s too simplistic to use this binary good vs bad immigrant narrative in terms of policy, it’s too easy to say Dems good, GOP bad when it comes to any election.