It hardly seems like the sort of move any President would make right after losing the Senate and watching the opposition majority in the House go up even more.

But imagine the result if the President not only directs immigration reform by executive order, but goes farther than anyone thinks will happen.

Suppose, on top of that, the President directs some very tough words at those who criticize his executive order.

Here's a prediction. We will be reading about that precise event as Congress fails to act.

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In 1993, Prime Minister John Major used his unpopularity in Britain to force opponents to ratify the European Union.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter used his unpopularity in America to force Iran into releasing hostages and paying reparations.

President Obama may have a chance to use his losses in the Senate to force Iran to accept a nuclear agreement Iran does not like and Republicans hate.

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Republicans held a public meeting in California this week where they gathered absentee ballots to deliver to election offices.

A Republican held a private confrontation in Arizona with an Hispanic volunteer who was delivering a group of absentee ballots.

Guess which event has sparked conservatives around the country to a white hot fury.

The two events illustrate the expanded new conservative definition of voter fraud.

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As buildings smoldered and the dead were counted, policy makers knew who was behind it. The idea that a comic book villain in a cave on the other side of the world could have directed such destruction was hopelessly naive. Osama bin Laden could wait. They had to go after the one who sponsored him, who had to have sponsored him.

Saddam Hussein had to pay.

What they possessed in confidence, they lacked in evidence. They knew what they knew, but they couldn't prove it. America had to attack Iraq's dictatorship, but America had to be convinced. The convincing was done with manufactured evidence. They lied because they would not be able to convince us of what they knew was the truth.

It never crossed their minds that they were wrong.

Now a candidate for the United States Senate has revealed evidence that the deception was not a deception at all.

Joni Ernst (R-IA) has revealed new intelligence, unknown to ordinary citizens.

You have got to hear it.

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My conservative friend was, as usual, blunt. 

"Mr. Deming, do you find President Obama to be a man of his word who governs with integrity and without misdirection and outright lies?"

It seemed a shame to avoid such a direct question from such a good friend. So I invited him for a quiet stroll through the record.

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The Georgia state unemployment rate has jumped way up to 8.1 percent. That's according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in a routine list published on September 19, 2014. That's the highest unemployment rate in the nation. It's higher than Mississippi, which had been the state with the highest rate until they got bumped by Georgia.

Governor Nathan Deal hates being blamed for the highest unemployment in the nation. He suggests an alternate explanation. Maybe there is a conspiracy by the folks who put together unemplyment statistics.

It's hard to say just what conspiracy Governor Deal has in mind. He's only pointing out "some influence here that we don't know about." He seems a little indignant about it.

Except, uh-oh, his conspiracy theory was undermined by his own administration.

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Voting restrictions are needed to prevent voter fraud, that's all. That's how conservatives justify the new voting changes. But election stealing always happens in backrooms, away from voters. Ballot stuffing, changing total, are what will work for dishonest politicians. Fraud by voters involves too many people. It's too easy to get caught. The penalties are harsh. And it doesn't work. The backroom stuff is what works.

But conservatives keep insisting they just want to prevent fraud. Keeping large numbers of legitimate voters from voting is just the sad price that must be paid. It certainly isn't the reason for making voting harder. That's what they say... except when they slip up and say in public what they are really trying to do.

For example, this case in Georgia...

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They are scattered around St. Louis County, seeming at random. The reason these small police departments exist at all has very little to do with protecting the lives and property of citizens.

The open secret, the one never explored by media pundits, provides an explanation for the growing divide between police and the communities they patrol.

The reason they exist raises an important policy question.

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Fast decisions with little information, without thinking for more than a fraction of a moment, may have kept our most vulnerable ancestors alive. Our modern term for the process is "common sense."

The ability to think things through took us beyond immediate survival to a greater measure of security. Every major advance in human development, from technology to military defense to law, came from analysis. So did much of spirituality. Our relationship to each other could finally transcend personal survival.

Analysis when things don't yet matter is what prevents paralysis when they do. It allows for rapid response that is thought out. It often allows for intelligent, realistic, compassion.

When "common sense" leads to suspicion, fear, and unfounded accusation, it can bring us to the invasion of wrong countries with loss of life and tragic unanticipated danger. When it diminishes compassion, even for frightened children, it endangers the national soul.

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Long before he became President, Senator Richard Nixon went after Democrats. Each was a quisling, "holding a Ph.D. from Dean Acheson's Cowardly College of Communist Containment."

The cowardly containment rhetoric was more than bluster. It was the clarion call of true believers. We were at war, and there ought to be no limits. Conservatives were angry beyond words at the rejection of emotional impulse. The substitution of thoughtful strategy was infuriating.

Turning away from intellect during crisis is a predictable emotional response. But acting on rage can have unintended results.

Similarities of conservatives back then to conservatives today are striking. Containment, and the reactions to containment, are back.

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