Vermont sent Bernie Sanders to the U. S. Senate to end the war in Iraq—not to join Senate Republicans defeating immigration reform. What a Fourth of July slap in the face for America’s immigrant tradition!

Sanders chose to listen to his fringe ideological inner voices and thus voted to derail a delicate immigration compromise that had been put together by the responsible leaders of both parties. With Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as their lead negotiator, most Democrats voted for the bill. But 75% of Senate Republicans opposed it, so that the procedural measure failed 46-53 (needing 60 votes to pass).

The bill would have added tough new measures to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants. It would also have ended the silly but politically fashionable charade of pretending that the millions of illegal immigrants now in the country will someday be sent home or will somehow be made to disappear. It included a formal guest worker program like those in European countries—nations that in general have much worse "immigration problems" than does the U.S.

Sen. Kennedy called the defeat of the bill "enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country." Vermont’s senior senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, voted in favor of the bill along with the majority of Democrats.

But Sen. Sanders voted No. He said the guest worker provisions would have driven down wages and benefits for U.S. workers by letting employers recruit lower-paid foreign guest workers.

"It makes no sense to me to have an immigration bill which, over a period of years, would bring millions of ‘guest workers’ into this country who are prepared to work for lower wages than American workers," he said.

By focusing on this narrow aspect of the proposed legislation, Sanders ignored the larger issue of forging a compromise solution to the immigration standoff. In doing so, he helped cement this Congress’ reputation of being unable to take constructive steps on any important issue of the day.

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Sanders will likely note that he was voting against President Bush on this issue. That’s always a good way to score points in Vermont politics. On the immigration issue, however, the President has been right on target. Undoubtedly because of his political upbringing in Texas, he understands the complexity of the immigration issue and knows that the simplified solutions posed by his conservative Republican friends simply won’t solve the problem. Bush deserves considerable credit for taking the high road on immigration legislation.

However, the President’s blunders in virtually every other area of governance, especially the war in Iraq, have meant that his political clout is at an all-time low. Therefore, he couldn’t get even a third of his own party’s Senators to vote with him on immigration.

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The failure of the immigration compromise also points to another factor at work—the inflammatory approach of so much of the national media.

Broadcasters and talk show hosts such as the single-issue rabble-rouser Lou Dobbs don’t so much discuss the issue as they exploit it for higher ratings. In the meantime, they seem to have convinced a large majority of Americans that they face a national disaster from illegal immigration. In a CBS survey last week, only 13% said they supported the immigration bill.

That popular perception made it easy for Sen. Bernie Sanders and all those Republicans to oppose a hard-fought, fair-minded solution on immigration.