"Hi, Andrea. It's Lou Dobbs ... I'd like you to come on the show."
And that's how my love/hate relationship with Lou Dobbs began.

Dobbs, of course, anchors a nightly show on CNN. But to me, his microphone - and how he uses it - makes Lou one of the most powerful men in America.

Every night, Dobbs talks to 800,000 Americans about issues I care deeply about, like how our current economic policy is failing most of us. That's why I love him.

Unfortunately, though, Lou has lately turned over much of his show to a segment called "Broken Borders." He angrily lectures guests about how our immigration policy is destroying America, giving them hardly a word in edgewise - even when they agree!

I ought to know. Heard of the bully pulpit? Well, Lou sits at the bully anchor desk. Despite the personal invitation, I was the fall gal for his nightly tirade.

His viewers followed his lead. By the time I had taken off my makeup, I had 30 angry e-mails accusing me of being an apologist for criminality. All I did was ask Lou to consider how middle-class Americans would benefit if immigrants weren't a permanent underclass of workers easily exploited by greedy employers. What I got were comments on everything from my viewpoints to my Spanish surname to my shirt.

The anger that Lou stirs up is understandable. Wages are stagnant for most of us. An analysis of census numbers released this week shows median household incomes have fallen by 5.9% in America from 2000 to last year. In the meantime, the profits of multinational corporations have skyrocketed.

But who is responsible? This is where Lou takes a wrong turn. He whips people into a frenzy misdirected toward those coming here in search of the American Dream, instead of aiming at those who have made the American Dream harder to attain for all.

Forget about "Broken Borders." How about "Broken Social Contract"?

Instead of video of illegal immigrants scaling border fences, let's see the top corrupt CEOs busting unions and reneging on pension deals. Next to the closeups of members of Congress voting on border security, let's see what they look like when they voted for the "free trade" agreements that created much of this crisis. Instead of Lou bullying immigration advocates, grill the Treasury secretary.

We cannot talk about immigration in a vacuum. Immigration policy is about trade, wages, labor and health care policy, not just cracking down on the poor people trying to come here. It's as much about the security of the American Dream as it is the security of our border. No, I'm not suggesting Lou has to be perfectly evenhanded - he is, after all, more commentator than journalist. But given the power he has to inspire the million Americans who watch him to have a real conversation about why we are where we are today, he has a responsibility to inspire more than frustration. He can create an empowered constituency of voters who will demand nothing less than a radical restructuring of Congress' priorities. He can transcend the rants and demagoguery.

And if Lou Dobbs is really that convinced that his viewers need a dumbed-down version of the story with an easy, made-for-TV villain, maybe it's time for him to get some e-mail of his own.

Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy