Posted on 01/27/2017 5:38:30 AM PST by VitacoreVision
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall," wrote poet Robert Frost in the opening line of "Mending Walls."
And on the American left there is something like revulsion at the idea of the "beautiful wall" President Trump intends to build along the 1,900-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico.
The opposition's arguments are usually rooted in economics or practicality. The wall is unnecessary. It will not stop people from coming illegally. It costs too much.
Yet something deeper is afoot here. The idea of a permanent barrier between our countries goes to the heart of the divide between our two Americas on the most fundamental of questions.
Who are we? What is a nation? What does America stand for?
Those desperate to see the wall built, illegal immigration halted, and those here illegally deported, see the country they grew up in as dying, disappearing, with something strange and foreign taking its place.
It is not only that illegal migrants take jobs from Americans, that they commit crimes, or that so many require subsidized food, welfare, housing, education and health care. It is that they are changing our country. They are changing who we are.
Two decades ago, the Old Right and the neocons engaged in a ferocious debate over what America was and is.
Were we from the beginning a new, unique, separate and identifiable people like the British, French and Germans?
Or was America a new kind of nation, an ideological nation, an invented nation, united by an acceptance of the ideas and ideals of Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln and Dr. King?
The Old Right contended that America existed even before the Revolution, and that this new nation, this new people, wrote its own birth certificate, the Constitution. Before Washington, Madison and Hamilton ever went to Philadelphia, America existed.
What forced the premature birth of the nation — was the Revolution.
We did not become a new nation because we embraced Jefferson's notion about all men being "created equal." We became a new people from our familial break with the Mother Country, described in the declaration as a severing of ties with our "brethren" across the sea who no longer deserved our loyalty or love.
The United States came into being in 1789. The Constitution created the government, the state. But the country already existed.
When the Irish came in the mid-19th century to escape the famine and the Germans to escape Bismarck's Prussia, and the Italians, Jews, Poles, Greeks, Slovaks came to Ellis Island, they were foreigners who became citizens, and then, after a time, Americans.
Not until decades after the Great Migration of 1890-1920, with the common trials of the Depression, World War II and Cold War, were we truly forged again into one united nation and people.
By 1960, almost all of us shared the same heroes and holidays, spoke the same language and cherished the same culture.
What those with memories of that America see happening today is the disintegration of our nation of yesterday. The savagery of our politics, exemplified in the last election, testifies to how Americans are coming to detest one another as much as the Valley Forge generation came to detest the British from whom they broke free.
In 1960, we were a Western Christian country. Ninety percent of our people traced their roots to Europe. Ninety percent bore some connection to the Christian faith. To the tens of millions for whom Trump appeals, what the wall represents is our last chance to preserve that nation and people.
To many on the cosmopolitan left, ethnic or national identity is not only not worth fighting for, it is not even worth preserving. It is a form of atavistic tribalism or racism.
The Trump wall then touches on the great struggle of our age.
Given that 80 percent of all people of color vote Democratic, neither the Trump movement nor the Republican Party can survive the Third Worldization of the United States now written in the cards.
Moreover, with the disintegration of the nation we are seeing, and with talk of the breakup of states like Texas and secession of states like California, how do we survive as one nation and people?
Old Europe never knew mass immigration until the 20th century.
Now, across Europe, center-left and center-right parties are facing massive defections because they are perceived as incapable of coping with the existential threat of the age — the overrunning of the continent from Africa and the Middle East.
President Trump's wall is a statement to the world: This is our country. We decide who comes here. And we will defend our borders.
The crisis of our time is not that some Americans are saying this, but that so many are too paralyzed to say it, or do not care, or embrace what is happening to their country.
What would baseball be without walls? Outfielders would be chasing down a lot of loose balls.
Pat hits the nail on the head.
Good fences make for good neighbors.
They act like we are the only ones with a ‘wall’.
2 Barriers by region
2.1 Africa
2.1.1 Botswana
2.1.2 Egypt
2.1.3 Morocco
2.1.4 South Africa
2.2 Americas
2.2.1 United States
2.3 Asia
2.3.1 Afghanistan
2.3.2 Brunei
2.3.3 China (Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions)
2.3.4 China (Mainland)
2.3.5 India
2.3.6 Iran
2.3.7 Israel
2.3.8 Korea
2.3.9 Kuwait
2.3.10 Pakistan
2.3.11 Russia
2.3.12 Saudi Arabia
2.3.13 Thailand
2.3.14 Turkey
2.3.15 United Arab Emirates
2.3.16 Uzbekistan
2.4 Europe
2.4.1 Austria
2.4.2 Bulgaria
2.4.3 Estonia
2.4.4 France
2.4.5 Greece
2.4.6 Hungary
2.4.7 Latvia
2.4.8 Macedonia
2.4.9 Northern Ireland
2.4.10 Norway
2.4.11 Slovenia
2.4.12 Spain
2.4.13 Ukraine
The Great beautuful Wall of China is a popular place to visit. It was built to protect the Chinese people from raids from foreigners. The ugly kind if wall is the kind the East German communists had built in Berlin, which was meant to keep citizens from escapinng communism.
Those three sentences are not untrue as standalones. I don’t like how he gets there. I interpret the “wall” as just one component of Trump’s major purposes: a return to the rule of law, and the primacy of US interests in US foreign and domestic policy. 98% of Buchanan’s article gives the impression that the “wall” is the product of fear of foreigners swamping our dandy white civilization, and he thinks any such effort is doomed. “We will defend our borders” is language that fits the “clash of civilizations” concept B. has propounded for years. That feeds perfectly into the left’s view of a panicked right wing motivated by ignorance and xenophobia. I don’t desire to restore the rule of law because I hate foreigners or fear their cultures, nor do I think we are in a state of war with the world. It is merely an aspect of pursuing our interests, as every other nation and individual pursues theirs.
This might be the problem:
Opposition’s Arguments vs. “I Interpret” (Chewbarkah)
A few liberals on my FB page have been relentless with their crying about the “wall”. Last night I had to walk away from reading their reasons for the wall being a huge waste of tax payer money. I did jump in a few times, earlier in the evening, trying to set the record straight on why our country needs borders and yes, a wall, to protect our land and her citizens, but I swear, trying to reason with a liberal is like trying to get my stubborn bulldogs to move....big waste of time! lol
Syrian refugees are a health hazard to US by bringing flesh-eating leishmaniasis disease
22 Percent of Resettled Refugees in Minnesota Test Positive for Tuberculosis
More than one-third of refugees in Vermont test positive for tuberculosis
CDC Official Says 'Thousands' May Have Arrived in US With Zika
Measles outbreak traced back to inmate at Arizona immigrant detention facility
Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Remember in November ’18 !
Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.
Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist justices off of the bench.
Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.
Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.
Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed below.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphasis added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
It says “You Can’t Have My Lunch Money No More You Big Bullies.”
The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (2013)
Executive Summary
This report estimates the annual costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local level to be about $113 billion; nearly $29 billion at the federal level and $84 billion at the state and local level. The study also estimates tax collections from illegal alien workers, both those in the above-ground economy and those in the underground economy. Those receipts do not come close to the level of expenditures and, in any case, are misleading as an offset because over time unemployed and underemployed U.S. workers would replace illegal alien workers.
Very good points !
The crisis of our time is not that some Americans are saying this, but that so many are too paralyzed to say it, or do not care, or embrace what is happening to their country.
The last two lines say it all.
Respect, when not shown causes fences. Look at neighborhoods and the walls put in place. What kind of wall did the Obamas erect at their new home to keep people out. This certainly isn’t a new nor novel idea.
"The ACLU called the plan a 15th century solution to a nonexistent problem"
The ACLU also claims low levels of illegal immigration, and cites low numbers from Mexico as part of their talking points. They don't mention that people are pouring in from Guatemala for amnesty and that the illegal crossers we see now are far more criminal element than worker element and many are armed smugglers.
Libs are getting so obvious, the ACLU talking points were posted all over Facebook yesterday...with a lot of people calling them out on their nonsense.
Debating leftist is impossible because the issue is never the issue to them. The cause or revolution is the only issue that matters. It underlines everything they do, their modus operandi. The cause is to bring in more leftist voting immigrants to overwhelm the electoral system currently in place. To win elections with voter fraud. Always cut to the chase with them, after they fake shock and deny the accusation, (get caught being disingenuous), proceed to cut the patient open and remove the cancer. Or alternatively, you can just sit back and watch the cancer destroy the victim (Germany, Sweden).
Why don’t you just go to the link in post 23 and then link that to your FB friends ?
“but I swear, trying to reason with a liberal is like trying to get my stubborn bulldogs to move....big waste of time! lol”
AND here is why it is a big waste of time:
I know that intelligence gathering looks more romantic.... That’s probably why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond types of films. But in reality the main emphasis of the KGB is NOT in the area of intelligence at all. According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.
It’s a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages. The first one being “demoralization”. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism....
The result? The result you can see ... the people who graduated in the 60’s, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can’t get through to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior.
In other words [for] these people the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To rid society of these people you need another 15 or 20 years to educate a new generation of patriotically minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.
—YURI BEZMENOV
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