"It makes you think people, like many of our political elite, really are not interested in controlling our border."
Well OF COURSE they don't want to control the border!
Democrats see, correctly, the demographic salvation that will propel them to quasi-permanent majority status as this century continues. So Democrats have no interest in REALLY closing the border. They just have to throw some red meat to their dwindling private-sector labor union base (note that illegal immigrants don't compete with GOVERNMENT unionized workers, which is most unions now).
Republican business interests see cheap, exploitable labor that has no legal protections or access to the courts. They have to throw some red meat to BorderBot conservatives, but the GOP leaders do NOT want to offend the Republican moneymen.
Neither wants to close the border.
So it's not being closed.
When people are this angry, you have to sound like you're doing a lot without, however, really doing anything.
That's what I heard tonight.
What I don't know, yet, is whether BorderBots, having really be outright DEFEATED on their core issue, will care enough about the War on Terror, abortion, other social issues, and taxes to vote for Republicans this fall anyway, and preserve the Republican majority.
Right now, I'd say "No", but I'll be watching the polls to see what happens.
Unfortunately, all of the media polling agencies also want an open border (because they are virtually all Democratic in sympathy, and open borders eventually favor Democrats), so they may skew the results to give Bush a boost. What will the BorderBots do? That's the question.
My family are part of the honest law abiding businessmen in America...they firmly disagree with you.