“The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
“The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
In politics, this is a given. Divert, deflect, shift the topic from anything but the actual topic, at which point people line up on one side or the other—“A Wall or no Wall?”—that is the question.
By making the issue “The Wall,” instead of immigration reform, people don’t really have to think. Not that they would anyway, but, with a two-word symbol of love or hate, such as “The Wall,” you can dispense with knowledge, wisdom, and rational thought, and go straight to the meat of the issue. Meaning, my side vs yours. Or, my side is moral, your side isn’t.
The truth is more like, neither side is moral, at least as regards this simplified talking point since neither side has probably given any more thought to the issue, than can be gleaned by watching a one-sided debate on either MSNBC or FOX News. Then the political partisans sit, waiting for validation for the particular point of view, by voraciously watching and reading anything that might reinforce their opinion. They’ll likely laugh at the suggestion that walls work. “ha, ha, ha!” they’ll chortle, because everyone knows that walls don’t work. Except, maybe, Israel and The West Bank, which works damned well. Or, the wall between Morocco and Algeria. How about India and Pakistan? What about the wall between Turkey and Syria? Greece, Bangladesh, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia, are also building walls to protect against mass migration. And, lest we forget, the old wall between East and West Germany, which worked really, really well, for decades. Walls work. They always work best, however, when immigration rules are enforced, which they haven’t been in the U.S. for a long time, not really.
The real issue is immigration, specifically, illegal immigration. The U.S. takes in more legal immigrants than any other nation on earth, about 1.1 million a year. Another, 750,000 come illegally. There are currently between 50 and 60 million foreign-born people living in the U.S., about the same number of humans in the entire United Kingdom. The U.S. already has the 3rd largest population of humans on earth, behind India and China. Over the next 30 years, if things don’t change, our population will increase by 100 million more.
Where is the issue of overpopulation and global warming? In this instance, the question is an unwelcome family member, hidden like a hunchbacked relative, chained in the cellar until the guests leave and the party’s over.
Most of the people who come through our Southern border are poorer, less educated, cost more to educate, (about double for non-English speaking immigrants.) They’re more likely to use a range of government services, including “Free” healthcare, which isn’t really free, food stamps, section 8 housing, welfare, SSI, and they do so for longer than the indigenous population. And no, by “Indigenous” I don’t mean native Americans, who, by the way, weren’t really indigenous either, since they migrated, as well. In fact, some Europeans and Eurasians were here earlier, according to the latest scientific information. No less a mainstream authority than National Geographic has validated this, much to the chagrin of activist, who cling like leeches to whatever thread of information they find empowering. Personally, I think going back 10,000 years for validation is a stretch. But so is rewriting the human drama to make Europeans the villains of history, by ignoring any history that doesn’t fit a person’s political bias.
Here’s the real meat of the issue: immigration is about money, meaning, paying lower wages for unskilled labor, which increases profits for those big businesses who require lots of unskilled labor. This was true, 100 years ago, it’s still true. Immigration isn’t about kindness to strangers, and it never was.
By comparison, when immigrants were primarily White, no such benefits existed. There was no welfare state to speak of. So, if Whites are hateful bigots, they are mighty generous hateful bigots.
Today, New York and California are moving to give free college to illegal immigrants. In fact, if you’re considered a minority, even if your family has been here for a year, you are potentially eligible for special rights and benefits as a minority. Meaning, preferential treatment over the people who’ve been here for multiple generations.
All of these numbers, however, get manipulated by activists, frequently conflating legal and illegal immigration, is a common tactic, when it comes to crime numbers. Illegal immigrants are about 2 to 3% of the population, but, are about 40% of federal prisoners. About half of all federal prisoners are serving time for drug-related crimes.
Not so long ago, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Bill Clinton—when he was the president—all believed in walls, fences, and immigration reform, and they said so in very public speeches, most of which are preserved on YouTube for your perusal. They also said that illegal immigration was unfair to the poor, particularly African Americans, by repressing wages and taking entry-level jobs.
But that was then. This is now.
Now their tune has changed completely. Because politics is the business of power, not solutions. Certainly not about solutions for actual Americans. Politicians are about solving their problems, by pandering to their core constituents, the rich, the powerful so they can get elected, then stay elected, solving everyone’s problems, but The Peoples.
That is why discussions about “The Wall” are mostly silly, dumb, stupid, and self-serving, everything, but the real issue. That is off the table. And the tragic part is, almost no one even notices.
Mark Magula
In politics, this is a given. Divert, deflect, shift the topic from anything but the actual topic, at which point people line up on one side or the other—“A Wall or no Wall?”—that is the question.
By making the issue “The Wall,” instead of immigration reform, people don’t really have to think. Not that they would anyway, but, with a two-word symbol of love or hate, such as “The Wall,” you can dispense with knowledge, wisdom, and rational thought, and go straight to the meat of the issue. Meaning, my side vs yours. Or, my side is moral, your side isn’t.
The truth is more like, neither side is moral, at least as regards this simplified talking point since neither side has probably given any more thought to the issue, than can be gleaned by watching a one-sided debate on either MSNBC or FOX News. Then the political partisans sit, waiting for validation for the particular point of view, by voraciously watching and reading anything that might reinforce their opinion. They’ll likely laugh at the suggestion that walls work. “ha, ha, ha!” they’ll chortle, because everyone knows that walls don’t work. Except, maybe, Israel and The West Bank, which works damned well. Or, the wall between Morocco and Algeria. How about India and Pakistan? What about the wall between Turkey and Syria? Greece, Bangladesh, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia, are also building walls to protect against mass migration. And, lest we forget, the old wall between East and West Germany, which worked really, really well, for decades. Walls work. They always work best, however, when immigration rules are enforced, which they haven’t been in the U.S. for a long time, not really.
The real issue is immigration, specifically, illegal immigration. The U.S. takes in more legal immigrants than any other nation on earth, about 1.1 million a year. Another, 750,000 come illegally. There are currently between 50 and 60 million foreign-born people living in the U.S., about the same number of humans in the entire United Kingdom. The U.S. already has the 3rd largest population of humans on earth, behind India and China. Over the next 30 years, if things don’t change, our population will increase by 100 million more.
Where is the issue of overpopulation and global warming? In this instance, the question is an unwelcome family member, hidden like a hunchbacked relative, chained in the cellar until the guests leave and the party’s over.
Most of the people who come through our Southern border are poorer, less educated, cost more to educate, (about double for non-English speaking immigrants.) They’re more likely to use a range of government services, including “Free” healthcare, which isn’t really free, food stamps, section 8 housing, welfare, SSI, and they do so for longer than the indigenous population. And no, by “Indigenous” I don’t mean native Americans, who, by the way, weren’t really indigenous either, since they migrated, as well. In fact, some Europeans and Eurasians were here earlier, according to the latest scientific information. No less a mainstream authority than National Geographic has validated this, much to the chagrin of activist, who cling like leeches to whatever thread of information they find empowering. Personally, I think going back 10,000 years for validation is a stretch. But so is rewriting the human drama to make Europeans the villains of history, by ignoring any history that doesn’t fit a person’s political bias.
Here’s the real meat of the issue: immigration is about money, meaning, paying lower wages for unskilled labor, which increases profits for those big businesses who require lots of unskilled labor. This was true, 100 years ago, it’s still true. Immigration isn’t about kindness to strangers, and it never was.
By comparison, when immigrants were primarily White, no such benefits existed. There was no welfare state to speak of. So, if Whites are hateful bigots, they are mighty generous hateful bigots.
Today, New York and California are moving to give free college to illegal immigrants. In fact, if you’re considered a minority, even if your family has been here for a year, you are potentially eligible for special rights and benefits as a minority. Meaning, preferential treatment over the people who’ve been here for multiple generations.
All of these numbers, however, get manipulated by activists, frequently conflating legal and illegal immigration, is a common tactic, when it comes to crime numbers. Illegal immigrants are about 2 to 3% of the population, but, are about 40% of federal prisoners. About half of all federal prisoners are serving time for drug-related crimes.
Not so long ago, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Bill Clinton—when he was the president—all believed in walls, fences, and immigration reform, and they said so in very public speeches, most of which are preserved on YouTube for your perusal. They also said that illegal immigration was unfair to the poor, particularly African Americans, by repressing wages and taking entry-level jobs.
But that was then. This is now.
Now their tune has changed completely. Because politics is the business of power, not solutions. Certainly not about solutions for actual Americans. Politicians are about solving their problems, by pandering to their core constituents, the rich, the powerful so they can get elected, then stay elected, solving everyone’s problems, but The Peoples.
That is why discussions about “The Wall” are mostly silly, dumb, stupid, and self-serving, everything, but the real issue. That is off the table. And the tragic part is, almost no one even notices.
Mark Magula