Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
“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?
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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.
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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.
Good fences make good neighbors.
once again, trump has set the opening bid and no one sees it. mexico has too much at stake to let this situation deteriorate further. what has mexico ever done to address the problem of illegals coming over the border? nothing. very soon, mexico will announce steps that it will take to stop the flow of illegals from their side of the border, i.e. mexico pays for the wall. I have not seen a single article today with this perspective, just a bunch of hysterical screaming.
Mexico needs us so much it’s ridiculous for them to think they can just ignore our desires and immigration laws and thumb their nose at us.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/after-nafta-cumulative-us-merchandise-trade-deficit-mexico-nears
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/11/15/remittances-to-latin-america-recover-but-not-to-mexico/
Essentially, we finance everything south of our border, toss in the illegal drug (Cartel) trade money (which financed the election of Enrique Peña Nieto as President of Mexico) and the situation is even more dramatic.
Yep, Nieto is a product of the drug cartels. Just like every leader in Mexico for the last 35 years. But it was U.S. policy that created this mess.
Yeah, everything in the world is America’s fault.
Mexico not only has done nothing to stop the flow, it encourages the flow: it hands out comic books to the illiterate who want to come here that explains how to get here and hide or get on welfare. It hands out consular ID cards. Mexico’s number one source of national income is the money illegals drain from our economy and send home-it represents even more money that oil or tourism. I would like to see a huge tax on the money going south. It’s time for the Mexicans to rise up and fix their own damn country instead of coming here and ruining ours.
Friendlyphil,
Mexico does address the problem of people illegally coming across the border. They are already planning on building a wall to address it. Only this wall is to keep those from Guatemala from coming into their country through their southern border.
What hypocrisy.
Blessings:-}
The largest import from the US to Mexico is the dollars sent to families in Mexico from family members in the US , many illegal ! There is the Wall funding pinch of the cash flow ! How do you get to wire money thru American bank systems when you are in the country illegally sounds like aiding in the commisson of a criminal act ! Just picture it all the bank CEO’s in orange jumpsuits and their assets seized ! One can dream LOL
If you look at the stock of Western Union, that will tell you what investors expect the value of that company is without the illegal remittances to Mexico. Trump is correct, turn the screws on Mexico, they WILL cave. They are in no position of negotiation on anything. Third world country. We cannot fix Mexico’s problems, Mexico must fix Mexico’s problems, and stop exporting them here.
America is so very generous – and many times, that generosity is not appreciated (not to mention not easily found in other countries).
No racism, bigotry, or irrationality in demanding the preserving of borders and the fortification of the vetting system. Try crossing illegally into North Korea and see what happens.
Trump is right.
For that matter, try crossing illegally into Canada.
The Wall says “We Ain’t Gonna Take This Shit Any More”.
Look at it this way: Your neighbor lets his dogs shit in your yard. You ask politely: “Please put up a fence, to keep your dogs on your property”. The neighbor says: “No, I don’t believe in fences.”
This is where we are with Mexico. Trump just told their president to suck his hairy, white, dick.
With the idea of a 20% tariff – the liberals say that the US citizens will pay for the wall, cause the tax will just increase prices. Wrong. Every company in Mexico that exports goods to the US will ‘shit a brick’. They will be all over the Mexican president – demanding relief. It’s going to be fun watching what happens.
No need to tax Mexican products, just tax non commercial private transfers of money to Mexico.
And that would, I think, be both Constitutional and possible through executive action (it’s transfer of our money out of the US to foreign countries, something that we tax when American citizens become expatriates and do it).
Anyone familiar with this?
http://thuglifer.com/la-gangs-coverting-rival-gang-members-into-area-rugs/
The wall cannot be built fast enough, or tall enough.
They’d be better off made into lampshades than rugs.
Human skin doesn’t wear well like animal skins do.
(of course, it’s probably a spoof, but if it isn’t wonder where I could buy one?)
As a Libertarian, I believe open borders are a great idea but only if ALL borders are open.
As an American (and a realist) I believe we should have closed borders and full co-operation with Canada and Mexico to provide assurance that criminals attempting to cross either in or out are identified and turned over to the proper authorities while legitimate travelers are passed through with as little delay as possible.
I asked my insurance agent.
Why did my auto insurance rate go up?
Insurance agent reply: We had to have increases due to growing number of ‘uninsured’ motorists.
Those illegals that drive with no insurance and we the people get stuck with the costs.
Ditto with healthcare costs in our rural clinics…..
In most countries around the world, get caught sneaking in, or be found to have snuck in, and you are imprisoned. Simple. Remember the three Americans hiking the Zagros mountains between Iraq and Iran who were apprehended by Iranian border patrol? They spent months in Evin prison before finally being repatriated.
I thought this was racist:
Its too bad Trump stole all the issues from the Democrats except global warming.
And that doesnt creat jobs.