Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
In the long run, history will validate Donald Trump’s stand on a border wall to defend the sovereignty and security of the United States.
Why? Because mass migration from the global South, not climate change, is the real existential crisis of the West.
The American people know this, and even the elites sense it.
Think not? Well, check out the leading liberal newspapers Thursday.
The Washington Post and The New York Times each had two front-page stories about the president’s battle with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on funding the border wall.
Inside the first section, the Post had more stories, including one describing walls in history from China’s Great Wall to the Berlin Wall to the Israeli West Bank wall to the wall separating Hungary from Serbia.
Inside the Times was a story on a new anti-immigration party, Vox, surging in Andalusia in Spain, and a story about African migrants being welcomed in Malta after being denied entry into Europe.
Another Times story related how the new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has pulled out of a U.N. pact on migration, declaring, “Brazil has a sovereign right to decide whether or not it accepts immigrants.”
Half the columns on the op-ed pages of the papers dealt with Trump, immigration and the wall. And there was nothing significant in either on the Democrats’ hot new issue, a Green New Deal.
Consider. In 1992, this writer’s presidential campaign had to fight to have inserted in the GOP platform a call for “structures” on the border.
Now, the whole Western world is worried about its borders as issues of immigration and identity convulse almost every country.
Looking ahead, does anyone think Americans in 2030 are going to be more concerned about the border between North Korea and South Korea, or Turkey and Syria, or Kuwait and Iraq, or Russia and Ukraine, than about the 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico?
Does anyone think Pelosi’s position that a wall is immoral will not be regarded as absurd?
America’s southern border is eventually going to be militarized and defended or the United States, as we have known it, is going to cease to exist. And Americans will not go gentle into that good night.
Whatever one may think of the face-off Tuesday with “Chuck and Nancy,” Trump’s portrait of an unsustainable border crisis is dead on: “In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 violent killings.”
The Democrats routine retort, that native-born Americans have a higher crime rate, will not suffice as new atrocities, like those Trump related, are reported and repeated before November 2020.
What should Trump do now? Act. He cannot lose this battle with Pelosi without demoralizing his people and imperiling his presidency.
Since FDR, we have had presidential government. And when U.S. presidents have been decisive activists, history has rewarded their actions.
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. On taking office, FDR declared a bank holiday. When Britain was barely hanging on in World War II, he swapped 50 destroyers for British bases. He ordered U.S. ships to chase down German submarines and lied about it. Truman fired General MacArthur.
Reagan fired the striking air controllers and ordered the military to occupy Grenada to stop Marxist thugs who had taken over in a coup from taking 500 U.S. medical students hostage.
Critics raged: Reagan had no right to invade. But the American people rewarded Reagan with a 49-state landslide.
Trump should declare a national emergency, shift funds out of the Pentagon, build his wall, open the government and charge Democrats with finding excuses not to secure our border because they have a demographic and ideological interest in changing the face of the nation.
For the larger the share of the U.S. population that requires welfare, the greater the need for more social workers, and the more voters there will be to vote to further grow the liberal welfare state.
The more multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual America becomes — the less it looks like Ronald Reagan’s America — the more dependably Democratic it will become.
The Democratic Party is hostile to white men, because the smaller the share of the U.S. population that white men become, the sooner that Democrats inherit the national estate.
The only way to greater “diversity,” the golden calf of the Democratic Party, is to increase the number of women, African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics, and thereby reduce the number of white men.
The decisive issues on which Trump was elected were not the old Republican litany of tax cuts, conservative judges and increased defense spending.
They were securing the borders, extricating America from foolish wars, eliminating trade deficits with NAFTA nations, the EU and China, making allies pay their fair share of the common defense, resurrecting our manufacturing base, and getting along with Russia.
“America First!” is still a winning hand.
I totally agree ! Then send the US military within foot steps of Mexico to enforce it.
Step 1 – Military on Border
Step 2 – Declare National Emergency
Step 3 – ???
Maybe I was wrong about Q anon.
Trump’s campaign platform was incredibly good.
Back it up Trump.
The legislation that was passed giving the president the right to declare an emergency didn’t define the term. It’s quite possible that a federal court – even the Supremes – could say that what we have isn’t an emergency, it’s just continuing normal shitty governance and normal criminality. That legislation also limits the president’s ability to order construction to the use of funds already allocated for military construction projects. There is reportedly very little of that. The courts might also declare that using military funds for something arguably totally separate from any military purpose contravenes that legislation. Construction could be delayed for years while it’s tied up in the courts, and the eventual ruling might not be favorable. I agree with Pat on the merits, but the strategy is riskier than it might seem. Better to continue with the shutdown until it really starts to bite and people tell congress “just give him the fucking money already”.
So let the Federal court enforce their order…….good luck with that. Republicans and constitutional conservatives win when we stick to our principles we lose when we don’t. Of course, the Dems will forum shop for a friendly Federal judge who will rule this unconstitutional……sure great, now enforce your ruling you feckless terrorist in a black robe.
Ignoring a federal judge’s order would guarantee a speedy and successful impeachment and removal, with probably every single Republican Senator voting in favor of the conviction. So no, that’s not a real option (unless you are a Dem or a Never Trumper).
It’s one thing (quite doable) to ignore a judge’s order to, say, turn over some document. You just tell him to fuck himself and don’t turn over the document. How’s he going to get it? It’s another thing entirely to expect the tens of thousands of people who would be involved with planning and building a major wall to do so while the stink of a freshly issued injunction is hanging in the air.
Then America is done. Finished. Then we are just looking away, and accepting excuses to do nothing.. The idea that a judge can stop the defense of the border is pure surrender. If that happens, screw it, lets get on with the demise, and face the truth about it.
People have been mentioning the Insurrection Act.
If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, he can have the judges emitting such rulings arrested, give them drum head trials, and hang them for sedition. The same for the Dem politicians in ‘sanctuary states/cities’ and elsewhere.
Ooh. Let’s do that. So sick of the “playing politics” the last 30-40 years. TCB, baby.
using “emergency powers” to enforce what is basically a campaign promise, is a trap, and if Trump takes the bait, it will probably fail in court, and be another nail in his political coffin.
Let’s hope saner heads can compromise, and maybe we get immigration reform (eg no welfare for trespassers), to take the incentive out of economic migration.
Esp on this issue … F the courts … the time for that is past. This Nation is hanging by a thread (and that may be e overly generous).
Boy that happened even more quickly than I would have expected (libs cracking and saying “just give him the fucking money”):
I didn’t see this post when I responded above about Cher, Iska.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking these are “normal” times. It is a 4th Turning and the current bloodless civil war is likely to go kinetic shortly. So that which would have been unthinkable in say 2005 is going to seem perfectly reasonable in 2019-2020 as we build a crescendo in 2025 or so. So the concept of what are normal bounds of behavior and action by national leadership needs to be re-calibrated for the existential crisis we are involved in. We are on “deaths ground” where the consequences of losing are extinction – for both sides. So expect no quarter, no de-escalation instead expect the worse and you still will likely be underestimating the shite storm we are in for.
That this country has devolved into the state of affairs, where marxists (that is what they are) are allowed to decide not to defend this country’s borders, is the problem, not the question of a wall. In fact the marxists are quite vocal about not defending this country’s borders, or real Americans.
You all know why they are doing everything they can to keep the borders open. You all know what the ultimate result will be. It is way past time to worry about “risky strategies”, and offending the people bent on destroying us.
Shut the border, and build the wall.
Cher is already telling Democrats to give Trump the money since government workers won’t get paid. Not that I care what Cher says, but Dems do.
The Pentagon looses trillions per year and fails their audit. I don’t think anyone would notice if another trillion got lost (for the wall).
I like national emergencies. It brings about open season on all crybabies and snowflakes. And if half of all governmnent stays permantly shutdown, it still wouldn’t be enough. A man without a government is like a fish without a bicycle.
Funny how much money it takes to put up a fence. The government is involved, a lesson for young voters they won’t hear or get. I say get military engineers going on this now.
We had concrete T Walls in Bagram, 12 ft high, movable, connected by multiple steel cables. They were good enough for the Army to keep them safe. I don’t understand why this wall costs so much.
Amazing that people still haven’t figured out that neither the GOP nor the DNC nor Trump himself actually want to do anything about the flood of the 3rd world into the US. Just like “Health Care,” if any of these assholes actually wanted to fix anything it would have been done already.
I thought everybody knew that.
I was having a conversation with a 2nd generation Italian man who had just returned from an extended trip to Italy to see family in a small town called Lucas(?). He shared with me the plight of these Italian natives who are having to cope with immigrants who are mostly criminals turned loose on them by the past Italian government. They addressed this issue with their local law reinforcement official. They were told that due to the inability to effectively police the vast number of these arrivals they were instructed to kill them and leave them for the wild animals to eat.
…..my only thought was….this might please the PETA people…or at least the coyotes.
Personally, I think he could do it… but does he really want to walk into that SCOTUS quagmire? Looks a little MarburyandMadisony to me.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/01/andrew-p-napolitano/can-the-president-alone-build-a-border-wall/
Me and Tampico have gone back and forth on this in the Uncanny article. He claimed I was smoking reefer. This was actually one of my options. I swear, paid pundits read TBP for ideers.
Yes Mr. Trump, declare a national emergency and BILL THAT WALL. If you do, you will go down in history as the President who saved America. And after building the wall, arrest all the traitors who have infiltrated Congress, the media, government agencies, the Fed, Wall Street, universities, Hollywood…and the list goes on and on. This will require another declaration of national emergency.
https://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall
Declaring a national emergency sounds like a good plan to me. And while you’re at it, how about arresting the many government criminals running around the U.S., especially in D.C.
Whether a wall gets built or not, the consideration of a president taking bold action to prevent something, or in response to an event, is compelling.
Calling for martial law preemptively would be problematic for the Man From Queens. As suggested by many above, his numerous enemies would spring into action at the chance to remove him from office for irrational or illegal behavior. However, if the timing is right, and it can be accomplished in conjunction with some emergency situation, then the wall gambit would easily be instituted without interference.
On second thought it sounds like too much planning. The Chuck and Nancy SHow. Russian meddling. More Mueller investigating. What a hassle.
If Trump really wants it to sail through the Congress all he has to do is propose that the Israelis would get their “foreign aid” when they complete their mission to build the wall on the U.S. Mexico border. Five billion ought to about cover it right? AIPAC would approve.
As a bonus treat, DJT could then send former presidente of Mexico, Vincente Fox, a gag bill for the project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4OwJOVi0ec
Even with that great mustache, he’d, fer shur, blow a gasket.
The phrase “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind while reading comments with such implicit total faith in the God-Emperor.