EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 127

OBAMA’S BORDER

Governor Perry of Texas, whom I respect, said President Obama is either inept or has an ulterior goal. He may be inept but it is hard to tell when you are dealing with a president who does not govern by solving problems. There is no measuring stick. This president is very far outside the American mold for leaders.

It is not that he doesn’t recognize issues. He can smell an issue before it even becomes an issue. In fact he is very capable of creating issues that he can manipulate to achieve his ulterior goals. What is so hard about a border? Every nation has them. Leaving the Great Wall of China aside, most nations have exercised border control to keep people from leaving rather than to keep people from getting in.

America is rather unique. Our problem is securing our borders so we can decide who should come in from the millions of people who want to. And because we are who we are — a nation that believes in individual freedoms and the rule of law — we cannot use lethal force to protect our borders from people who want to be citizens. The solution, in theory at least, sounds doable: Establish a border that stops everyone and allows at the same time for approved applicants to enter either for seasonal work periods or to begin the process for citizenship, a process requiring learning English, a knowledge of our history, and a respect for our law.

Immigration is a good thing. We need the workers at all levels. Our nation’s birthrate is not high enough to sustain a vigorously growing economy after the taxers, wealth distributors, regulators, and hate-America administration is long gone. Enforcing borders is a solvable problem and even the Obama team is maybe up to the challenge.

Here’s the catch: The border issue is too useful to progressives for Obama to solve. The border issue can destroy the Republican Party (which is what Obama’s main goal is). Send the Republican House a request for several billion dollars so Homeland Security and the Justice Department can cope with the humanitarian part of the border problem. The Republican House leadership may figure out this is not the way to solve the current border problem and refuse to allocate the funds. Which is exactly what the progressives running the country want. Then the border human tragedy becomes the fault of the Republican House who, judging by past actions, probably will not recognize the trap.

To avoid the trap, the House should send up their own allocation of funds that is addressed to solve the border issue. Obama may not be able to veto the border funding bill.

Yes, the president always has an ulterior agenda, but it can be defeated with some common sense and toughness. The progressives don’t have to win on the border issue their leader caused and they won’t if the Republican leadership and border governors work together to solve the border problem. I have a lot more faith in the border governors than I do in the Republican congressional leadership.

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 43

Border Patrol (Photo credit: Brian Auer)

NEW CITIZENS

We need immigration from south of the border, even with the unemployment figures being more than 12 percent (if we do an honest count of the unemployed). The men, women, and children who have risked crossing our porous border bring a freshness to our work force. Their work ethic is like ours used to be. All the immigrants I’ve met are super workers. They work hard, don’t whine or complain, and are enterprising entrepreneurs. They are strong family people, most are Christians and fit in with our Christian heritage. The young men and women are serving well in the armed forces. What’s not to like about them? Sure, they may be here illegally. We can deal with that. What we can’t deal with is a border no administration has been willing to close. Not so that no one will be able to get through. But so hundreds and thousands cannot cross illegally into America. Borders can be controlled. And with that we can find a way for the many law-abiding illegal immigrants (I recognize the oxymoron) to become citizens.

Unfortunately, President Obama does not want an immigration bill that has bi-partisan support. There is no benefit in that for his transformation of American into a one-party socialist country run by the Progressive elite. If you don’t believe that just wait and watch what happens. Obama knows the Hispanic vote is his no matter what he does. They can wait until he uses the immigration issue along with several other issues to destroy the Republican Party and seize control of the House of Representatives, which is the last legal obstacle in his drive for power. President Obama will not sign nor support a bipartisan immigration bill. He will keep moving the bar until the Republicans can no longer get over the Obama barrier. The saddest part of this scenario is that very few Republican politicians understand what is happening.

The lack of employment in the United States is responsible for the drop in border crossing statistics. Not the administration’s border security actions. Why cross if there are no jobs? Except that the path to citizenship is a stronger magnet to attract mass crossings. Get here before the immigration legislation is passed. I hope that is right and we have real border security and a reasonable path to citizenship.