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As the government has
remained shuttered for the past month, we are now enduring the longest government
shutdown in American history. The relentless partisan standoff grinds on, and
cracks are starting to show. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are
working without pay or are furloughed. Critical services such as food
inspection, airport security, and National Parks upkeep are under threat. As
time passes, the worrying signs of an economic downturn are becoming more
evident. Some publications even predict that the US economy could lose an
entire fiscal quarter of economic growth and eventually slide back into recession.
The root of this entire
debacle came almost at the last minute but was not at all surprising. This is
not the first time that the President’s push to build a border wall has been
met with resistance and total democratic rejection. Neither is this the first
time that Trump has backed out of an agreement at the last possible moment in
reaction to pressure from his ultra-conservative base. It is time to examine
how we have gotten into this mess, and why the American political process has come
to an absolute standstill over what seems to be an incontrovertible
disagreement. Specifically, let us explore one of the core motivators of the “build
the wall” movement in the first place: hatred.
Let’s face it. There are
very few logical arguments you can make for how this wall would address the
issue of illegal immigration in any effective, meaningful, or constructive way.
Prototypes of the wall, including the “Steel Slats” wall Trump is now pushing
were all easily breached by equipment you can buy at a hardware store. So, the
wall wouldn’t really secure the Southern border. It also would do little to
secure American citizens, especially since it has been proven consistently that
immigrants commit far less crime than do native born American citizens. The notion that the wall would help alleviate
the suffering of migrants crossing the border illegally is equally ludicrous,
especially coming from a president whose immigration policy has in some cases
exacerbated the so-called “humanitarian crisis on our Southern Border”.
The wall is also insanely expensive, and the is projected to cost anywhere from 10 to 30 billion dollars,
perhaps even higher. Upkeep of the wall alone could cost almost a billion
dollars annually, meaning the wall’s original construction cost could be
exceeded by maintenance costs in just over ten years. All of this of course
ignores the fact that the Southern border is already heavily fortified. In
fact, it is the longest fortified border in the world. Furthermore, with almost
20,000 agents, the US Border Patrol is already one of the largest American law
enforcement agencies. In addition, apprehensions of individuals crossing the
border are currently at their lowest point in 46 years. The crisis that Trump
insists upon addressing exists only in the minds of his supporters and his
staff.
So, if we remove all of fluff
and the misleading rationalizations, what are we left with to justify this
wall? Sadly, the answer is nothing but pure unadulterated hatred. Hatred, a
powerful emotion that breeds fear, resentment, and is the gateway to cruelty.
That may sound extreme, but what other explanation is there? How could the nation
of freedom, liberty, equality, and justice for all otherwise find itself in the
position of cruelly repressing the poor, the weak, and the needy? How could the
nation of plenty, the city on the hill be so ignorant, selfish, and just plain
cruel? It is one of the hardest things for many Americans to reconcile with,
but it a sad truth. I would love to write here that what you see now is not the
true America, that this is just a phase. But I would be lying.
Every time Americans bear
witness to another act of hatred, whether it be from a neo-Nazi or from the
current administration, we have a knee jerk reaction. The response will
inevitably be something along the lines of “hatred, these acts, or these
hateful words are not representative of America. They have no home here.”
Unfortunately, it seems that in many corners of our country, hate does indeed
have a home. It has a home in schools such as Covington Catholic High School,
whose students thought it was ok to engage in insulting chants and mock a Native
American elder. It has a home in many Sororities and Fraternities throughout
the country, from the University of Tennessee, to the University of Oklahoma,
to the University of Alabama. Hatred has a home in the offices of congressmen
such as Representative Steve King of Iowa.
It even has a home in the White
House.
However, hatred is one edifice
that Trump did not build. The president and his lackeys are taking advantage of
an old American tradition. Hatred and fear of immigrants is something that goes
back to the arrival of Irish immigrants in the 17th century. Our
president did not start racism and bigotry, but he has brought the vilest
rhetoric into the mainstream of American society.
This escalation and our
current situation should tell us one thing more than anything else: it is time
to reconcile with the reality of our situation. It is imperative that we reject
allowing fear and ignorance to lead our country. Nothing good can come from
turning inwards, of indulging ourselves in the pompous exceptionalism of faded
glory. We are either a country of liberty, equality and justice for all, or we
are one that builds a wall.
We can’t be both.
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