One of the key issues that Donald Trump has brought to light during his presidential campaign run is the need for a wall at the southern border in order to bolster national security and ensure the safety and welfare of our country’s people.
That a nation must have in place a framework with which it can regulate the ingress and egress of individuals across its territorial boundaries is fundamental to the notion of sovereignty and has traditionally been a sound practice of virtually every country in the world.
In a single memorable and easily understandable phrase, Trump has been able to convey the most important aspect of this core concept.
“If we don't have a border, we don’t have a country,” Trump says.
No political topic of late has caused left-leaning notables more consternation than the issue of a border wall.
Back in March of 2016, John Oliver, former writer of “The Daily Show,” used an entire episode of his HBO show, “Last Week Tonight,” as a means of attacking Trump’s idea of a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Throwing out an estimate that Trump’s construction of a wall at the border would cost $77 per person, Oliver mockingly suggested that everyone invest that sum of money in a waffle iron instead. The host unamusingly referred to it as his “waffle iron plan.”
“This waffle iron plan will cost less, will do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won’t harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, if it is racist it’s only toward Belgians,” Oliver cracked.
Other Hollywood entertainers and political celebrities have also weighed in.
George Clooney told The Guardian that in his opinion Trump is a “xenophobic racist” and stated, “In election season, things go crazy, and the loudest voices are the furthest and most extreme.”
At a commencement address in May of 2016, in a scarcely concealed swipe at Trump, President Barack Obama urged Rutgers University graduates to reject anyone who wants to build walls on the U.S. border.
Evoking Trump’s border wall, Obama said, “The point is, to help ourselves, we've got to help others — not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out.”
At a separate commencement address in June of 2016, First Lady Michelle Obama took aim at Trump’s proposal as well.
“We don’t build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home,” the first lady told graduating students at Harlem’s City College of New York.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton have been out repeating a mantra of sorts that the U.S. should not be building walls, but bridges.
However, those of the liberal persuasion who have for a long time been demonstrating an absurd ease with various positions that are steeped in hypocrisy now appear to be taking things even further.
The Democratic National Convention is set to take place in Philadelphia on July 25, 2016, and plans are in the making to secure the gathering with, of all things, a wall.
Reports swirling around the subject describe the barrier as “no-scale fencing,” which is purportedly designed to enclose the facilities that the Democratic Party will use to engage in the nomination of their selected candidate.
Special Agent James Henry of the Secret Service recently shared the following comments with NBC10.com: “We’re not quite there to talk about the perimeter yet. We’re probably a couple weeks away from finalizing that.”
Ironically, the Hillary who currently holds an anti-wall viewpoint stands in stark contrast to the Hillary who, in 2003, told WABC radio, “I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.”
As a then-member of the U.S. Senate, Hillary voted in the affirmative for legislation known as the “Secure Fence Act of 2006.”
The bill called for the erection of 700 miles of fortified fencing, which would stretch across the entire length of Arizona’s border with Mexico, as well as with portions of the southern borders of California, New Mexico, and Texas.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read more reports from James Hirsen — Click Here Now.
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