It used to be said that the business of America is business, but it seems more correct, these days, to say that the business of America is politics. We have a businessman as our president, who is struggling to alter the country to bring us back to a point where we can all go about our business. He finds himself frustrated at every turn, however, by politicians, by those jealous of a loss of their power, and utterly unwilling to see him succeed.
We now understand that this is what led miscreants in the Justice Department, in the intelligence services, in the media, and in the Democratic Party to concoct the canard that Trump unfairly won the election with the connivance of Russians. As the Special Counsel investigation launched as a result of that fabrication winds down, the president’s enemies have been forced to find other means of frustrating his program.
The latest is the refusal of the Democrats properly to fund Trump’s proposed wall on our Southern Border, which has now resulted in the partial shutdown of the federal government, as Trump refuses to agree to sign any stop-gap funding measure until he receives a substantial appropriation for border security which will allow him to keep his campaign promise to erect the wall.
The House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill to Trump’s liking, but the Democrats in the Senate have refused to go along. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader claims the wall would be a frivolous expense and that “experts” say it won’t stop the flow of undocumented foreign nationals through our Southern border. Mr. Trump and his Republican base disagree, and they point to the example of Israel, where a wall along Israel’s border has successfully stopped unwanted incursions.
On another political front, President Trump has decided to withdraw American troops from Syria, and probably from Afghanistan as well, which has caused conniptions among some Senators, and many in the media, who accuse the president of abandoning our allies. Curiously, no Senator or Congressman has praised Trump, recognizing that there was never a Congressional authorization for conducting a war in Syria, and thus the president was implicitly reaffirming the legislative branch’s Constitutional prerogatives.
In seeking to protect our Southern border, and in withdrawing American troops from overseas, the president is, of course, carrying out his basic aim of putting American interests first, and overturning decades of unwise domestic and foreign policies which cost fortunes and wreaked havoc overseas.
This president, mocked as a buffoon by his foes, is actually wise enough to understand that the United States has no business seeking to impose our political regime on other nations. The incursions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have cost us trillions and have not brought peace to those troubled areas.
Trump appears to understand that we can do nothing to end the ceaseless strife between Sunnis and Shiites, and that their struggle must be resolved by their own leaders. The fortunes we have frittered away and the lives we have lost in the participation in these essentially religious wars fought by the Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations, Trump realizes, would be better spent in securing our own economic future.
That future is at risk, however, from the drugs, terrorists, human traffickers, and other undesirables entering illegally. We do need the human capital that immigration has always brought us, but, as do other nations, we have the right to select those who should be permitted to join our community.
A sensible immigration policy, which places American interests first, is consistent with President Trump’s wall, with his withdrawal of American troops from fighting undeclared foreign wars, and, indeed, with his overall plans, those of a businessman, to strengthen our economy by reducing counter-productive regulation and taxation.
The political opponents of the president are committed to an ideological and globalist outlook far more unrealistic and dangerous than the president’s traditional, conservative, and simple program. The president’s views are, actually, closer to those of our Founders, such as George Washington, whose famous Farewell Address warned of entangling alliances, and urged us not to repeat the imperialistic failures of European powers.
Ours was supposed to be nation that led by example, not by force. Our framers hoped for the prosperity that commerce can bring but hoped to avoid the disasters from foreign intrigues. We have commitments to other nations that cannot be ignored, but we also have a responsibility to our own people to put their interests first. This is all the businessman Trump is trying to do. It is baffling why so many of his fellow Americans find that so difficult to grasp, unless they are so blinded by politics that they cannot perceive the obvious.
Stephen B. Presser is the Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History Emeritus at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, the Legal Affairs Editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, and a contributor to The University Bookman. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has taught at Rutgers University, the University of Virginia, and University College, London. He has often testified on constitutional issues before committees of the United States Congress, and is the author of "Recapturing the Constitution: Race, Religion, and Abortion Reconsidered" (Regnery, 1994) and "Law Professsors: Three Centuries of Shaping American Law" (West Academic, 2017). Presser was recently appointed as a Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado's Boulder Campus for 2018-2019. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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