American Republic Online

I’ve not commented much on the on-going immigration debate, Scott has been doing a great job keeping up.  However, I read a column today by Rich Lowry about Cynicism and Government.  In it, he describes a couple of instances of Americans coming together to achieve great things, even during hard times, and contrasts them with modern times:

In five years, we built the Hoover Dam. From 1931 to 1936, the Colorado River was diverted with tunnels blasted into the Black Canyon walls, a town was built to house a small army of workers laboring in the desert, and 3 1/4 million cubic yards of concrete were poured into a dam reaching 726 1/2 feet high — two years ahead of schedule.

It’s hard to look back at this monumental effort without a feeling of envy. The dam was completed on the backs of desperate men during the Great Depression, but from this remove, it looks like an apotheosis of the can-do spirit. Who believes we could do something similar today, that political bickering, governmental bungling, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, lawsuits, and environmental objections wouldn’t make such a project all but impossible?

While his piece is more of a commentary on the state of our government, I couldn’t help but think of the immigration debate.  Why?  Well, how’s that wall down on the border coming?  Some chain-link here, some concrete there, and the border is much more secure.  The wall will probably never be built, and that is why Americans are so opposed to the new deal being struck.  Not necessarily the wall per se, but the fact that our government can not even secure the border makes the other issues moot.  For, if we do not decide the means in which people are immigrating, what good do the reforms do?  Would it matter if we increased the amount of people allowed in, or eased the path to citizenship, if people can still walk across the border and partake of our country without even looking into the process?

Consider our President.  As the former Governor of Texas, he did nothing of note to secure his border.  If he had, and then tried similar measures while president, he would have the support of many more people.
Thomas Sowell comments on this very thing:

It should be too obvious for words that decisions about who is to come into the United States and live among Americans should be made in the United States by Americans.

In reality, however, for years that decision has been made in Mexico by Mexicans and by others who chose to cross the border from Mexico into the United States with impunity, knowing that even if they were caught, they would at worst be turned back — and could try again.

Both political parties know what is going on and both parties choose to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Neither wants to risk losing the Hispanic vote, though it is doubtful whether all Hispanics are in favor of open borders.

The net result has been empty promises about controlling the border, paired with various schemes to legalize the illegal immigrants, and washed down with fraudulent statements that insult our intelligence.