A Wall of Shame for the Party of Shame

Wash Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson has a column up arguing that spending $25 billion for Donald Trump’s “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall is a great idea, because building one would facilitate a grand compromise on immigration reform: “If we could buy an immigration bargain for $25 billion, or even a bit more, it would be a fabulous deal.”¹

“Fabulous deal”? I think “utter national disgrace” would be more like it, Bob. Such a wall would be monument to hatred, to ignorance, to fear. We ought to be seeking closer relations with Mexico, and other nations, not literally walling ourselves from them.

Samuelson doesn’t even attempt to address arguments that illegal immigration is a net benefit to the economy (Wikipedia gives an overview of pro and con arguments here), because he knows he can’t refute them.² He implicitly takes the irrational animus to Mexican “rapists” as a given that cannot be refuted, only dealt with.

Bob never comes clean about his real motive for writing this piece: to shill for the continued existence of the “moderate” (i.e., Wall Street/neo-con) wing of the Republican Party. He quotes with great approval his colleague Charles Krauthammer: “It’s hard to understand opposition [to a wall]. It’s the most venerable and reliable way to keep people out.” Yes, Charles. It’s worked wonders for Israel and Palestine.

Charlie has been pushing for a wall for years, as the only way to calm the hysterical ravings of the goyim reasonable fears of the American people and set the stage for lasting immigration reform. According to Bob, building a wall will lead, almost inevitably, to a grand compromise that would include, among other points, “[A] path to legality — and ultimately to citizenship — for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.”

Come again, Bob? Hasn’t Donald Trump already promised to deport half of the undocumented immigrants and sworn eternal hostility towards anything that even hints of “amnesty”? In fact, if we Democrats ever agreed to a wall, there would be a wall, and nothing else. Bob is simply trying to sell us a pig in a poke.

There is no reason why we liberals should let the Right set the agenda on immigration. Bob and his ilk, like Charles Krauthammer and Paul Ryan, want desperately to do this because it’s the only way they can hope to keep the Republican Party together. But the Republican Party deserves to break on this issue. Republicans who want to “save the Party” are trying to save a party that deserves to die. “The Republican Party is the party of white nationalism,” said Avik Roy. Bob should stop trying to pretend that both parties are at fault. The Republican Party is at fault. The Republican Party is the party of racism and fear. The Republican Party should be repudiated, not accommodated.