Summary

I am all for manufacturing fast cars, good scotch and pogo sticks (yes, bring back the pogo stick), but I am dead set against manufacturing political issues. Especially when we have real ones that do not need to be produced in a deliberately contrived process.

The answer to the build or not build the wall question is clear and easy. First, ask the question, “Do I want open borders?” If yes, then no wall; simple. If no, then stop debating and turn the matter over to engineers with expertise in this type of design challenge. Give them the task of coming up with the a secure border with the most efficient use of taxpayer money. I am guessing that to meet that challenge, they will recommend different technologies in different geographies. And who knows, these engineers might rise to the challenge with some entirely new ideas.

For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what it means to have--or not have--secure borders and how to make that happen if desired.

Transcript

I am all for manufacturing fast cars, good scotch and pogo sticks (yes, bring back the pogo stick), but I am dead set against manufacturing political issues. Especially when we have real ones that do not need to be produced in a deliberately contrived process.

The answer to the build or not build the wall question is clear and easy. First, ask the question, “Do I want open borders?” If yes, then no wall; simple. If no, then stop debating and turn the matter over to engineers with expertise in this type of design challenge. Give them the task of coming up with the a secure border with the most efficient use of taxpayer money. I am guessing that to meet that challenge, they will recommend different technologies in different geographies. And who knows, these engineers might rise to the challenge with some entirely new ideas.

For the next 10 minutes, we will unpack what it means to have--or not have--secure borders and how to make that happen if desired.

The wall or no wall question is a perfect example of a manufactured issue--a manufactured fight, in fact. For a long time, Democrats were in full support of secure borders. Along comes Trump with his no. 1 chant. “Build the wall!” and the Democrats ran to the other side of the issue, even willing to participate in a 30% government shutdown to deny Trump his requested funding. Funding, by the way, that amounts to .14% of the annual federal budget.

Trump was wrong to call for a wall. Walls have all sorts of negative connotations. Calling for a secure border is what he should have done, but it is hard to make that into a crowd-pleasing chant. The Democrats should put away their Trump swords, and fund securing the borders. Secure borders are the necessary first step to achieving a sensible and humane immigration policy. Without secure borders, things that we need to do like approve DACA, and issue a final (did I say final?) amnesty to include a path to legal residency for the 10M-20M people living here illegally, along with using E-Verify and tightening up our visa tracking, will simply become revolving amnesty. Without secure borders, no matter what else we do, we will have open borders.

I do not want open borders. I can’t imagine living in a country with national borders as intentionally porus as our state borders. I also want a generous immigration policy, focusing on admitting the people we want, while allowing for the people who may not meet that criterion, but who need to come here for a variety of reasons.

At Revolution 2.0, we are here to solve issues for the good of the nation, not manufacture isues for the good of a political party.