We are at a remarkable moment. We have an open, 2,000-mile border to our south, and the entity with the power to enforce the law and impose safety and order will not do it. Wall Street collapsed, taking Main Street’s money with it, and the government can’t really figure out what to do about it because the government itself was deeply implicated in the crash, and both political parties are full of people whose political careers have been made possible by Wall Street contributions. Meanwhile we pass huge laws, bills so comprehensive, omnibus and transformative that no one knows what’s in them and no one—literally, no one—knows how exactly they will be executed or interpreted. Citizens search for new laws online, pore over them at night, and come away knowing no more than they did before they typed “dot-gov.”
It is not that no one’s in control. Washington is full of people who insist they’re in control and who go to great lengths to display their power. It’s that no one takes responsibility and authority. Washington daily delivers to the people two stark and utterly conflicting messages: “We control everything” and “You’re on your own.”
All this contributes to a deep and growing alienation between the people of America and the government of America in Washington.
This is not the old, conservative and long-lampooned “I don’t trust gummint” attitude of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It’s something new, or rather something so much more broadly and fully evolved that it constitutes something new. The right never trusted the government, but now the middle doesn’t. I asked a campaigner for Hillary Clinton recently where her sturdy, pantsuited supporters had gone. They didn’t seem part of the Obama brigades. “Some of them are at the tea party,” she said.
None of this happened overnight. It is, most recently, the result of two wars that were supposed to be cakewalks, Katrina, the crash, and the phenomenon of a federal government that seemed less and less competent attempting to do more and more by passing bigger and bigger laws.
Add to this states on the verge of bankruptcy, the looming debt crisis of the federal government, the likelihood of ever-rising taxes. Shake it all together, and you have the makings of the big alienation. Alienation is often followed by full-blown antagonism, and antagonism by breakage.
Which brings us to Arizona and its much-criticized attempt to institute a law aimed at controlling its own border with Mexico. It is doing this because the federal government won’t, and because Arizonans have a crisis on their hands, areas on the border where criminal behavior flourishes, where there have been kidnappings, murders and gang violence. If the law is abusive, it will be determined quickly enough, in the courts. In keeping with recent tradition, they were reading parts of the law aloud on cable the other night, with bright and sincere people completely disagreeing on the meaning of the words they were reading. No one knows how the law will be executed or interpreted.
Every state and region has its own facts and experience. In New York, legal and illegal immigrants keep the city running: They work hard jobs with brutal hours, rip off no one on Wall Street, and do not crash the economy. They are generally considered among the good guys. I’m not sure New Yorkers can fairly judge the situation in Arizona, nor Arizonans the situation in New York.
But the larger point is that Arizona is moving forward because the government in Washington has completely abdicated its responsibility. For 10 years—at least—through two administrations, Washington deliberately did nothing to ease the crisis on the borders because politicians calculated that an air of mounting crisis would spur mounting support for what Washington thought was appropriate reform—i.e., reform that would help the Democratic and Republican parties.
Both parties resemble Gordon Brown, who is about to lose the prime ministership of Britain. On the campaign trail this week, he was famously questioned by a party voter about his stand on immigration. He gave her the verbal runaround, all boilerplate and shrugs, and later complained to an aide, on an open mic, that he’d been forced into conversation with that “bigoted woman.”
He really thought she was a bigot. Because she asked about immigration. Which is, to him, a sign of at least latent racism.
The establishments of the American political parties, and the media, are full of people who think concern about illegal immigration is a mark of racism. If you were Freud you might say, “How odd that’s where their minds so quickly go, how strange they’re so eager to point an accusing finger. Could they be projecting onto others their own, heavily defended-against inner emotions?” But let’s not do Freud, he’s too interesting. Maybe they’re just smug and sanctimonious.
The American president has the power to control America’s borders if he wants to, but George W. Bush and Barack Obama did not and do not want to, and for the same reason, and we all know what it is. The fastest-growing demographic in America is the Hispanic vote, and if either party cracks down on illegal immigration, it risks losing that vote for generations.
But while the Democrats worry about the prospects of the Democrats and the Republicans about the well-being of the Republicans, who worries about America?
No one. Which the American people have noticed, and which adds to the dangerous alienation—actually it’s at the heart of the alienation—of the age.
In the past four years, I have argued in this space that nothing can or should be done, no new federal law passed, until the border itself is secure. That is the predicate, the commonsense first step. Once existing laws are enforced and the border made peaceful, everyone in the country will be able to breathe easier and consider, without an air of clamor and crisis, what should be done next. What might that be? How about relax, see where we are, and absorb. Pass a small, clear law—say, one granting citizenship to all who serve two years in the armed forces—and then go have a Coke. Not everything has to be settled right away. Only controlling the border has to be settled right away.
Instead, our national establishments deliberately allow the crisis to grow and fester, ignoring public unrest and amusing themselves by damning anyone’s attempt to deal with the problem they fear to address.
Why does the federal government do this? Because so many within it are stupid and unimaginative and don’t trust the American people. Which of course the American people have noticed.
If the federal government and our political parties were imaginative, they would understand that it is actually in their interests to restore peace and order to the border. It would be a way of demonstrating that our government is still capable of functioning, that it is still to some degree connected to the people’s will, that it has the broader interests of the country in mind.
The American people fear they are losing their place and authority in the daily, unwinding drama of American history. They feel increasingly alienated from their government. And alienation, again, is often followed by deep animosity, and animosity by the breaking up of things. If our leaders were farsighted not only for themselves but for the country, they would fix the border.
Archive for April, 2010
Peggy Noonan has a great column about our current illegal immigration problem, and more specifically, the problem with our southern border, that will run in this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. It is worth the read, and the entire piece follows. I have been a huge fan of Noonan even before I knew it. She was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and has a beautiful way with words. As is demonstrated in this column, she always makes you think.
The Big Alienation
Uncontrolled borders and Washington’s lack of self-control.
The American people fear they are losing their place and authority in the daily, unwinding drama of American history. They feel increasingly alienated from their government. And alienation, again, is often followed by deep animosity, and animosity by the breaking up of things. If our leaders were farsighted not only for themselves but for the country, they would fix the border.
New York State Senator Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) apparently has a history of anger issues. This was on full display during a committee hearing in which he blew up at a fellow committee member about his line of questioning with a nominee. This is how the New York Daily News reported it:
Parker exploded in anger at fellow Sen. John DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican, who was questioning a nominee to the New York Power Authority.
DeFrancisco, who is white, asked Mark O’Luck, who is black, about the nominee’s prior claim that without programs for minorities, whites and the affluent “would have access to nearly 100%” of government funding.
As DeFrancisco told O’Luck he can’t fault everyone who’s prospered, Parker began screaming that the GOPer was “out of order.”
“How dare you!” Parker shouted, at one point referring to “you racist people in here.”
“I’ve never seen a white appointee be treated like this, in such rude fashion!” the Brooklyn Democrat yelled.
In a scene straight out of the Al Pacino movie “And Justice for All,” Parker was repeatedly ruled out order.
“You’re out of order!” he screamed back. “This committee’s out of order!”
Amid the nearly two-minute tirade, committee chairman Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) told Parker he would be removed from the hearing room if he didn’t settle down.
“Then get somebody to remove me,” he said. “Bring people, though.”
New York’s local CBS affiliate has this coverage, which includes some video of the committee hearing… must see TV.
The entire hearing is on YouTube here. You can skip the boring parts and go right to the 21 minute mark in the hour-long hearing and see it for yourself.
Ain’t politics as gas?
Democrats in the Senate are trying to stop a Republican filibuster of the financial services regulatory bill. They think that forcing a vote today, tomorrow, the next day and so on will make Republicans look bad, because EVERYBODY hates Wall Street and should be clamoring for more regulation.
The problem for Democrats is that the American people aren’t stupid. They know a permanent bailout when they see it. The Democrats can claim they are getting tough on Wall Street, but it just doesn’t sell because so much of Wall Street is a part of the Obama Administration now. Goldman Sachs employees gave more money to Obama’s campaign (more than $900,000) than any other private sector employees (only employees from the vast University of California coughed up more dough.)
This is just a partial list of the Goldman Sachs connections: Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Mark Patterson, a former Goldman lobbyist who is chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.
On a slightly different note, check out this video from the folks at Americans for Prosperity.
All-day kindergarten is one of those issues that I just won’t ignore. In some ways it’s become a personal crusade of mine, because I had such a personal experience with it when my oldest son was in kindergarten and the experience I had in trying to actually exercise a choice as a parent to NOT have him in an all-day program.
I oppose “free” all-day kindergarten, because there isn’t any actual educational benefit to kids that last beyond the 3rd grade. In fact, in my son’s case, his reading skills actually regressed as a result of not being at home with my wife working on reading one-on-one. The link above tells the more complete story.
So I was annoyed when I read this story about how school districts are grappling with what to cut in order to save all-day K. It really isn’t much more than a few hours of free day-care for parents. I know first-hand. I tried to get parents to sign a petition asking for a half-day option a few years ago and I couldn’t get one parent to sign it. The most common reason? “Oh this is great, I’ll have more free time.”
The bottom line is that I don’t want my tax dollars going to subsidize the free time of other parents. And don’t try to argue that is critical for working parents. Sure it helps them, but my wife and I figured it out when our oldest daughter had half day, so it’s not like it’s a new concept or something.
So this is a bit of rant, but like I said, it’s personal.
This is my 3 year-old son. This picture signifies a number of things: the swimming season has started; my son is a little worker; and I must be getting older, because I was so happy he wanted to try to clean the pool himself.
Let summer begin!
Scott Brown has made it official: He’s not a candidate for President in 2012.
Was anyone really seriously thinking he’d be a viable candidate having only a few years of state legislative experience and only a couple years as a U.S. Senator? Oh… yeah… I forgot about Barack Obama.
Well, I guess it could have been interesting. I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of Scott Brown.
I travel a lot. I fly red eyes, morning flights, afternoon flights, morning flights followed (what feels like immediately) by red-eyes… you name it.
I actually fly enough that I get a free Club membership with US Airways.
So I decided that I’d analyze toilet paper at airports (yes, this idea was likely after one of my morning flight/red-eye combos). My preliminary findings (stay tuned for updates) conclude that the worst toilet paper on the planet is in the Philadelphia Airport. New York’s LaGuardia isn’t much better. The best toilet paper when you are on the road is the US Airways Club in Charlotte, NC. Trust me, I’m expert on this stuff.
But nothing holds a candle to the 3-ply (that’s right, 3-ply) toilet paper I found at CVS Pharmacy on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. I did a triple take (no pun intended) when I saw it, and even though I wasn’t in need of toilet paper, I had to get it, and I’m tempted to carry a roll with me in my carry-on.
Wow, was it worth it. Wiping will never be the same again. And neither will the way you look at me, surely.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a bill that allows Arizona citizens to carry a concealed weapon without a concealed carry permit. I have been meaning to get a permit for a couple our years and just not taken the time to go through the course.
Now I don’t have to.
So I’ll bring my 9mm out of the closet and have it with me on occasion. And, I’ll encourage my wife to carry her .357 on a regular basis. I am one of those people who believes that an armed citizenry is a safe citizenry.
I believe that Governor Brewer signed this bill as a shot across the bow (pun intended) of Buz Mills, one of her primary opponents, because of his long history with the gun community. So, thank you Buz!
April 15 of an even numbered year is always an interesting day. Yes, it’s tax day, which is awful for those of us who work hard to earn a living for our families, but it’s also when FEC 1st quarter reports are due, and these will be good indicators of how races shape up.
To add to the mix this year is a massive wave of tea parties.
More to come tomorrow…
Already there are consequences of the passage Obama’s government takeover of health care.
Dr. Joseph Scherzer is informing patients that he will close his practice by 2014 – when the bill goes into full effect – if it hasn’t been repealed or struck down by the courts.
While it may be years before most Americans feel the impact of President Obama’s health-care bill, a few patients in Scottsdale, Ariz., got a small taste of life under Obamacare last week when they arrived at their Dermatologist’s office only to see a sign with the following taped to the front door:
“If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect.” The note is signed Joseph M. Scherzer M.D. and includes the following addendum: “****Unless Congress or the Courts repeal the BILL.”
Scherzer, who attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has been a practicing Dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1976. Reached yesterday at his office, Dr. Scherzer, 63, said he plans to stop practicing before 2014 when the bill’s full impact will be felt because he refuses to deal with the headache of increased government involvement in health care.
“I’m absolutely serious [about stopping practicing] and it’s not just because I’ll be nearing 65,” Scherzer said. “The stress is what would push me out the door. From what I’ve gathered hearing from my friends and peers, most physicians I’ve heard from feel the same way.”
Scherzer said the bill’s emphasis on punitive measures for physicians not following government-prescribed treatment methods under Medicare would increase his anxiety level to the point he would no longer be able to practice medicine. The maximum fine was previously $10,000; under the bill it will now be capped at $50,000. Scherzer said the fine system makes seeing a Medicare patients a difficult and stressful exercise.
This is just the beginning of what is to come as the bill is fully implemented. It wasn’t just rhetoric during the debate when there were warnings of fewer doctors, longer wait times and the rationing of care. That is coming, and the proponents of government-run health care know it. Watch how they spin in the months to come.
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