Ground views of different Border Wall Prototypes as they take shape during the Wall Prototype Construction Project near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Photo by: Mani Albrecht
The reluctance to build and fund a wall on the U.S. Mexican border is not because Democrats think it won’t work. The real reason is that it probably would work too well.
Victor Davis Hanson maintains, “Democrats in the present political landscape will not consent to a wall. For them, a successful border wall is now considered bad politics in almost every manner imaginable.”
In the long run, salad bowl multiculturalism, growing tribalism and large numbers of unassimilated immigrants add up to politically advantageous demography for Democrats, VDH writes.
What a Wall Would Do
- A wall would likely reduce illegal immigration dramatically and with it future Democratic constituents. Legal, meritocratic, measured, and diverse immigration in its place would likely end up being politically neutral. And without fresh waves of undocumented immigrants from south of the border, identity politics would wane.
- A wall also would radically change the optics of illegal immigration. Currently, in unsecured border areas, armed border patrol guards sometimes stand behind barbed wire. Without a wall, they are forced to rely on dogs and tear gas when rushed by would-be border crossers. They are easy targets for stone-throwers on the Mexican side of the border.
- A high wall would end that. Border guards would be mostly invisible from the Mexican side of the wall. Barbed wire, dogs and tear gas astride the border—the ingredients for media sensationalism—would be unnecessary. Instead, footage of would-be border crossers trying to climb 30-foot walls would emphasize the degree to which some are callously breaking the law.
Such imagery would remind the world that undocumented immigrants are not always noble victims but often selfish young adult males who have little regard for the millions of aspiring immigrants who wait patiently in line and follow the rules to enter the United State lawfully.
Usually, the United States is somehow blamed for (immigrants) plight, even though a few years ago the Mexican government issued a comic book with instructions on how citizens could most effectively break U.S. law and cross the border.
The wall would make illegal crossings almost impossible.
Read more from VDH here.
