The Wall
Robert A. Levine 11-27-18
Trump is threatening a government shutdown if Congress does not provide him with money to build his wall at the border with Mexico. This is the same Donald Trump who promised that Mexico would pay for the wall so why is he making these demands on the U.S. Congress. With our huge national debt and yearly deficits, building this wall would be a waste of billions of dollars which would be useful in building and repairing America’s infrastructure which has been crumbling for years.
In addition, a wall would not be totally effective as it is low tech and could be scaled. There is also the task and cost of maintenance once the wall has been constructed. Using high tech mechanisms, the border could be made more secure at a much lower cost. Trump seems to be pushing the wall because of the optics that he believes would motivate his base. However, the use of electronic monitoring systems together with drones and increased border patrols would likely do a superior job to the much more expensive wall which also be time-consuming to build.
Trump’s idea of building a wall goes back to the Middle Ages when kings built walls to protect their castles and keep marauders out. I’m surprised he doesn’t want to add a moat to make it even more difficult to get in. After all, many of Trump’s ideas do come out of the Middle Ages, such as using torture on prisoners to extract intelligence. Next thing you know he’ll be bringing back the rack.
The way Trump admitted to treating women he desired- grabbing them by the p---y- is even further in the past in the era of cavemen. Perhaps he should have been featured on The Flintstones instead of The Apprentice as his behavior is much more in synch with the former. Of course, they didn’t have Twitter in those days so he might have had difficulty communicating with others.
His trade policies may not come from the Middle Ages or primitive times, but they’re out of the past as well. And his denial of scientific data like global warming and the value of vaccinations are pre-Galileo. In fact, Trump might have been a decent king in the Middle Ages but as a modern president he’s a complete failure. Perhaps it’s good that he doesn’t like to read for if he read history, he’d be liable to come up with other foolish ideas that might have worked in past centuries but are of little utility today.
Closing down the government if he doesn’t get his way sounds like typical Trump. It will give him a chance to hop down to Florida and play some golf while Congress and government officials are stewing. He’ll show the country who is boss even if it damages the reputation of the United States and makes us look more and more like a banana republic. Come to think of it, maybe Trump likes bananas.
Resurrecting Democracy
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