#1
I said that I was going to stop worrying about politics, but that is going to have to wait until tomorrow, because I feel a serious need to rant. 😀
When John McCain was running for office, the mostly liberal press did everything they could to vilify him. They said that he was a womanizer who abandoned his disabled wife. I don't know what the truth is, but here is a man who served his country for decades, and people on the left relentlessly attacked his character.
Mitt Romney got the same treatment. He was portrayed as a billionaire who took over companies and fired people. Never mind the fact that he was brilliant at saving companies from bankruptcy. Mitt Romney is probably one of the nicest people to run for President, but the left successfully portrayed him to be a bad person.
Character assassination is a convenient way to not debate the issues. Why have any serious debate when you can just dismiss your opponent over his character? I am only concerned because there are going to be a number of people who make up their minds solely based upon what they hear in sound bites.
Now the left and the press have pulled out all the stops on Donald Trump. Much of this started following Trump's announcement of his candidacy on June 16, 2015, where he said the following ...
"The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.
Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.
It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably, probably, from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast."
I think that Trump's comments were meant to be primarily about illegal aliens. But the press reported that Donald Trump attacks all immigrants. The Mexican press reported that Trump said all Mexicans are criminals and rapists. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have seen interviews where people in Mexico still believe this.
The attacks on Trump have been so persistent and so vicious that it makes it impossible to have any kind of rational debate on immigration and border security.
In regard to illegal aliens, I have reason to believe that much of what Trump said is true. Crime statistics for illegal aliens are quite high. Thirty seven percent of the people in federal prisons are non-citizens. It is higher in California. Illegal aliens commit 11.7% of all the crime in the United States.
So Donald Trump has been attacked for mostly telling the truth. You can nitpick over details, but immigration is a serious issue.
I will be the first to admit that Donald Trump is a narcissist. I personally think that Hillary Clinton is a sociopath. We have two of the most flawed candidates we have ever seen and we are stuck with them. Despite this, either one is competent to be president. The press has tried to make this election about personality, but I think that what is important is the type of government these two candidates represent. The issues have taken a back seat to character assassinations.
Just when I thought that things could not get any worse, somebody has been putting up naked statues of Donald Trump all over the country. These effigies are not flattering. This is not only obscene, but it is the meanest form of political discourse. It is cruel. It has made my blood boil. Rational debate has gone out the window.
What kind of outrage would there be if people put up naked statues of Hillary Clinton? People would scream bloody murder.
#2
Borders define a country. Borders exist to protect citizens from hostile forces coming into the country. The open border position seems to me to be Utopian in that it wants to extend our freedoms to people outside the country. I would understand this if everyone in the world respected freedom, laws, private property and if some weren't looking for a handout. But if some people got their way and adopted open borders, then I think that they would not like the result, which would be disastrous. As I have said before, people will come here until we become so crowded and our resources become so limited (and expensive) that here will no longer be as desirable a place to live. More importantly, there are aggressive people who gladly would come here to hurt us. The issue of national security alone is more than sufficient as to why we need to control our borders.
I am for legal immigration. I think that it needs to have limits. What those limits should be is debatable. If you have limits, then you need to enforce those limits, or else they become meaningless.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
#3