* * *
* * *
What is happening at the southern border is a true and
actual crisis.
News accounts justly use words like chaos, collapse and
breakdown. They feature images of children — toddlers, 4- and 5-year-olds — being
shuffled to warehouse holding centers, sleeping crowded at night on what look
like pallets, covered only in Mylar blankets.
"I never thought we'd have refugee camps in
America," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, "but that's what it's
appearing."
All this gives normal people a feeling of besiegement and
foreboding.
* "NORMAL PEOPLE."
* "WE" - THE NEW MINORITY.
* FOLKS... IF WE WERE TO HOLD A NEW PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
TOMORROW - "OBAMA vs. ROMNEY - THE RE-MATCH" - I GUARANTEE OBAMA
WOULD GARNER OVER 40% OF THE POPULAR VOTE... EVEN AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN
THROUGH SINCE HIS 2012 RE-ELECTION. YES, ROMNEY WOULD WIN (I BELIEVE), BUT
DON'T FOOL YOURSELVES; AMERICA IS VERY SICK... WHICH IS WHY WHAT'S BEEN
HAPPENING HAS BEEN HAPPENING.
Is a nation without borders a nation?
* NO. (OR AT LEAST... NOT FOR LONG.)
Washington's leaders seem to recognize what's happening
as a political problem, not a real problem.
[T]hey betray no honest alarm.
They just sort of stand in clusters and... say things.
* AND WHAT IS SAID IS FILTERED THROUGH A LIBERAL MEDIA.
There seem only two groups that view the situation with
appropriate alarm. One is the children themselves, dragged through deserts to
be deposited here.
To them, everything is a swirl of lights, color and
clamor, and shouting and clanking. A reporter touring a detainment center in
Texas noted a blank, lost look among some of the younger children. Every mother
knows what that suggests. Children who cry and wail anticipate comfort: That's
why they're crying, to alert those who care for them that something is wrong.
But little children who are blank, withdrawn, who don't show or at some point
know what they're feeling — those children are in trouble.
The other group feeling a proper alarm is normal
Americans, who are seeing all this on TV and who judge they are witnessing a
level of lawlessness that has terrible implications for the country.
* PEGGY IS WRONG. PEGGY IS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE PAYING ATTENTION... KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING... KNOW WHO TO
BLAME. SHE'S WRONG. THE LIBERAL MEDIA SEE TO THAT. OUR SCHOOLS SEE TO THAT. OUR
ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA SEE TO THAT.
* FOLKS... THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA, THE ACADEMY, AND THE
ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR ALL BLAME "REPUBLICAN INTRANSIGENCE" - NOT OBAMA...
NOT HARRY REID... NOT THE DEMOCRATS... NOT LIBERALISM TURNED LEFTIST!
This is how I think normal people are experiencing what
is happening:
* FOLKS... DO YOU REALLY IMAGINE PEGGY NOONAN SPENDING
MUCH TIME WITH "NORMAL PEOPLE?"
* ANYWAY... (SORRY... CONTINUE, MS. NOONAN.)
It's like you live in a house that's falling apart. The
roof needs to be patched and there are squirrels in the attic, a hornet's nest
in the eaves. The basement's wet. The walkway to the front door is cracked with
grass growing through it. The old boiler is making funny sounds. On top of that
it's always on your mind that you could lose your job tomorrow and must live
within strict confines so you can meet the mortgage and pay the electric bill.
You can't keep the place up and you're equal parts anxious, ashamed and angry.
And then one morning you look outside and see . . . all these people standing
on your property, looking at you, making some mute demand. Little children
looking lost — no one's taking care of them. Older ones settling in the garage,
or working a window to the cellar. You call the cops. At first they don't come.
Then they come and shout through a bull horn and take some of the kids and put
them in a shelter a few blocks away. But more kids keep coming! You call your
alderman and he says there's nothing he can do. Then he says wait, we're going
to pass a bill and get more money to handle the crisis. You ask, "Does
that mean the kids will go home?" He says no, but it may make things feel
more orderly. You call the local TV station and they come do a report on your
stoop and then they're gone, because really, what can they do, and after a few
days it's getting to be an old story.
No one's in charge!
No one is taking responsibility.
No one who wants to help has authority, and no one with
authority is helping.
America is the house that is both falling apart and under
new stress. Those living within it, those most upset by what they're seeing,
know America has big problems — unemployment, low workforce participation, a
rickety physical infrastructure, an unsound culture, poor public education. (And
of course discord of all sorts — a lot of mad squirrels running around the
attic.) They know America can't pay its bills. They fear we're living on the
fumes of greatness. They want us to be strong again. Watching our border
collapse doesn't look like a harbinger of progress.
* FOLKS... PARTISANSHIP TRUMPS EVEN SELF-PRESERVATION
NOWADAYS. EVEN AS PEGGY NOONAN STATES THE PROBLEM... SHE UNDERSTATES IT.
Here it must be said that those who live comfortable
lives can afford to roll with the historical punches. But people who are not
affluent live closer to the ground, and closer to the country's deterioration.
The rougher America becomes, the more they feel the abrasion. They're not
protected.
* FOLKS... LIBERAL POLICIES HAVE OVER THE DECADES
DESTROYED THE BLACK FAMILY AND OVER THE AGE OF OBAMA HAVE RESULTED IN
STAGGERING BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT... AND YET...
* FOLKS... 2012 TOLD THE STORY.
And they know no one wants to be in charge - wants to
seize this thing and take responsibility.
The mind-boggling fact is that everyone in charge more or
less suggests they're powerless to do anything. And the children keep coming.
The president of course has rushed to the scene — to go,
as always, to fundraisers. This is at the moment a scandal, but why? Clever
people say it's an unforced error. He has to show he cares! He ought to journey
to an overwhelmed border area, stand there and point to the middle distance as
a local official in a hopefully picturesque hat briefs him. It's almost
touching how much the press wants to see this. But why? Why do they want to see
the president enact a degree of alarm he clearly does not feel?
* FOLKS... THE COLLAPSE OF THE BORDER IS WHAT OBAMA
WANTED! REMEMBER... "NEVER LET A GOOD CRISIS GO TO WASTE." HE'S
HOPING TO GET NEARLY $4 BILLION FROM CONGRESS (MORE DEFICIT SPENDING; MORE
DEBT) TO "MANAGE" THE CRISIS - NOT TO STOP THE INCURSIONS... NOT TO
SEND THE ILLEGALS HOME. HE PLAYS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR FOOLS... AND CAN YOU
BLAME HIM? SO FAR IT'S BEEN WORKING!
For a quarter-century I have been puzzled by the press's
emphasis on "optics," their stupid word — actually it is a
consultants' word they've lamely adopted — for how things look as opposed to
how they are. Their criticism comes down to a complaint they're not being
manipulated well enough. It is a strange complaint.
Give the president points for honesty. He doesn't want to
enact an "I care and am aware" photo-op. He will pay a political
price, but it is clearly a price he is willing to pay. He never has to face a
voter again.
The latest border surge has been going on for at least
two years.
Children and others are coming because they believe that
under the president's leadership, if they get here they'll get a pass to stay.
(They're probably right.)
This was predictable. Two years ago Texas Gov. Rick Perry
wrote the president that the number of unaccompanied children was spiking
sharply. He warned that unless the government moves, other minors would attempt
the journey and find themselves in "extremely dangerous situations."
The generally agreed-upon number of those who've come so far this year is
50,000. Now government estimates are rising to at least 90,000 by year's end.
Meanwhile some in the conservative press call the
president incapable, unable to handle the situation. But he is not so stupid he
doesn't know this is a crisis. He knows his poll numbers are going to go even
lower next month because of it. He scrambled Wednesday to hold a news
conference to control a little of the damage, but said nothing new.
There is every sign he let the crisis on the border build
to put heat on Republicans and make them pass his idea of good immigration
reform. It would be "comprehensive," meaning huge, impenetrable and
probably full of mischief.
(His base wants it. It would no doubt benefit the
Democratic Party in the long term.)
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