We need some statesmen
In the second season of the PBS series “Victoria” on Masterpiece Theater, the issue of the Corn Laws in England was a subplot. Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister a staunch Tory, or Conservative Party member, bucked the land owners and supported repeal. The Corn laws were, simply put, tariffs that restricted the amount of grain that could come into Great Britain from other countries, keeping food prices high and hurting the poor.
Peel, seeing the damage that was done to the average citizen reversed his position, and that of the government, by doing something that was against the interests of many of the members of Parliament. In doing so, he eventually brought down his own government, winning repeal, but losing support of his members.
Peel set aside the interests of party, doing something that was good for the average citizen. In this regard he can be regarded a statesman, rather than a politician. In our own time, the United States is in need of statesmen, rather than politicians on many levels, but none more importantly than the ongoing controversy concerning illegal aliens.
For more than 30 years, the nation has been sparring with what to do with those who come over our borders illegally. In1986, an amnesty was imposed for the estimated 3 million illegals that had come over our borders and set up residence in the shadows. President Ronald Reagan made the worst decision of his presidency by allowing Democratic Speaker of the House “Tip” O’Neill convince him that amnesty should be given first, and the issue of securing the borders taken up later. “Later” never happened.
With the attacks of 9/11, the dormant issue of border security came up as it was believed the border – especially the southern border – was a gateway for terrorists to enter the country. That has, in fact, occurred and law enforcement agencies, both federal and state, admit that hundreds, if not thousands, of terrorists have infiltrated. The issue, so important after the attacks of 2001 became lost in the subsequent issues of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and other pressing matters.
Enter the two-term administration of Barack Hussein Obama and we have a slackening of enforcement on the southern border, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegals into the country. The estimates now range from 7 to more than 20 million individuals who have come over the border from Mexico and Central America.
The “open borders” lobby includes liberals and conservatives. Progressives have come to believe in a no-borders policy in the West as exhibited in Europe as a means of lessening tensions and tearing down the idea of the nation-state, which they believe is a cause for armed conflict. Get rid of the nation and you get rid of conflict. Conservative groups, meanwhile, deny the issue of the nation-state, but want open borders for cheap labor.
In both cases, the issue of race is brought up as a means to shut off the debate of whether a nation has the right to control its own borders. Progressives and conservatives use race as a means to corner opponents of open borders into an indefensible position. Opposing free immigration means one is a racist.
Enter the DACA and illegal immigration debates now occurring in Congress. The fact is that elites in both the Progressive and Conservative camps, those well-to-do people who will not be affected by the problems of free immigration, are coalesced against the average American. It cannot be debated that illegal immigration has harmed all of the lower 48 states in the strain it has put on education, health care and housing.
The issue needs leadership and statesmanship to cut through the special interests that now glut the process in Congress. The question is posed: do we have a Sir Robert Peel among the members of Congress who will buck the members of his own party or class and work for the interests of the average American.
The issue is not immigration, it is “illegal immigration.” A nation has a right to control its borders and the people who come into the country. Currently, the issue is clouded by those who would make it a racial issue rather than a national security issue.
The nation is in the throes of a vacuum in leadership. Both parties are controlled by those who have a vested interest in the status quo. The average taxpayer is asked to pay for the excesses of his “betters” who believe they know what is best.
Peel did what was right for Victorian England. We need leaders who will do what is right for our nation today.