On Friday, February 15, 2019, Donald Trump declared a national emergency. He claimed the United States desperately needs a wall on our southern border, you know, the one with Mexico. He told us he really didn’t need to do it now, but he was going to do it anyway. He didn’t get the money he wanted for his wall. Boo Hoo!
I realize Mr. Trump’s knowledge is severely limited, but one would expect a 72-year-old man would know what an emergency is. For a situation to be an emergency, there must be an actual impending or ongoing disaster where many lives and property are in jeopardy.
No one should be able to declare An emergency unless there is actually a bombing, a missile coming in our direction, an earthquake shaking America, a volcano erupting, a flood happening, a tornado forming, a hurricane barreling down on our coast, a blizzard overwhelming territory, wildfires spreading, or climate change threatening to destroy our planet. There are a few other things that MIGHT be considered emergencies, very few. A stupid destructive, racist unnecessary wall on our southern border does not fit the criteria.
It seems to me the only emergency here is a child-man president who constantly throws tantrums that Republicans/conservatives feel they need to respond to by giving him what he wants. Every parent knows this is not the way to deal with a spoiled whiny child.
Republicans know our southern border is not a crisis or any kind of emergency in the traditional, English language definition. It is, however, a way of energizing white people who have been immersed in thoughts/beliefs that non-white people are bad, well, dangerous and those people are coming across our southern border in hordes.
Reality, of course, is quite different. People are not swarming across the border and for the most part, are crossing at actual border crossings and requesting asylum. They are mostly families desperate to get away from the death threats and destruction in their own countries. For those people, getting to the border is an emergency. They need help. They have travelled a thousand miles or more to find safety. The US border is just one more barrier to safety for those families.
Mr. Trump has been informed of these facts, but he does not care. Truth does not penetrate his wall obsession, a “beautiful wall, the biggest, most beautiful wall ever.”
He visited the border states, but saw only what his handlers wanted him to see. What did they want Mr. Trump to see, the parts of the wall that exist and the crowds of people in groups that have been forced to wait for their asylum pleas to be heard. Did Mr. Trump hear the people who are suffering? Of course not! Did he talk to the land owners whose land will be stolen through eminent domain? Of course not! Did he get to see kids in cages? Of course not!
When you don’t see the actual problems, and you are as limited in ability to understand as Mr. Trump is, you cannot imagine the true suffering that is occurring. A “simple” wall seems the solution to a problem that does not even exist. That is, for anyone beyond the scared white people who rarely have contact with people of color, in other words, Mr. Trump’s base.
This poorly informed group of people forget they will be paying for a wall Mr. Trump told them Mexico would pay for. Those scared followers of Mr. Trump assume he will take care of them and protect them from the brown hordes at the border, so they are OK paying for it. Or, they are until they see their taxes go up, then whine about taxes. Their Republican, white representatives passed that tax deal one dark night after midnight in December 2017. They are only now reaping the fruits of the ridiculous tax law, not even read by those who voted for it.
Tell me again, what is the emergency? Are people from all over the United states rushing to help build the wall as they rushed to New Orleans after Katrina or California during and after the wildfires? Is Mr. Trump deputizing everyone on the border to stop people and drugs? The answer to both is “NO.”
That makes this “crisis” an emergency only in Mr. Trump’s childish mind. That is true, but someone is benefiting from encouraging this insanity.
We can and should speculate who that is. Perhaps it is just Mr. Trump’s scared white supporters. Maybe it’s the contractors who will build the wall. It could be the agencies that will gain all that land on the border taken from the people who have lived there and owned the land for generations. Maybe it’s all of the above and more.
The media should be looking for the beneficiaries of this emergency declaration. Investigating them would be worth our trouble because clearly these people/corporations have too much power and influence on our government.
Strong laws to protect our nation from presidential caprice would also help. I suspect Republicans in Congress currently don’t want to do anything to make the man-child in the White House angry with them. Who knows what he might do in his next tantrum? He could take money from their pet state projects as Mr. Trump proposes to do to California, stopping their high-speed railway development.
It is not acceptable that this nation be ruled by fear of a childish president, but it seems there are just not enough Republican adults in the room, and Democrats can’t do it alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment