Whether the United States needs a wall on its southern border is the question of the day. Wall proponents simply point out the macro (most other countries have a wall or partition of some kind at their borders, so why praytell is it wrong for the United States to have one, especially given our preferred destination status) and micro (President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and the gaggle of clueless Hollyweird elites have big walls around the personal residences) hypocrisy in the wall opponent’s position.

I’ve heard several arguments against a wall, but they don’t seem to be very convincing. There’s the tug-at-the-heartstrings appeal to big heartedness, a la give me your tired your poor, which has some feeling appeal but is lame in my opinion. Most legal immigrants I know favor very strict enforcement of immigration laws. The United States is the most consistently charitable country in the world. However, we don’t need to lay down and welcome all because we’ll implode under the added weight of more folks getting government subsidies (they’re not entitlements). No country in its right mind could afford to do that, and the United States is no exception.

Until fairly recently, legal immigrants simply wanted a new life and were grateful to receive a hand up and an opportunity to live the American dream. Even though they held onto some of their traditions and customs, immigrants learned English and assimilated into society as best they could.

Today’s illegal immigrants are poor, poorly educated and, for the most part, have hands out, which doesn’t benefit us. And they don’t want to learn English or assimilate. Indeed, many of them are avowed nationalists of another country who come here to complain about our country. This simply can’t be permitted to continue, or the country will devolve into fractured potentates, i.e., like much of the rest of the world .

Some argue that since the President Trump administration hasn’t spent all of its border security budget for the year, Congress shouldn’t appropriate more money for the wall. I don’t buy that because there may be good and valid reasons for why the money hasn’t been spent yet. I am willing to give the administration a pass here.

President Trump wants the wall, which, in my opinion, is way overdue and very much needed. I have heard all of the countervailing arguments, but I find them unpersuasive. If the President caves on the wall, he just as soon not run for reelection, because this was a key campaign promise, and it’s one that resonates with proud Americans who vote.

Therefore, I say “Mr. President, full speed ahead with all due dispatch because the fate of our democratic republic lies in the balance.”