In 1987, on a warm summer evening in Berlin, President Ronald Reagan demanded that General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall!"
It was a rallying cry for freedom against Communist oppression and sparked the process for dismantling the concrete barrier.
...his charm falls far short of the Gipper's.
Within two years of Reagan's dramatic order in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the symbolic separator of Berlin, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through to meet German Prime Minister Hans Modrow.
Freedom was victorious over tyranny.
But somehow, when Beto O'Rourke demands the United States follow suit with the southern border barrier, his charm falls far short of the Gipper's.
O'Rourke, who currently resides in a southern border enclave, El Paso, is toying with a 2020 presidential run, and his most recent taunt, "I'd take the wall down," perhaps lays down the gauntlet for other Dems to either embrace or distance themselves from heading into an election season.
Borderless Bonanza
We can thank freshman Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) for this latest free-for-leftists press frenzy as he publicly questioned O’Rourke before last week's mega Texas Trump rally. “If you could snap your fingers and make El Paso’s border wall disappear, would you?"
O'Rourke saw the opening and skipped on through, dragging along with him a salivating media that had been sniffing around for a juicy bone post-Russiagate.
President Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, bit at the osseous matter and tweeted a challenge to ferret out which Dem candidates are now for open borders.
https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1096224874639642624
Although most 2020 presidential hopefuls remained silent, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sought the beckoning spotlight and offered this sage and well-researched response to Parscale, indicating O'Rourke may or may not be on to something. "I could look at it and see which part he means and why and if it makes sense I could support it."
The best non-committal committal of 2019 to date.
Another Texas lawmaker, Sen. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) -- no relation to Pablo -- is also on record as being a free-for-all advocate at America's southern border. Recently, Escobar blathered her brand of national security wisdom on a declining cable news network. "We know walls don't work, that they don't stop drugs, that they don't stop migration."
And she refused to put down that particular shovel and spun off into HGTV jargon by yammering about pleasing aesthetics, saying that walls are "really ugly."
Ugly? Maybe. Effective? Most assuredly and necessary for securing America.
The Securing of America
Americans support increasing security at the border, and the latest Rasmussen Reports poll "finds that 42% of all Likely U.S. Voters now favor the declaration of a presidential national emergency to begin immediate construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border if Congress fails to fund it."
And some Democrats, such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), have said walls "obviously" work in some areas. He also denounced the latest fad of removing existing barriers and walls and the notion spun by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that walls are "immoral."
Republicans appear afraid to ask any further questions for fear of sparking another ridiculous idea for Democrats to embrace and wave in freak-flag style in front of a desperately bored media.
In the post 9-11 years, Americans have pushed for tighter security in their country and, for the most part, have been rewarded with upgraded measures. From additional screening at airports, increased police presence at public events, and enhanced surveillance to use of biometric identity documents, flight manifest vetting, and collaboration with neighboring countries to identify potential threats, why wouldn't an inexpensive border barrier be included? It's a reasonable request.
And the spoken idea of tearing down our existing barriers should be immediately snuffed out as if a burning ember on the end of a cigarette -- in front of a government building.
