When Walls do not Make Good Neighbors

Walls usually are not built for good reasons. They are built because you fear the people on the other side as in the Great Wall, they are built because you do not like the people on the other side as in the Berlin Wall, and they are built to keep people from sharing the wealth of a country with each other as in Wall Street. Trump’s famous border wall includes all three of these reasons.

The Republican’s say they are in fear of the people on the other side of the border. They are murderers and rapists. They will take our jobs. Terrorists will cross the border. The list goes on; spend a week listening to the right wing talk about why we need a wall and you will be convinced they are at least in verbiage terrified of the people below the border.

They also do not like the people below the border. They express a fear that they will move into our country and influence the way we live and whom we elect. And why is this bad. Because they do not share our same values. They will bring their socialist ideals with them. They will speak their language. They are a dirty people. They are lazy and take siestas and so forth. Now Republicans will proudly announce we do accept some things Latino. Food is okay for them to share with us (Although right wing pundit Tucker Carlson will steal their tacos as his own white man’s food) and we will borrow their Cinco de Mayo holidays. We are not racists.  But all that other stuff they bring to the table is just wrong and not right for America.

I feel sorry for anyone who fears as much as the Republicans. They know this fear makes them a little less manly. Some suspect this is why they hold onto their guns. Not because they want to protect themselves but they need to prop their manliness up (there is only so much Viagra can do). Of course fear goes against their Christianity. I believe it was some one named Jesus that said, “Perfect love casts out fear.” But I guess if you do not like a group of people it is hard to have perfect love and that would of course explain the fear.

But the foundational reason for the border wall is Wall Street. We want cheap labor to help keep our food prices down. We want cheap labor to hire to clean after us in our hotels. Trump has consistently staffed his hotels with people with green cards. This is the American way. We made fortunes through the use of slavery, the exploitation of Chinese, children, and so forth. Now we have amended our ways but the control of the labor force has been key to the accumulation of wealth in this country. So the more we can prevent people who we know will work in this country from establishing their citizenship the more we can control their labor. So in the end it is Wall Street or big business that wants the wall. It is about controlling the labor force that exist here in the Dreamers and the migrant workers who cross the border.

Trump’s wall is for big business to make more money not control of the border. But he has made the Wall about the poor and not the wealthy. This sleight of hand seemingly rest undiscover as of yet. Maybe one day beyond fear and prejudice we will discover this.
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