Chester A. Arthur: A laid back reformer

Chester A. Arthur was Vice President under James A. Garfield.  When Garfield died as the result of an assassin's bullet less than 200 days into his term, Arthur became President.

He was born on October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont, to a Baptist minister who had emigrated from Northern Ireland. In 1848 he graduated from Union College. He taught school, practiced law, was admitted to the bar, and became a New York lawyer. He served as Quartermaster for the State of New York during the Civil War.

He was a very laid back person who cared a lot about what he looked like and took particular detail to make sure he was dressed sharp. He loved wine and ate well.  He enjoyed drinking wine at the finest restaurants and at the finest clubs in New York.  He enjoyed fishing, and often did so with his good friend, New York Senator Roscoe Conkling.

A major issue within the republican party at this time and a serious source of contention were a battle over civil service reforms. Half Breeds tended to be more conservative and wanted to keep the spoils system. Stalwarts, on the other hand, tended to be more progressive and wanted to end the spoils system in favor of a merit system.

A spoils system is one where elected officials nominate or appoint their friends and family members who helped them get elected to public offices. A merit system is one where elected officials nominate or appoint only the most qualified people to public offices.

Both Arthur and Conkling were Stalwarts. Arthur's  political career began as a result of the Spoils system. Essentially, after Ulysses S. Grant became President in 1870, Arthur was appointed to the post of Collector of the Port of New York at the Customs House as a political favor for helping Grant get elected. He worked as marshal over the thousands of Custom's House employees, and he worked for his good friend Conking.

President Hayes, in an attempt to reform the Custom's House, released Arthur from his duties. To remedy the situation, Conkling tried to get former President Grant nominated during the election of 1880. His efforts failed. After a long conference, on the ballot, James A. Garfield, a Half-Breed, was nominated as president, mainly because he was viewed as a moderate. To keep the stalwarts happy, Arthur was nominated as Vice President.

As Vice President, Arthur remained loyal to Conkling, even while Garfield and Conkling battled each other over Garfield's nominations for public offices. When Garfield nominated a Half Breed to lead the Custom's House, Conkling became irate. He worked hard to position the Senate to block Garfield's nominations. Conkling would end up resigning from the Senate, and Garfield's nominations were confirmed.

Less than 200 days after Garfield was elected president, he was shot twice by a disgruntled Charles Guiteau, who believed Garfield owed him a patronage position for helping him get elected. After Garfield collapsed, Guiteau shouted, "I am a stalwart, and Arthur is now president." Guiteau was captured, found guilty, and hanged.

This sort of changed the political spectrum within the republican party and civil service reform was made a leading issue. Dorman Bridgeman Eaton wrote a bill that required politicians to fill federal government jobs based on merit and not political affiliation. It required new government workers to start at the bottom and only to move up based on merit exams. George H. Pendleton of Ohio was the bill's main sponsors in the Senate, and for whom the bill was named. 

Partly due to the assassination of Garfield, partly due to republican defeats during the midterm elections of 1882, and partly because he didn't want to be viewed as being controlled, Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883. 

It is true that Arthur was viewed as a laid back president. He strolled into office at 10 a.m., signed papers, and was done by 4 p.m.  He would then go for a walk, take a nap, and have a peaceful meal with his family and friends. Yet he was very effective during the few hours he did work. 

Some believe that the administrative experience he obtained while working for the Custom's House gave him the experience needed to be an effective President. He was very skillful at his administrative duties. However, it should be noted that the number of federal employees in 1880 paled in comparison with 2016. For instance, the Secretary of State was served by only three assistants. 

Likewise, while Garfield was nominated partly on a ticket that was for higher tariffs, Arthur saw a need for a reduction in tariffs. Part of the reason was because it was difficult to administer tariffs, and another part was because the Treasury had an embarrassingly high tariff while money was in short supply. So, he would end up signing the Tariff Act of 1883. This is an action that conservatives can be proud of. 

He also adamantly opposed the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1882. This was a "pork barrel" bill whereby government surplus would be spent on river surveys made to clean out and deepen selected waterways and to make various other river and harbor improvements. He believed that any Federal monies should be spent on projects that benefited all Americans, and that this bill would mostly benefit Southern states. 

He vetoed the bill, but Congress overruled his veto. He then argued that any Federal surplus in funds should be given back to the people via tax cuts rather than pork barrel spending projects. For this, he can be heralded as a good conservative. 

By 1872, Americans were growing increasingly fearful about the economic effects of Chinese laborers legally entering the United States from China. Of course, worsening this fear was growing concerns that these laborers would not be willing to assimilate into American culture.  This resulted in Congress passing the Page Act of 1875, which limited which Chinese laborers could enter the Union.

This bill actually made sense, because it banned any Chinese person convicted of a felony, any Chinese woman who would engage in prostitution, and any laborer who would participate in forced labor from entering the Union.  The bill was named after it's main sponsor, republican representative Horace F. Page, who said the bill would "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women."

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 took these restrictions to another dimension, banning all Chinese laborers from legally entering the Union for 20 years. The bill passed Congress by huge margins, but Arthur went against the grain and opposed this bill claiming that the 20-year ban was unreasonable and that the Chinese contributed a great deal to the American economy.  However, he would end up signing the bill after the ban was reduced to 10 years. 

This is considered by many to be the first Federal Immigration Law that excluded certain people from legally entering the United States. 

The Immigration Act of 1882 dealt with laborers coming to America from Europe, often referred to as the "Great Wave."  As life in Europe was changing, many Europeans looked to find better opportunities by immigrating to America. Some of these laborers were desirable, so it was decided that a ban on all European immigration was not a good idea. The Act would end up banning paupers, criminals, and lunatics from entering the United States. 

Garfield's Secretary of Navy, William H. Hunt, advocated for the Navy to be updated. Since the Civil War, the fleet of ships had been depleted from nearly 700 vessels to only 52, and most of these were obsolete. One of the main reasons for this decline is that most of the wars fought after the Civil War were Indian wars in the West, so a huge Navy was not needed. 

Hunt's successor, William E. Chandler, organized an advisory board to prepare a report on modernization. Based on the report, Congress appropriated funds build modern ships. Democrats were opposed to the project, and when they won Control of Congress during the 1882 midterm elections, stopped the funding of more ships. Still, Arthur is often credited with improving the Navy. 

He also pushed for the International Meridian Conference, which established the Greenwich Meridian as an international standard for zero degrees longitude. Another thing he did was sign into law in 1882 the Edmunds Act, which was an anti-Mormon bill that made polygamy illegal. Polygamy remains illegal to this day.

Arthur promised not to run for re-election, and he stood firm to this promise. However, he stood in the running until the republican convention of 1884 when he was not nominated. He died in 1886 of a fatal kidney disease that he probably knew about and kept secret while he was president. 

Further reading:

• Miller Center: Chester A. Arthur: Domestic Affairs, http://millercenter.org/president/biography/arthur-domestic-affairs, accessed 3/20/16
• whitehouse.gov, Chester A. Arthur, https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/chesterarthur, accessed 3/20/16
• history.com, Chester A. Arthur, http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/chester-a-arthur#, accessed 3/20/16
• Wikipedia, Chester A. Arthur, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_A._Arthur, accessed 3/20/16
• CDC: Federal income tax: paying the President's depts

Indeed, fear has created Trump

One of my socialist friends said that Trump plays on fear. I actually denied this during our discussion, although in retrospect I have decided that she was right: Trump does play on fear.

Trump caters to Americans who no longer recognize their country, and who fear losing it. He caters to Americans who fear terrorism, and feel our leaders are doing nothing about it.

You have immigrants coming into this country left and right.  Actually, immigrant refers to those who come into our country legally.  Those who come in illegally are not immigrants, they are invaders. We have no idea who these people are. They have nothing to offer. They are coming here for free stuff. They have no intention of learning English or assimilating.

Most immigrants who have been allowed to come into our country legally over the years are people who have something to offer.  They are lawyers and doctors and scientists.  They are engineers and journalists. They were inventors. They came here and they wanted to become Americans. They were glad to learn English and American history and were more than eager to hang American flags on their front porches.

Invaders have no intention of learning English.  They have no desire to learn American history. They do not care how America was formed.  They have no interest in learning about American Exceptionalism. In fact, some of them hate America, and believe their country is better than America. They are only here to take advantage of our generosity.

And, of course, once they come in, they know our leaders will not enforce immigration laws, and will not kick them out. In fact, there are some leaders in both parties who want to grant amnesty to invaders, even giving them pathways to citizenship.

Democrats want them to become citizens to they will vote for them, and most polls show they would. Democrats need victims, a permanent underclas sincapable of taking care of themselves, incapable of providing for themselves who will always be counted on to vote Democrat to be taken care of by programs created by democrats.  A majority of democrats across the board, both among the voting class and the establishment, support some sort of amnesty for illegal aliens. They feel this is the compassionate thing to do. Or at least that's what they say, because the real reason is that they want their votes.

A majority of republican voters do not support amnesty. To them this is the compassionate thing to do for the majority of Americans who want to preserve the culture that was formed after this country was established. They believe illegal aliens are here illegally, they are destroying our economy, and they are destroying our culture. Yes, it's sad that some people might have their feelings hurt, but they broke the law and they have to go.

The only republicans who support amnesty are among the establishment. They think that in order to continue winning elections they need the Hispanic vote, and the only way to get them is to be seen as the nice guys who supported amnesty. They somehow think that if they support amnesty, by some magical means Hispanics will start voting republican, which is not going to happen.

This is why you have people like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush supporting amnesty. Bush has been pro amnesty all along, along with his older brother George W. Bush. Rubio was a member of the gang of eight who got an amnesty bill through Congress. Other republicans said they would support the Gang of Eight Bill so long as their was an adjunct to the Bill promising that any illegal allowed granted amnesty was not allowed to become a citizen for 10,15,20, or 30 years. The idea was that they would not be allowed to vote for many years down the road, making this Bill not about voting. But nobody in the establishment of either party was interested.

And then you have people like Chuck Schumer saying, "This is not about voting; this is not about citizenship; we are granting amnesty, not citizenship." But they as soon as the bill passes, they are going to start saying things like, "We are allowing them to live here, work here, join our military, and so now that compassionate thing to do is to allow them to become citizens and to allow them to vote." You know that's what's going to happen, because that's how democrats operate.  They lie.

If you don't believe me, look at how Obamacare got passed. They said it was going to lower healthcare costs. They said you can keep your current healthcare program if you liked it. They said healthcare premiums would go down. They said it was going to help the economy. They said it was not a tax. And then as soon as it was passed, the Supreme Court declared that it was a tax. And then healthcare costs went up. And then healthcare premiums went up. And then businesses stopped hiring full time workers and the number of part time jobs skyrocketed. You see, they tell you what you want to hear to get their bills passed, and then when they pass they change their minds. And no one ever calls them on it, but that's a story for another day.

Making matters worse is some people believe the 14th Amendment gives anyone born within our borders automatic citizenship. For this reason pregnant women come into our country to have their children, for free in American hospitals (and these hospitals can't afford it, and some have closed because of it), so their children will gain citizenship. Then they become anchor babies and democrats and republicans alike won't send them nor law breaking families home.

So democrats support amnesty because they need a permanent underclass to create programs for so these people continue to vote democrat, and most republican voters don't understand why the republican establishment would by into this. Voters cannot fathom why any republican would sign onto this, and then you have Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio doing exactly that.

Amnesty would do nothing more than give democrats a permanent voting class, and it would destroy the republican party and it would therefore destroy any culture that's left over from our founding. It would destroy America. Voter hate this idea, and the establishment is saying, "Screw You!" And that is what has created Donald Trump. The republican establishment keeps pushing Amnesty, the voters keep saying they don't want it, and the establishment continues supporting amnesty. Voters are fed up with it, they are angry, and they are supporting an outsider in Trump who says he will, once and for all, remedy the immigration/invasion problem.

They are coming here to take advantage of our country. Yes, we have every reason to be ticked off about this. We have every reason to fear this, and fear that our leaders don't care. And that is why Donald Trump has 42% of the republican vote, because he says he will build a way, and he will deport illegals, and he will do it; people believe he will do it. And so that is why he is so popular. That is the essence of the Trump movement.

And, coming in among them, are people who want to destroy our nation. They are people who establish themselves into our country in order to destroy us, to terrorize us, from within. And despite this fact, our leaders, both republicans and democrats, have done nothing to stop it.  In fact, the invasion has been put on steroids during the Obama administration.

Democrats have created rules that allow illegal immigrants invaders access to many of the programs offered by government, and they surely cannot be turned down by hospitals.  Most of them have no ability to pay their medical bills, and this is a problem because it is illegal for hospitals to turn them down. So our hospitals, or our government, gets stuck paying their medical bills. Some of them have closed their doors, leaving American citizens with no local hospitals.

And the influx of invaders, who are not doctors and lawyers and journalists, who are people who would have something to offer. They are poor people, people who our government allows to have access to food stamps and welfare. This is a huge economic burden, costing us millions of dollars each year.

Added to that is the fact that they are taking jobs Americans would do. But Americans can't take these jobs because the supply of workers is to great that the wages for these jobs have declined so much they are not worth taking. Economics 101 suggests that as the demand for jobs increases and the supply of jobs stays the same, wages decrease.

I think it was Ted Cruz who said that journalists would care if it were journalists coming across the border driving down their wages.  Lawyers would care if it were lawyers coming over driving down the wages for lawyers.

Yes, there is fear here. And making matters worse, you have countries walking all over America. You have our leaders making bad deals with nations like Iran, setting them on a track to obtaining nuclear weapons. Could you imagine if ISIS gets access to such weapons? It's possible.  And our leaders are doing nothing about it.

We also have a national debt that is spiralling out of control, and this problem is only exacerbated by a president who just proposed adding another $4.3 trillion to this debt. And then you have one candidate in Bernie Sanders who proposes for the government to increase taxes by $500 a month so he can hand out more "free stuff" and this only adds to the burden and the fear. It solves nothing. We are already spending money at a faster clip than we can afford, and adding more entitlements only gives more power to those in power, and this does more harm than good.

Adding to this is you have member of the Obama administration making bad deals with climate change activists in Paris to set more global regulations that make it even harder for corporations to make profits. You have so many regulations that it's almost not even worth opening up a new factory in the U.S., because there is so much overhead just to start. This is one reason why corporations like Ford open new factories in Mexico instead of the U.S. Add to this the rising minimum wages and rising costs of healthcare, and it only gets worse.

It seems there is no bottom line any more. There are no limits to immigration, there are no limits to how far taxes can go. There are no limits to social programs. There are no limits to how many regulations can be created. No limit to how many women you can seduce. No limit to who you can marry. No limit on socal values.

There are no rules. There are no limits.

And that is why religion was so important to our nation. That is why immigration and immigration laws were so important, because they assured that, if you come here, you will become one of us and make us better as a nation.  You had something to offer.  Now we just let anyone in, regardless of who you are, regardless of what you have to offer.

There are no limits to social decline. For instance, there are not leaders who say, "Hey, you cannot say that! You cannot do that!"

Even parents are no longer setting limits.  Dads used to set the rules.  Dad's would say things like, "You will not have sex until you are married.  You will go to college.  You will work. You will not lip off.  You will not support communism in this house. You will be a good person. You will say nice things. If you don't, you will get a licking."

The same thing with mothers. My grandma used to click me on the head when I was naughty. She took me to church, and when she was unable she expected I would go myself. If she found out I didn't go, I was in trouble. I might have been yelled at. She made me feel uncomfortable. I always felt uncomfortable when I broke rules, because there was that underlying guilty feeling they created in the back of my mind."

Now there is not guilt. This is because there has been an all out onslaught of Christianity. There has been an onslaught on religion. There has been an onslaught on rules of civilization. There has been an onslaught on institutions.  There has been an onslaught on American Exceptionalism. Examples of this is when Obama appologizes to our enemies, and breaks apart our mighty military, and has our enemies bail out stalled Navy ships and has soldiers bow to our enemies in embarrassment.

There just seems to be no common sense in government anymore. There doesn't seem to be anyone who says, "Woah, let's put on the brakes. We cannot afford this.  We cannot do this. We cannot continue to artificially raise the minimum wage. We cannot continue to increase regulations and burdens on businesses. We cannot continue to raise taxes on the middle or working class.  We cannot continue to allow people to invade our nation. We are in a state of moral and social decline. We need to STOP!"

We need adults, mature people, in positions of power to stop the attack on institutions, and to stop the attacks on people who succeed. We need people to stop the attacks on capitalism.  We need people to stop the attacks on liberty. We need people to stop the attacks on Christianity.  We need people to recognize and stop the moral decline of our nation.

There's no "there" there anymore. There's no basis, there's no foundation, there's no bottom line. It seems like we're in a free-for-all when it comes to any kind of values you want to talk about: Cultural, political, pop culture, you name it.

Look, for most of history America has been about getting away from too much government. We don't want government telling us what to do and how to live our lives. Now we have people in government who make it bigger and bigger. They make it so we must obey government. We Were once told to questions authority, and now we are told to obey the government or we are racist.

Enough!

We need some mature people in positions of power.  We need some adults. We do not need someone we like. We need someone who will say, "Enough! Stop! We cannot afford this. We don't have money for this. We cannot solve everyone's problems. We cannot afford to be everything for everyone. We are going to bankrupt if we don't stop. Our country is going to fail if we don't stop. If we stop, we can make America great again, just you wait and see."

This is how Trump came about.  He's the only one speaking out against all this.  He's the one who says we need to stop; we need to put the breaks on; we need to follow the rule of law; we need to set limits; we cannot afford this.  Trump, in essence, is the dad or the mom. Surely you don't want to be told no, but sometimes it's for your own good.

So, in this way, liberalism created Trump.  Obama created Trump.  The establishment republicans established Trump. I say this because, in the last two midterm elections, they were voted into office under the promise that they would stop Obama. They have not. They have allowed Obama to accomplish all his goals. They have done nothing to stop him. That has people mad. That has created Trump.

I think that there's a sizable percentage of people in this country that are frightened, scared at the lack of values, the lack of anything solid to depend on. When a downward spiral happens, there's nothing to put the brakes on it. There's nothing to stop it. Everything just keeps descending with very little end in sight. And nobody in the political culture is talking about it -- except Trump.

They have reason to be scared. You have legislators in New York trying to pass a bill that would allow illegal, undocumented aliens to vote in New York City elections. You also have 60% of democrats who think socialism would be great for America. Most Americans do not want either of these to ever happen, because they would destroy America. This fear has created Trump.

I don't want to compare the current democratic party to Hitler's Nazi party, but it was socialist ideas of Hitler that mesmerized Germany. He said he was going to assure everyone a job with fair wages, and he was going to give everyone free healthcare and free college. He offered to take care of the sick. He offered to take care of the elderly. He offered to take care of everyone. He offered everything to everyone.

And so the scary thing is he won an election, and then once he was in office he took away Bibles and he took away any freedom of choice among the populace, and he forced people to join the military, and he started to kill Jews, and he started wars to take over the world. You see, democrats aren't that bad, but they like to mesmerize people by saying they will give them free stuff. And when they are elected they will pass laws, and every new law takes away another freedom. Every new law, every new regulation, takes us closer and closer to socialism, which is exactly what we fought against in WWII, and Vietnam, and etc.

So Bernie Sanders is not on the cook fringe of the democratic party anymore, he is in the mainstream. He is a typical democrat now. And what he has to say is very seductive. Socialism is always seductive. But socialism never works. Eventually you will run out of money. Socialism says everyone will be equal, but what happened in Russia? You had the middle class, the entire middle class, lined up in food lines. They had plenty of food, but no one willing to get it into homes.

Since everyone was taken care of, there was no incentive to do anything. Heck, why would I become a respiratory therapist when I could work at a front desk at a hotel and make the same money. Why become a doctor? Why become a nurse? Why become a teacher and put up with pesky kids when I can do a less stressful job, an easier job, and make the same money. Socialism is very seductive, but it never works. It will not work in America either, but our leaders don't care. They say, Screw You.  And that created Trump.

The destruction of the American economy by those we entrusted with running our government, created Trump. The destruction of our healthcare system, the attack on our culture, and the decline of culture, decency and morality created Trump. The out of control spending created Trump. I mean, people have fears that our country as we know it may not exist if Hilary or Sanders gets elected. Truly, the fears are justified.

You have people like me who can't get ahead. You have people like me who are living pay check to pay check and who worry about their bills going up; their taxes going up. There are legitimate fears that our kids won't even live in the same country we grew up in. There's the fear they will some day get the bill for our out of control spending.

So, yes, fear has created Trump. When he comes in with the slogan (the same one used by Ronald Reagan, by the way) of "Make America Great Again!" people hear it. People want their country back. Americans feel America is no longer great.  One poll even showed that 58% of Americans say they no longer recognize their country.  They are afraid it might not be around much longer. They want it back.

We, as Americans, do not live in fear. Yet it we have been taught from the beginning, since the days of our founding, that freedom is fragile.  If we want to continue living in the American dream, then we must fear the worst and prepare for it.

Legal Immigration: Myth Buster

Oh, there have been so many myths about immigration tossed around lately it's almost enough to make me puke. In this post I will allay many of them.

1.  Conservative Republicans are anti-immigrant.  False.  What we are opposed to is illegal immigration. We believe it is important to follow the rule of law. Crossing the border legally is following the rule of law.  Crossing the border illegally is not following the rule of law.  Letting illegal immigrants stay in this country, and receive entitlements paid for by citizens and meant to be for citizens is not following the rule of law.  Providing amnesty (official pardons) to those who came into our country illegally is not following the rule of law. If you do not follow the rule of law, what you have in anarchy.

2.  Putting a moratorium on legal immigration during times of war is unconstitutional.  False.  Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants into the U.S., and the republican establishment, democrats, and the media just about went crazy. They called Trumps idea anywhere from "controversial," "racist," "un-American," "un-constitutional," "fascist," and simply "crazy."  None of these are true.  Pat Buchanan answers this call best in his column "Establishment Unhinged." He wrote:

The Constitution protects freedom of religion for U.S. citizens. But citizens of foreign lands have no constitutional right to migrate. And federal law gives a president broad powers in deciding who comes and who does not, especially in wartime. In 1924, Congress restricted immigration from Asia, reduced the numbers coming from southern and Central Europe, and produced a 40-year moratorium on most immigration into the United States. Its authors and President Coolidge wanted ours to remain a nation whose primary religious and ethnic ties were to Europe, not Africa or Asia. Under FDR, Truman and JFK, this was the law of the land. Did this represent 40 years of fascism?

2.  Closing our borders is un-American. False. Calvin Coolidge signed a law in 1924 closing our borders to immigrants. This was done because there was a massive influx of immigration, and coming in among these immigrants were anarchist terrorists. Perhaps the best example came on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, when William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz (which ironically gave us our first progressive president). Czolgosz was an anarchist terrorist who had immigrated from Europe. Between then and 1924 there were various bombings committed by anarchists from Europe within our borders. Names of other socialist-anarchist-terrorists from Europe were Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzett. They were both tried, convicted, and executed for acts of domestic terrorism. In order to curb the trend, Congress and President Coolidge decided to close the borders in 1924. They stayed closed until Lyndon signed a bill reopening them in 1965. (For the record, progressives at the time claimed that Sacco and Vanzett were wrongly accused.)

3.  Illegal immigration is not an economics issue, as republicans say.  False.  Immigration, whether legal or illegal, IS an economics issue.  Immigrants have an impact on American supply and demand for jobs.  As the supply of workers for a specific job increases, the wages employers need to pay decreases. So not only are illegal immigrants taking jobs that Americans are willing to do, they are driving down the wages and salaries these jobs pay, thus rendering them about useless for Americans seeking employment. This in turn drives up the unemployment rates.  The total unemployment in the U.S. right now is about 40 percent if you include those seeking work and those who have given up. This is much higher than the 25 percent unemployment rate of 1933.  Of course those no longer seeking work are not seen in soup lines, and that's because they are living off welfare programs. So, as you can see, illegal immigration is too an economic issue.  It is for this reason it is important to secure the border and enforce immigration laws already on the books.

4.  It is bigoted, racist, and un-American to close our borders.  False.  As noted above, it has been done before to defend and protect the American people. The number one role of government is to provide for the security of the American people. If people live in fear of leaving their homes, they will stay in their homes and stop spending money.  If this happens, the economy will tank.  This is one of the reasons Coolidge signed a bill closing the borders in 1924. It is absolutely not un-American to do what is needed to protect and defend the American people.

5.  A religious test for refugees goes against everything America stands for. False. As a matter of fact, it is statutory (required by law) and we have always screened for religion. We have to. The reason is because, when refugees say they are fleeing their country due to religious persecution, we have to ask them what religion they are. They have to tell us, because that's the only way we can validate their story. We can prove that there is, say, religious persecution going on in Syria. What we cannot prove is that every person claiming to be fleeing Syria due to religious persecution is telling the truth. So we have to verify their stories. In order to do this, we have to ask them their religion. It is the law. We also need to make sure they are actually refugees, and not members of some terrorist organization. This is common sense. The people who say we cannot ask immigrants where they are from or what religion they practice are the ones who are not well informed. 

 6.  It is not compassionate to close our borders. False. It's compassionate to help out refugees, and it's compassionate to keep our borders open to legal immigration to allow aliens an opportunity to experience American Exceptionalism.  What is often not considered here is compassion for American men and women who can't find a decent paying job because illegal immigrants are flooding the market and driving down wages. What is often not considered here is compassion for citizens and their families who are victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens. What is often not considered here is compassion for tax payers who are forced to pay for entitlement programs meant to help Americans hard on their luck only to see this money going to support immigrants here illegally. What is often not considered here is compassion for the immigrants who take the legal path to citizenship only to see those who came here illegally shown more compassion. What is often not considered here is compassion for Americans who don't feel safe and secure. What is often not considered is compassion for traditional Americans who feel they are strangers in their own country. 

7.  We cannot let one group in at the expense of another. False. We can and we have done so in the past. You do not let people into your country who pose a threat. For instance, if we are at war with the people of one country, you don't let people from that country into our country. As a matter of fact, FDR closed the borders to Japanese, German, and Italian aliens. While he has allowed Syrian Refugees into America, TheHill.com reported in January of 2015 that Obama refused to allow Christian Refugees into this country.  While he plans to allow 10,000 Syrian Refugees into this country over the next  year, there are no Christian Refugees that will be allowed in.  Let me add to this. Passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by a Democrat President, was The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (number eight US Code 1182, inadmissible aliens).  It reads:

"Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by president. Whenever the president finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, the president may, by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate."

The law was first used in 1979 by Democrat President Jimmy Carter.  He used the law to prevent Iranians from entering the United States during the Hostage Crisis.  He also made Iranian students already here check in, and if they did not have appropriate papers he deported them.  And this was not done in secret either, as Carter announced to the world he was doing this on national television.

The very first US immigration law was the Chinese Exclusionary Act of 1882. Then there was the Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903. So it is not un-American, nor racist, nor irrational, to prevent a group of people who might pose a threat to national security from entering our country.  As a matter of fact, it's the smart thing to do.

8.  We can properly vet refugees.  False. How can we do this when we can't even find illegal immigrants in our own country. How can we do that when we don't even know who is coming into our country illegally.  How can we do that if, as democrats say, we cannot ask them what their religion is.  How do we know they are really religious or political refugees if we cannot ask them where they are from and what religion they are? The answer is you can't. There is no database listing who is a refugee, so you have to ask them where they are from and what religion they practice.  In fact, as noted above, it's statutory. 

Conclusion.  The truth is, we have been at war with Muslim extremists since the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and every president since has downplayed the issue. Clinton, Bush, and Obama have all avoided the issue of immigration. They have down played it out of fear that they might be seen as no compassionate or racist or bigoted.  The result is a border that is so porous we have no idea who is crossing it. The practice of continuing to allow porous borders is suicide.  It would be like living in an impoverished neighborhood with a high rate of gang violence and keeping your doors unlocked and windows open.  Why would we continue to let people into our country at such a dangerous time as this? 

Perry looking very presidential on immigration issue

A while back I wrote a post about how political analyst Dick Morris predicted that Rick Perry would be the next GOP nominee. Today, that prediction is looking great as Rick Perry is by far presenting himself as the most presidential.

Today Morris's prediction is looking good, as Rick Perry has sent the National Guard to protect the Texas border to prevent any more immigrants from trying to illegally cross in the hopes that they can get amnesty.

A while back Barack Obama made an executive order that families with children in America may come to the United States to be with their familes.  He is likewise trying encourage Congress to pass laws giving illegal immigrants amnesty.  This has basically encouraged unhappy Mexicans to illegally cross into America, or at least send their children this way in the hopes they'll be able to join them later.

It's been estimated that over 250 children are crossing the border every day. Many states are very concerned, petitioning the president to put a stop to this, as they cannot afford to house, school and provide healthcare for all these illegal children.

The influx become so pandemic it's scary right now to be an American.  Yet Obama does not see it as a crisis.  His response is to say "I'll look into it" or "it's the republicans fault because they voted against my immigration reform."

Of course former President George Bush is not off the hook either, as he was encouraged to put troops on the border to prevent such a crisis from occurring, and he didn't so either.

I think both Bush, and now Obama, do not put troops on the border because both of them fear that doing such a thing would cause Spanish Americans to prefer the other party.  Of course, by looking at trends, most of the people crossing the border are uneducated, and most likely to vote democrat regardless.

Both also did so under the guise that American has always been a state of open borders, something that is not true.

In fact, most people do not know this, but between 1924 to 1965 we shut down immigration. We closed the borders so that those who had arrived could assimilate and become American, which they wanted to do, by the way. They learned English. They became accustomed to American holidays. They wanted to become Americans.

Today we don't even ask that those who cross our borders assimilate. This was good, because America is better when we are one united nation (a melting pot) as opposed to a divided nation (a salad bowl).  United we can conquer any problem, although divided we fall.

Rick Perry looks good by sending troops to the border.  His move looks even better when you consider that a recent poll shows that greater than 70 percent of Americans believe we should secure our border and send illegal immigrants back home.

Further reading:

1. Perry: What you are doing is a crime
2. 77% want illegal immigrants sent home, 81% say it's a serious issue