But can you see it from space?
I love this one. Of all the dumb things the Bush administration has said, done or screwed up over the last six years, this one may actually be my favourite.
The Republicans are going to save America from illegal immigration... by putting up a fence.
They essentially want to turn North America into the world's largest gated community. High tech security systems and gatekeepers will be employed to stop the plebs from sneaking their way into the leafy suburbs of Middle America, where they would be free to do appalling things like mix drinks and clean toilets.
There are some quite obvious practical problems here. The fence is planned to be only 700 miles long - and while that's still more than you could comfortably grow dahlias against, it's a good 1,200 miles shorter than the actual border. The rest of the border follows the Rio Grande - and while you and I may not think it worth trying to swim across a major river, just for the privilege of serving some plump Texans their lunch, I'm not convinced that the entire population of Latin America will agree.
A lot of these guys are already risking their life to get into the US - by crossing the desert, by cramming into container lorries alongside 40 or 50 other people, by (at least, if PJ O'Rourke is to be believed) clinging to the underside of trains. Do the Republicans really think these guys will be put off by one teensy little river crossing? And can those border guards really search every vehicle that crosses the border to check it isn't hiding 20 or 30 hungry looking Hispanics?
This is signal politics at its worst. The fence isn't intended to actually fix a problem - it's intended to make it look like someone's fixing it. In fact it's doing so just a month before the midterm elections. Now isn't that a convenient coincidence?
But the thing that worries me most about this entire project is - someone, somewhere, believed it would pass the giggle test. They thought that they could get away with sticking up a garden wall to keep Mexico out and that nobody would snigger.
And does that strike you as the action of someone you'd trust to run a superpower?
The Republicans are going to save America from illegal immigration... by putting up a fence.
They essentially want to turn North America into the world's largest gated community. High tech security systems and gatekeepers will be employed to stop the plebs from sneaking their way into the leafy suburbs of Middle America, where they would be free to do appalling things like mix drinks and clean toilets.
There are some quite obvious practical problems here. The fence is planned to be only 700 miles long - and while that's still more than you could comfortably grow dahlias against, it's a good 1,200 miles shorter than the actual border. The rest of the border follows the Rio Grande - and while you and I may not think it worth trying to swim across a major river, just for the privilege of serving some plump Texans their lunch, I'm not convinced that the entire population of Latin America will agree.
A lot of these guys are already risking their life to get into the US - by crossing the desert, by cramming into container lorries alongside 40 or 50 other people, by (at least, if PJ O'Rourke is to be believed) clinging to the underside of trains. Do the Republicans really think these guys will be put off by one teensy little river crossing? And can those border guards really search every vehicle that crosses the border to check it isn't hiding 20 or 30 hungry looking Hispanics?
This is signal politics at its worst. The fence isn't intended to actually fix a problem - it's intended to make it look like someone's fixing it. In fact it's doing so just a month before the midterm elections. Now isn't that a convenient coincidence?
But the thing that worries me most about this entire project is - someone, somewhere, believed it would pass the giggle test. They thought that they could get away with sticking up a garden wall to keep Mexico out and that nobody would snigger.
And does that strike you as the action of someone you'd trust to run a superpower?
posted by Jonn Elledge at 9:39 AM
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