In 1762, a princess from an obscure German principality became Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russians. She rapidly became one of the most powerful rulers of her day and is still one of the most powerful political women in all human history.
She probably conspired to have her husband, Peter III, murdered to ascend the throne. In this, she was probably aided by a Russian military officer and later confidant and lover, Grigoriy Potemkin.
Potemkin became her commander in the Second Russo-Turkish War, in which the Crimean peninsula was wrested from Ottoman control. After the war, Catherine ordered the settlement and Russification of her newly-gained territories and charged Potemkin with making it so. He spent extravagantly, both in treasure and manpower, but by the time Catherine began her triumphal procession to the Crimea, nothing had been completed. Then, Grigoriy Potemkin had a brainstorm: he presented Catherine with complete structures, lots of them: fortresses, arsenals, ports and a few towns. He also mocked-up villages, farms and their herds and flocks; passing by, the aging Empress was impressed by what seemed to be a thriving province. The “Potemkin Village,” defined by encycopaediasts of the time and afterward as “…any pretentious facade designed to cover up a shabby or undesirable condition.”
When President Biden made his pit-stop visit to the border in El Paso enroute to hobnobbing with his fellow wannabe autocrats in Mexico City, we saw a perfect modern example of a Potemkin village. El Paso’s streets, crowded with illegal immigrants and their accoutrements on Wednesday, had vanished by Thursday afternoon. Processing centers were emptied. In the Ports of Entry, nothing was stirring, not even a child dropped over the wall. It was a phenomenal effort by the Border Patrol, INS, the El Paso police and their various illegal-wrangler co-workers to create the illusion that 250,000 people did not cross our Southern border illegally last month.
They did, but the con largely worked. Biden visited a Port of Entry – not a hot spot, since most seeking to enter our country illegally do it in the emptiness between those few points; talked to a crew who I suspect, given the Presidential visits I’ve gone through, were thoroughly vetted to weed out people who might give the game away; and spent some time photogenically meeting Border Patrol types with a large mesh steel fence as a backdrop. His fawning sycophants in the press ate it up. No one bothered noting that, while the president was sucking up all the time and attention in El Paso, about people from who-knows-how many countries illegally entered the United States elsewhere on our border.
After they cross, most illegal entrants simply disappear into the country, most courtesy of the federal government. If they apply for the increasingly-inappropriately-named “asylum,” they are given a court date far in the future, sometimes provided cellphones and shifted to parts unknown on the taxpayers’ dime. There, they wreak havoc on the local health care, education and social welfare systems and often exert upward pressure on the lower end of the housing market. More than 90% of them never appear for their asylum hearings. The entire system is a poisonous sham.
In truth, we have no border today, and south of our southern border everyone knows it. In our country, those who take the time to learn the truth find it; those who watch NBC and its clones remain in a state of ignorance. Which is exactly how the unholy alliance of Democrats, Washington bureaucrats and country-club Republicans want it. It provides something for all of those groups. For the first, a supposedly-loyal new cadre of voters. The second gets millions of new clients and more justification of the bureaucracy’s existence. The third gets cheap lawn care and a powerful tool to keep low-wage jobs low-wage. They all win.
The only losers are American taxpayers and jobseekers, particularly those at lower levels in the wage scale. But those in charge have already written them off. They are the “smelly Walmart shoppers” who “cling to their guns and religion” and deserve another beating to remind them of their place.
Look for Democrats to propose “Comprehensive immigration reform” as a fix. Which, as we have already seen courtesy of Chuck Schumer’s tip-of-hand, a proposal of amnesty for all. He’s an ideologue idiot, so don’t bother asking him how this will stem illegal entry; like the President, he hasn’t thought that far. Hint: it won’t; instead, as with the last amnesty in the 1980s, more will pour in.
For Republicans, this offers an opportunity. The proposal should be treated as serious, and should be used as an opening gambit. Amnesty for a limited number – the approximately three million “Dreamers” we keep hearing about, for example – is possible but at a price. Trump’s border wall must be completed, extended and robustly staffed first. Multiple illegal entries should be made a federal felony, not simply multiple misdemeanors. And “Real ID” proof of identity for employment must become federal law. First. Then amnesty can follow.
This will doubtless cause squeals of anguish among Democrats, and loud bellows of “racism,” which should be treated with the contempt long overuse has brought to both. If we really want a plan that’s “bipartisan” and “comprehensive,” that’s a deal that gives both sides something, and with a timing that ensures both sides of the bargain happen. No more amnesty first, then we’ll talk about what you want. No more.
Get set for name-calling; it’ll come at conservatives hard and fast. And they should prepare some answering volleys. “Anti-American,” “promoters of chaos,” and “advocates of lawlessness” are three that pop up right away. Others will come to mind if one thinks clearly about the situation for more than thirty seconds.
NB: in a vast historical giggle, Grigoriy Potemkin is buried in St Catherine Cathedral in Kherson, Ukraine – a city much in today’s news. I’m sure he would appreciate the goings-on.
