Country to Emulate!
East Germany.
They know how to close their border. Here is Tea Party candidate Joe Miller on how to solve our immigration problem, based on his military time on the German border:
During that time, he said, "East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow" from one side of the border to the other. "Now, obviously, other things there were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, obviously to secure our border. If East Germany could, we could."
And, indeed, we could. If we want to be like East Germany.
the picture is an example of how the East Germans closed the border with the Berlin Wall (and shooting anyone who got near it).
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Labels: cranks, crazy, death doom and destruction, politics, Tea Party
posted by Clemens @ 4:36 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
A key tenet of the Rally to Restore Sanity is, "I may not agree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler." I'd really hate for that to be wrong.
Of course, the East Germans were keeping people in, whereas Miller wants to keep people out. In terms of distinctions, I'd think that one not minor.
No, in a discussion of techniques for closing a border, which is what Miller was talking about, it IS a detail. The techniques involved gunning down anyone who tried to cross. I thought the picture of poor Peter Fechter bleeding to death would have made the point, but I guess not.
The techniques also involved a huge outlay of government money (in this country, that would be taxpayers' money) and the idea of big government on steroids.
My bigger point is that most of the talk of small government and balanced budgets is quickly shipwrecked by the specific policies people actually want.
But I have to admit, this one was a bit more appalling than the Republican politician a few months ago who pointed to Communist China as a good role model for us when it comes to the economy.
That was merely funny.
Jack, it just occurred to me after taking a long hot shower (to be recommended before commenting btw) that I may have interpreted your comment completely backwards. If so, set me straight and I'll try again.
I'm not feeling the outrage.
The East German policy was to shoot in cold blood citizens who were trying to leave the country over a wall they built because the phenomenal number of defectors was embarrassing them.
In your words, Miller's proposal is to shoot in cold blood non-citizens trying to enter the country over a wall we would build because the flood of undocumented immigrants brings with it a phenomenal number of undesirable consequences, such as some people's trying to pull of the amazing trick of labeling their opponents as first fascists and (when that fails) communists.
I seriously doubt that this is Miller's goal, but even if it is, most people have sufficient sense to see that it's quite different morally from what the East Germans were doing.
As for expenses and fears of "big government", one does not need a colossal security apparatus, with implied fiscal outlays, to build a wall and shoot anyone trying to get in illegally.
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