If the crowd of demonstrators at O’Hare Airport last Saturday really wanted to demonstrate against something serious they should have gone into the city. The handful of travelers1 who fell under the net of President Trump’s heightened security restrictions couldn’t compete with the 17 shootings that had already taken place in Chicago since Friday.2 That’s what happens when politics chooses our moral high ground. Reality is replaced with misplaced idealism.
Moral high ground: where bullets don’t fly
As long as Trump is in office you can count on frequent visits to the moral high ground thanks to protesters with time on their hands and activists who believe they should chart our destiny.
It’s easier to bicker over values than it is to do something substantive about real problems like getting shot. Being delayed at the airport is inconvenient. Just ask any American who was held up or missed a flight last summer because of TSA screening made necessary by Islam. Being dead is a whole lot worse than being late, but this is about creating problems to discredit the president. The demonstrations have little to do with solving real problems in the real world.
Refugee uproar is about freedom, not morals
Refugees and immigrants share the limelight in a post-Obama America that won’t be nearly as open-armed as they would like. Our country was served up on a silver platter for eight years to level the playing field between America and the world. Now things are different.
Our vision of a free country errs on the side of liberal idealism. This shaky moral high ground doesn’t question why being free means being forced to give refugees, immigrants, and even illegals what they can’t get in their own countries.
Trump didn’t start the refugee conflict. GOP governors dug in their heels over accepting refugees in 2015 and were labeled “despicable and cowardly”3 by Congressman Luis Gutierrez. He turned the dispute into a religious argument about what a free country means:
A haven for the religiously persecuted, whether they are Buddhists from Tibet, Christians from Iran, or Pilgrims from Europe. That is who we are.4
America didn’t exist when the pilgrims arrived, but inflammatory rhetoric isn’t about facts. No one is going to admit that letting in refugees from the Middle East has a lot to do with admitting illegals coming over the Southwest border. It’s hard to justify one without allowing the other. The same argument has been used to the advantage of both. This came from Democratic Caucus Chair Joseph Crowley (D-NY):
It’s unconscionable that President Trump would close the door to the desperate children, families, and elderly who have been forced to flee their homes and countries because of unspeakable acts of violence and war.5
We heard a similar sob story about the surge at the Southwest border from the Congressional Progressive Caucus:
As an extremely vulnerable population, unaccompanied migrant children need special care and protection. We must not allow politics to jeopardize any child’s safety and we should immediately reject attempts to solve the migration crisis on our southern border by circumventing due process or rule of law.6
Children shot in Chicago are vulnerable, too. The loudest voice from Washington in their defense came from President Trump. He demanded that something be done about the carnage. Meanwhile, activists protest airport delays just a few miles from the killing.
Islam, clean house. We don’t need your problems.
The moral high ground is about the values Democrats use to oppress Americans who want a truly free country and don’t like being forced to take in anyone whose country or religion is turned into our problem.
No matter that our government considers three of the countries on Trump’s list to be state sponsors of terrorism7 Forget that Iran just tested a ballistic missile. Instead, follow Democrats to the moral high ground where the U.S. is responsible for taking care of Islam’s mess by virtue of being a free country.
Trump is accused of waging a religious war, but Christians aren’t the global troublemakers who chop off heads, murder children, and commit acts of terror. Muslims are, but the moral high ground prevents us from admitting it. The world’s Muslim population is enormous. If so many are good people, it’s time for them to clean house instead of waiting for other countries to be responsible for the mess.
After Trump’s executive order Dianne Feinstein threatened that the “… Iranian prime minister has said his country will take ‘reciprocal measures.”8 Iran has repeatedly issued threats against Israel and by all appearances is intent on acquiring a missile to carry them out. Sadly, Democrats backing Obama’s no-nukes deal are just as in thrall with cultivating this Muslim nation as they accuse Trump of being with Russia.
Meanwhile, an article in the LA Times talked about flaws in the refugee vetting process.9 Don’t expect security problems to change things. This is one of those situations where the moral high ground comes first, at least until something happens to kick it out from under our feet.
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