HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

By Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Playing Trump’s game is almost irresistible.  At least, most of his opponents seem unable to resist it.

Richard E. Rubenstein

The name of Trump’s game is Personalistic Moralism.  The President’s politics are not policy-free, but policies in his political universe are inextricably wedded to personal moral characteristics.

If you want the Wall (“border security”), for example, that means you are strong, tough, and protective.  You are knowledgeable about the physical and cultural dangers posed by immigrants, and you care for your fellow Americans.

But what if you don’t want the Wall?  In this case, you are weak, effeminate, ignorant, uncaring, and secretly in favor of “open borders.”

This, by the way, is the text. The subtext, resting on the understanding that the main advocates of plentiful immigration since the nineteenth century have been employers seeking cheap labor, is that those who favor the Wall want to protect native American workers while those who don’t, care only about their profits.