Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Governor Perry Grandstands with 1,000 National Guardsmen at Border

Governor Rick Perry has decided to make a play for the hearts and minds of American nativists by calling up 1,000 National Guardsmen to "protect the border" his state of Texas has with Mexico. This can only be an electoral ploy because it is both excessive and insufficient. The use of military assets to prevent people crossing the border makes Texas look like East Germany, and that is hardly a positive. By the same token, 1,000 troops can't do much along a 1,200-mile-long border.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Governor Perry distinguished himself on immigration by taking a pragmatic and humane stance. For instance, he wanted to charge in-state tuition fees (much cheaper than out-of-state) to undocumented kids trying to get a degree in Texas. During one of the debates, he said, "If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no reason than they've been brought there, by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart." Truly compassionate conservatism means not punishing children for the acts of their parents.

Governor Perry also understood that having these kids educated and integrated into the workforce was going to benefit Texas. "In Texas, we made the decision that it was in our best interests as a state, economically and otherwise, to have those young people in our institutions of higher learning and becoming educated as part of our skilled workforce," he said on a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

His campaign imploded largely over his inability during a TV debate to recall the three agencies of the federal government that he would shut down. However, had that not happened, the nativists in the GOP would have eventually defeated him for not wanting to shoot undocumented aliens on sight.

Mr. Perry is not the brightest man in the politics game, but one doesn't become a governor without possessing some political nous. The 2016 GOP race is wide open (unlike the Democrats' inevitable Mrs. Clinton, who was inevitable in 2008 as well). Mr. Perry probably sees a way to the White House, but he must shore up his support as a (White) America Firster. These 1,000 troops will help.

The US National Guard is structured in such a way that the state governor is its commander-in-chief, unless the president "federalizes" the Guard (Ike did this during the Little Rock Racist Resistance to integration). When federalized, Washington pays the bill. In this case, Mr. Perry will have to find the money in the Texas state budget. That may or may not play against him depending on how he presents it. Currently, he is steering $1.3 million each week to the state's Department of Public Safety.

Of course, 1,000 is insufficient, and the White House has called him on it. "Gov. Perry has referred repeatedly to his desire to make a symbolic statement to the people of Central America that the border is closed," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "And he thinks that the best way to do that is to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the border. It seems to me that a much more powerful symbol would be the bipartisan passage of legislation that would actually make a historic investment in border security and send an additional 20,000 personnel to the border."

That isn't going to get it done either. Creating conditions in Central America under which people don't want to leave is the best way to halt the flow of people without papers to the US. Another way to do it is to make getting papers easier. Of course, neither has the electoral appeal to the Tea Party reactionaries that deploying troops does.

Perhaps Governor Perry could find some surplus barbed wire and guard towers, too. East Germany isn't in business anymore.

© Copyright 2014 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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