Ross: Could border security actually be in our genes?
Nov 2, 2018, 6:27 AM
(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
First, just to state the obvious — if these refugee caravans are some sort of liberal or Democratic conspiracy, it’s the dumbest conspiracy ever. The president is probably kicking himself for not thinking of it first.
It clearly energizes his allies, but it goes beyond that.
The latest polling, conducted by TheHill.com, finds that 57 percent of Democrats want to keep the refugees out. The poll found that even a majority of Hispanics would keep them out. The only group with a majority saying the caravan should be allowed into the US are people who identify themselves as “Strong Liberals” and members of Generation Z who are just approaching voting age.
And while we know the president makes up stuff, he’s not making up what happened when the second and third caravans pushed across the Mexican border. All the reports I’ve seen mention rock-throwing, and Mexico’s interior minister told reporters some of the migrants had guns and even Molotov cocktails.
And then there was this reader comment I noticed on The New York Times website: “I consider myself a staunch liberal and progressive. I find Trump and his cronies repulsive. But … the idea of a completely open border makes me deeply uncomfortable.”
Of course it does. This crosses party lines. It crosses all the lines. Biological researchers will tell you that a fear of strangers – even peaceful strangers – is programmed into our DNA.
Not to say there aren’t people who do love everyone unconditionally – there are. In fact, about 30,000 of them in the US. They have a condition called Williams syndrome. It’s caused by — a missing gene.