There are basically two things crossing our border that we don’t want: undocumented people and drugs/money. Both of those streams are powered by fundamental market forces (people come looking for jobs, drugs come because Americans buy them, and money flows back to the cartels when Americans buy their drugs), meaning they will be very difficult to stop without altering the market dynamics (a very long-term project, if it’s possible at all). Between that and the fact that our border with Mexico is 2,000 miles long, step one is to recognize that while having complete control over our border is a good aspirational goal, a more realistic goal is probably to reduce the flow of drugs/money and undo
One of the defining elements of this current moment in American politics is extreme polarization, a harmful state of being that is not unlike an illness of our society. That illness presents a multitude of symptoms, but this essay will focus on one: abuse of the process of Senate confirmation. The Constitution clearly lays out a process by which the president nominates individuals to hold important government posts and the Senate confirms them. To use the verbiage of the Constitution, the “advice and consent of the Senate” is required to ensure that a president doesn’t harm the country by appointing officials who are not fit to serve; the Senate serves as a governmental bouncer of sorts, kee
