Election 2024 – It’s the Border, Stupid

During Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, his advisor James Carville crafted the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid” to highlight the US recession under then-President George H.W. Bush.  Bush also had his share of “stupid” by raising taxes after uttering his famous promise, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”

The rest is history but Carville’s campaign admonition guided Clinton’s successful election. Given the state of today’s economy of inflation, high interest rates, and economic malaise, it’s still the economy. But now there is another mantra hopefully used by candidate Donald Trump and all Republicans.

“It’s the border, stupid” is the new catchphrase which should be shouted from the rooftops by any Republican seeking election, and even those not currently running. Along with “It’s the economy, stupid.”

It’s clear that America’s open border is an unmitigated disaster, allowing over 300,000 known migrants to enter the U.S. each month. Migrants are arriving from all over the world, including from geopolitical adversaries like China, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Few if any are vetted, meaning their health, criminal, education, work skills, literacy, and motivations are unknown. Anyone can ask for political asylum, as they are coached to do. To federal border agents, they are a massive herd of sheep, and it’s all they can do just to get them across the border, feed them a snack, and put them on a bus or plane to Denver, New York, or Chicago.

There are also an unknown number of euphemistically called “gotaways,” those sashaying into the U.S., not encountering border agents, then disappearing somewhere into America’s heartland. How many?

CBP reports over 1,000 “known “gotaways” a day. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledges 600,000 “gotaways” in 2023. These are the “known” gotaways. How many are unknown? Unknowable but likely at least as many as known.

Adding this up, it’s more than the 3.9 million population of Los Angeles joining America’s welfare rolls each year. American cities are choking under this invasion, cutting vital services to feed and house these hordes of illegal immigrants.

What do voters think? Is this a viable campaign issue this year? Hell yes.

Rasmussen Reports recently surveyed U.S. likely voters finding that the economy and immigration are on top of the importance list for the upcoming presidential election.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans, 58% of Democrats and 62% of unaffiliated voters expect economic issues will be very important in the presidential election.

Seventy-nine percent of Republicans, 45% of Democrats and 61% of unaffiliated voters think immigration-related issues will be very important in November.

It’s not “abortion, stupid,” as many on the left believe is the top issue for voters. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Democrats, 28% of Republicans and 32% of unaffiliated voters say abortion will be a very important election issue this year.

Rasmussen Reports asked likely U.S. voters about immigration in another way. Eighty-one percent say it is important that the government stop illegal immigration, including 55% who consider it very important. Just 17% don’t think it’s important for the government to stop illegal immigration.

In other words, 4 out of 5 believe the government should close or secure the border, but not as many think the election will hinge on the issue. Perhaps voters feel that the personality and cognitive capacity of the likely Republican and Democrat candidates, respectively, will be the top issue. Perhaps so.

But the majority of likely voters give the government a thumbs down on stopping illegal immigration with 55% rating government response as poor and only 16% believing the government is doing a good or excellent job.

Perhaps more stories like the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley at the hands of a previously arrested, but not detained or deported, illegal immigrant, will sway those survey numbers.

Or when a bunch of violent Haitian cannibals surge onto the southern US shores.

This is more than an American inconvenience, simply a handful of migrants already here. Instead the number is 15 percent of the U.S. population, as Breitbart noted, “Biden has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to nearly 50 million — the largest ever in American history.”

Increasing the U.S. population by 15 percent, most of those with no interest in assimilating into American life, instead bringing their culture, often violent or deadly, into the U.S., will forever change America. Many of these cultures view women and children as property, to be beaten or raped on a whim.

America is rotting from within. We are spending money we don’t have, incurring debt we can never repay. Our culture is falling apart, and we are fighting winless wars around the world. Now we are adding tens of millions of migrants, not assimilating, and requiring resources we no longer can provide.

The November election is the only way to course correct, assuming it’s not too late already. Elected Republicans, rather than banning TikTok or fretting over Taylor Swift concert ticket prices, needed to make the case to American voters. It’s the border (and economy, too), stupid.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a physician and writer.

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