“Good fences make good neighbors,” the proverb Robert Frost embedded in his famous poem “Mending Wall,” has been misinterpreted and exploited by Donald Trump for his own distorted means in attaining his end-goal of keeping as many people of color out of the United States as he can.
His campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again” served as a not-so-subtle dog whistle to “Make American White Again,” which it never was from the very beginning ever since Europeans stole the land from First Nation peoples.
Robert Frost’s poem was a polemic arguing against building fences (walls) that separate us from our neighbors. Opening with the line, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” continues to describe the narrator’s efforts to convince his neighbor not to construct a fence.
Frost quoted the proverb as an ironic ploy to express his deeply-held view that literal and figurative boundaries separate people from one another and from themselves.
The Chinese constructed, repaired, reconstructed, and extended their “Great Wall” for over 2,000 years. It ultimately reached the length of 3,700 miles by the end of the 17th century, after which it eroded to its current state of decay. With all the effort and expenditure of resources going into the Wall, it never functioned as it was meant to since enemies of the great Chinese dynasties found ways of breaching this intended grand barricade.
Though the Soviets fortified their Berlin Wall with armed guards who shot anyone attempting to scale its heights – in either direction – an estimated 5,000 people, nonetheless, escaped its confinement between its construction in August 1961 to its demolition in early November 1989.
Though the Soviets did not keep detailed records, estimates range from 136 people shot by guards to upwards of 240 killed in shootings, accidental falls, and in suicides following failed attempts at escape.
Donald Trump cares nothing about a physical barrier’s effectiveness or cost because he constructed the idea of a wall as political bait in the minds of the electorate to rile and hook people into supporting him. In this way, he sufficiently distinguished himself from all the others in the well-stocked pond of contenders.
Though the U.S. border with Canada is literally twice the length as that with Mexico, and several suspected and known terrorists infiltrated down from the north, Trump’s total focus has been to stop terrorists and “illegal aliens” from the south.
The current President is well-versed in the notion of walls in all their guises.
Trump’s family’s wealth and privilege walled him off from having to serve in the U.S. military during a mandatory draft. He and his father lost a lawsuit charging them with racial discrimination by locking out people of color from renting and purchasing apartments in their properties.
Donald Trump, arguably the more prominent of the so-called “birthers,” attempted to wall-off President Obama by continually arguing that he was born outside the United States, even well after the President released his official birth certificate. This along with his supposed investigations into Mr. Obama’s time spent in Indonesia as a child, and inquiries into his African roots on his father’s side coexist as not-so-veiled xenophobic and racist rants.
Since taking office, with his “America First” declaration, Trump has placed a diplomatic concrete wall around the United States by weakening our commitment to and engagement with NATO allies and by pulling out of our treaty obligations with Mexico, Canada, and Iran.
Trump placed the U.S. in a cage by divorcing from the Paris Climate Accords and by closing his mind even to the possibility of human-related climate change.
He continually places access barriers around the Constitution, and particularly the First Amendment’s “free speech” clause, by going after and restricting the media.
Trump supports impediments to the voting booth with measures like gerrymandering and other suppression campaigns by reducing the number of polling stations in primarily minoritized racial communities and limiting days and times for pre-election-day voting.
If his unqualified support for Republican attempts to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act eventually succeeds, an estimated 30 million lower-income people will find themselves surrounded by impenetrable obstacles to quality healthcare.
Donald Trump has dedicated his entire life in erecting walls to divide and conquer, to “win” for himself at any cost to his now non-existent sense of dignity, integrity, and empathy.
He has assembled a self-imposed blockade to keep out information, facts, and truth. The only things permeating his self-described “artistically-designed steel slats” of his projected border wall are feelings and conclusions he reaches by gut intuition alone.
Trump’s attempts to construct 15th-century barrier technology, which did not work even in the 15th century, will certainly drain and waste valuable resources that could be used effectively for other national projects, such as rebuilding and replacing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
The word “bridge,” however, is simply not in Trump’s meager vocabulary.
◊♦◊
Are you a first-time contributor to The Good Men Project? Submit here:
◊♦◊
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.