My recollections are vague, but over my lifetime I don’t think of immigration as an especially partisan theme, like the national debt - it’s only when you are the party that’s not in power it becomes a crisis. And I think that is partly because it has complicated costs and benefits, so it’s hard to say what the best policy is, or how much effort is worth trying to enforce it. I’ve not heard the idea that blue states support increased immigration because it increases congressional and electoral representation, but I’m not getting how that’s partisan either, since it would work as well if you were red or blue. It doesn’t sound like a strategy that would favor one party more than another unless for some reason there was something about blue states that disproportionally attracted immigrants and you were confident the state would stay blue. I don’t think people were bothered much by Trump’s wall any more than by Carter’s or Clinton’s, and there were lots of other things in the BBB that democrats objected to. Border walls are just really hard to build successfully, we’ll see how Trump does.

So, Bob, I know you’ve been concerned about illegal immigration for years, and I can imagine it is gratifying to see a President really ramping up enforcement, but do you find yourself enthusiastic about the other stuff he’s been up to? Tariffs, yeah! Get out of NATO, Europe sucks! Global warming is a hoax! Let’s defund NSF and NIH! Screw DEI! Let Russia take over Ukraine! No immigration, except for Afrikaners! Cut the VA, dept of Education, IRS, and anything else we can think of! Nationalize elections! And forget vaccines! Really, this all sounds good?

For me the last year has been very sad, a real parade of decisions that undermine our institutions. I look at Trump and his team and I think they fit the fascist list to a T. I was surprised when I read a poll in the New York Times recently that said that Trump’s popularity is dropping, but when you look at the results by party, his support among Republicans seems as strong as ever. I live in a red state, with a democratic governor, full of many fine people of both parties. I just don’t get it, really, this all sounds good? Ok, so there is this boat in the ocean, and you have reason to suspect it may be carrying drugs or illegal immigrants and it is likely that the ultimate destination of this cargo is the United States. The correct response to this situation is to do what?