Demonstrating that Lincoln was Right

Across the United States more and more of our fellow citizens are taking to the streets to voice their anger and frustration with Wall Street, the Banks, corporate greed and the failures of our government to reign in those with the deep pockets and represent the legitimate concerns of "average Americans."

Initially the demonstrators were described as being the "usual suspects," the political activists who seek opportunities to engage in public political theater including anarchists, socialists and others who are at odds with the United States.  At its nascent stages, the demonstrators descended on Wall Street in Manhattan and numbered in the hundreds.  Now the number of demonstrators has risen exponentially and demonstrations by thousands of fed up Americans are springing up in increasing numbers of cities across our nation.

Unions representing all sorts of workers are beginning to join in.  Teachers, nurses and teamsters are now participating in these demonstrations of democracy.

Some politicians and even a number of our citizens have been dismissive about these citizens who, not unlike the disenfranchised people depicted in Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant film, "Network" are making it clear that they are "Mad as hell and won't take it anymore!" and unlike the people in that 1976 film, they are not content in simply going to their windows and shouting, but are taking to the streets to make their discontent known.

One of America's most beloved Presidents, President Abraham Lincoln is remembered for many reasons, not the least, certainly, was his ability to communicate clearly and effectively, turning commonsense into an easily understandable phrase that captured the concept for the masses.  One of those phrases is certainly appropriate today:

"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time!"

It may have taken a long time and things had to get so bad that it is impossible to ignore the issues, but clearly Americans are awakening to the dire straits they and our nation are in today.

A number of news reporters have made the point that no clear message has, as yet, emerged where these demonstrators are concerned but I have a suggestion–many of the issues that have enraged these demonstrators can be traced back to many of the aspects of the immigration crisis that confronts our nation today, aspects not being dealt with by the Obama administration to be sure, but also issues that have not been effectively addressed by a succession of administrations from both political parties.

Immigration is not a single issue, but a singular issue and today, you would be hard pressed to find an aspect of our nation that is not significantly affected by the decades-old failures of our government to secure our nation's borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity.

Foreign workers are taking American jobs in increasing numbers and not just the bottom rung jobs.  More and more foreign workers are being admitted into the United States to take jobs in the high-tech industries, displacing Americans who had invested large sums of money, time and talent to acquire advanced degrees that in years past would have guaranteed successful careers and successful lives.  Today many of these Americans are unemployed or underemployed not because they lack the skills, the training or the experience and not because they were not diligent workers but because they have been betrayed by their own government that is supposed to protect American workers from the deleterious impact of foreign workers.

Even when such loyal employees retain their jobs, they are often being forced to take a reduction in wages and are losing many of the benefits including health insurance and pensions because they are now competing with foreign workers for their jobs, jobs they may have held for many years.

Students who are demonstrating about how their tuition's have risen stratospherically while student services have dropped are witnessing how many politicians have become advocates for providing in-state tuition for illegal alien students whose presence in our country represents a violation of law while American students from neighboring states are required to pay much higher tuition rates.

Apparently, to these politicians, the borders that separate states are far more important than the borders that are supposed to define and protect our nation.

These students have also come to the sobering realization that even after graduation, they may not be able to find work within their chosen careers because jobs are being outsourced and foreign workers are being imported to do those jobs.

President Barack Obama has made a number of infuriating jokes about immigration that were utterly disingenuous and made a mockery of these extremely important laws that are supposed to protect our nation and our citizens for all sorts of challenges and threats but he then went on to take heretofore unprecedented measures to sue states that attempt to enact their own immigration laws and seek, through the issuance of outrageous policy memos to terminate deportation hearings for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and then provide them with the authority to work in the United States even though their very presence in our country represents a violation of laws that he, as the President, took an oath to enforce.

Here are a couple of examples of President Obama's chutzpah:

"Alligators in the Moat": Obama Mocks Concerns About Border Security

"Mr. President, no one in Arizona is laughing”

Democracy is not a spectator sport and increasing number of our fellow citizens are participating in the process.  The First Amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Whether they like it or not, our political leaders need to listen to the citizens of our nation; the demonstrators are acting in accordance with the principles upon which our nation was founded.