BORDER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “Lately, both President Trump and his political opponents have wreaked collateral damage on an undeserving soft target in their discussions of a border wall: the Middle Ages. Donald Trump’s obsession with the wall makes sense for his infomercial of a presidency. Like the Snuggie or the Hawaii Chair, the wall would be an overpriced, so-called solution to a crisis that doesn’t exist, but if it did exist, the wall wouldn’t solve it. Some criminals, including known terrorists, do try to get into the country, but mostly through airports. The wall, therefore, wouldn’t address any problems that in fact are real. Still, here we are, endlessly debating a wall across the border…When people describe modern problems as ‘medieval,’ they are trying to impose a chronological distance between our times and the issue at hand. For Trump, the border is a perimeter to be defended, just like his imaginary kings of old. For his critics, the wall is a simple piece of technology, maybe adequate against barbarians, but not up to the present moment’s challenges.”
–David Perry, “The wall isn’t medieval,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, January 11, 2019 5:47 pm