Printer-friendly version
By Patrick Osio, Editor, www.HispanicVista.com
May 20, 2010 (San Diego's East County) -- Ignorance is a sad state. It stops being sad when the ignorant person holds public office, where actions can be harmful to the community, state or nation he/she serves. This is particularly true when adding to ignorance are biases and a narcissist personality. Further damage is often done by passing on to sons/daughters those traits.
Such is the case of former California (52 District) Congressman Duncan Lee Hunter, who while in office (1982-2008) exhibited extreme bias and ignorance on all issues pertaining to Mexico, and has passed his genes to his son, Duncan D. Hunter, who took over his Congressional seat in 2008.
Ignorance based on biases most often brings unintended consequences that can be grievous, causing far worse problems. A prime example is the present set of problems faced by Arizona, which have roots in Duncan Lee’s actions while a Congressman. The problem has led to the most draconian law yet enacted by a state of the union that defies the US Constitution; if not rescinded by the state or the court the law can lead to the most deplorable civil and human rights violations of our times.
In the 1990s, against the advise of countless recognized experts on immigration, Duncan Lee’s narcissist personality, "I am right no one else is", pushed through Congress approval for erecting a fence starting on the waters of the Pacific Ocean running 14 miles east along the border. This he said would stop illegal immigration. There was no mention of national security, just stopping illegal immigration.
Experts said that if the root cause of such immigration was not addressed--both Mexico’s failure to provide economic opportunity and US businesses’ appetite for hiring cheap labor--then the fence would not stop the immigrants. They would simply go around it or find other places to cross. And sure enough that is what happened.
So Duncan Lee said a second parallel fence was needed, and such was added. Again experts said that would also not do the job. But Duncan Lee thought he knew better. He didn’t, and illegal immigration continued to grow. He then said we need to add a third fence parallel to the two; it was erected but illegal immigration continued to grow. Duncan Lee said it had stopped immigration at first by 80% then he changed it to 90%, but failed to mention that it had grown by a greater percentage in places east of the fence.
The furor to stop illegal immigration fueled by Duncan Lee’s rhetoric led President Bill Clinton to initiate Operation Gatekeeper. This added more border guards and National Guard soldiers along the California border. And like experts had advised, illegal immigrants went further east to cross and that started Arizona’s serious problems with illegal border crossings.
But Duncan Lee was not through, he continued to fight for more fencing, and was joined in the foolish crusade by such ignorant and in this case, racist Congressman Tom Tancredo and Brian Bilbray along with others of the same ilk. So after a few billion dollars, we have several hundred miles of fence and still the problem of illegal immigration.
How ironic that the man claiming to be the Republican Conservative’s Conservative caused Arizona’s major illegal border crossings. Proof that ignorance makes a fool of the ignorant.
Now comes his son, Duncan D., who campaigned for his father’s seat while serving in the military in Iraq, leaving it to his dad’s entrenched position to win the election for him. Now he is a Congressman, but he is not his own man, his speeches are almost verbatim the same as his father’s; his ideas are mirrors of his father’s; his ignorance is as great as his father’s. But, he is determined to be his own fool.
As an officer in the US military, he swore to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, the same oath he took when taking office as a Congressman. Two items have made a mockery of his oath: 1. he supports Arizona’s law making it mandatory for American citizens to produce papers proving they are US citizens while in their own country, a clear violation of the Constitution, and 2. he supports deporting Mexican-American U.S. born citizens--a major violation to the Constitution of the US.
The saddest part of this story is that both father and son believe they are right in the face of the contrary and both believe themselves to be American patriots. And, that dear reader makes them both a danger to the US and its Constitution.
The opinions expressed in this editorial reflect the views of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
Recent comments