Remote Control

I am inspired today by Ann Coulter.  Inspired to write, that is.  Ms. Coulter has pronounced Trump “dead in the water” if he does not hold out for his border wall.  I smirked.  I chuckled.  I laughed out loud.  What a preposterous thing to say.  Coulter is to pundits what Paris Hilton is to celebrities.  She grew up in luxury, got a history degree from Cornell and a law degree in Michigan.  That’s it.  No expertise in anything except conservative bigotry and Michigan law.

In a similar vein I picture the NASA control room where the highly trained technicians send commands to the Mars Rover.  The control room is air conditioned and comfortable.  Mars is millions of miles away with extremely harsh conditions.  It takes 13 minutes for a NASA control to reach the rover and for the rover to respond to the command. The rover dutifully responds.  I suspect Trump will dutifully respond to Coulter's remote control as well.

Ann Coulter is sitting in her control room surrounded by creature comforts.  To my knowledge she has never been the victim of a crime committed by a person who entered the US illegally.  To my knowledge she has no expertise in walls or wall-building.  To my knowledge she has no expertise in law enforcement.  And yet from her little comfortable control room she is issuing orders to Trump:  Build the wall.  She supported the government shutdown and supports the 800,000 federal workers now going without pay.  Again, she does that from a position of comfort.  And it is easy for her to demand that others do her will and support her philosophy rather than engage in the actual dirty work of hammering out an agreement.  Hell, she could not even negotiate extra leg room on an airliner.  (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/07/16/ann-coulter-had-to-switch-seats-on-a-delta-flight-then-came-the-tirade/?utm_term=.7df62061c8b9)  Nope, she is into remote control with no personal consequences advocating a superficial, harmful, immoral, and expensive approach to address our immigration issues.

Wonder what would happen if Coulter, Trump, McConnell and Republican senators and representatives had their assets seized and their income frozen until an agreement was reached.  I suspect a little firsthand knowledge of being unemployed might provide insight they have never had.  As long as they can practice remote control from a position of safety and opulence, this ridiculous melodrama will continue to play. 

At least the Mars Rover is loyal and faithful to its mission.  Trump and company would rather protect us from the bogeyman while hurting both human beings and our economy than they would protect and support the US Constitution.  They have no skin in this game and their remote control signals should be ignored.