The Land Of Make Believe
It appears that many governmental foibles rampant during the Obama years die hard. One of the biggest of these is the tendency of our politicians, news casters, writers and leaders to live in a fantasy world. Using a term from childhood, I’ll call this world “the land of Make Believe”.
During those careless, reckless years, the cultural modus operandi seemed to be like a narrative in a Disney Movie: “Children, if you close your eyes and wish LONG enough and HARD enough, with ALL YOUR HEART, then ANYTHING is possible!”
During the Obama years, for example, it was de rigueur to say, again and again and again, that Islam is a “religion of peace.” Presumably, if you said this loud enough and long enough, with ALL YOUR HEART….voila!….it would come to pass! The bombings would stop. The stabbings would stop! The beheadings would stop! Just Like That!… Well, as we all know, despite the most sincere wishing by our dreamy populace, the bombings did NOT stop. The stabbings did NOT stop. The beheadings did NOT stop. Why? Simply put, our world is NOT the Land Of Make Believe. We can’t stop terrible things by wishing them away. The world has a way of defying even our most sincere entreaties.
I began thinking about all of this recently, after listening to Mayor Del Blasio respond to the Presidential edict, earlier that day, to stop Federal funding “sanctuary cities.” What was his response? It was that New York City “will not change its policies”, and, therefore, would presumably try to make up the shortfall in other ways. Is this feasible or even possible? The answer is no. New York City gets approximately 7 BILLION dollars from the Feds each year. That represents 12% of their entire 58 Billion dollar budget. And the amount of that 7 billion that can be stopped by presidential edict? ALL of it! Can New York City get by with that degree of reduction? NOT likely. None-the-less, the blasé Del Blasio appears untroubled! Hiding, obviously, in “the land of Make Believe”!
The Mexican President Peña Nieto has recently adopted the very same strategy. Mexico currently makes approximately 64 billion dollars per year more FROM us than we make from them. A tax on that amount and a reduction in the volume of sales that the tax would cause, would hurt Mexico BADLY. In other words, Mexico needs us more then we need them. Way more! And Mr. Trump knows this, and his posture reflects this as well. So, despite the urgent need to find a compromise to avert such a fiscal catastrophe for his country, Mr. Nieto, cancelled the negotiations and made a hasty retreat…into the land of Make Believe.
Unfortunately for both of these dreamers, reality will bite. New York City will fail to meet payrolls. Infrastructure projects will halt. Security will loosen. Mr. Del Blasio will, eventually, need to compromise. Likewise with Mr. Nieto. Mr. Trump, with America’s best interests in mind, will stand like a strict schoolmarm, waving his finger: “NO MORE MAKE BELIEVE! children!” Time to talk turkey.”