10 ms·

Fixing the immigration and patent systems would be infinitely more helpful (i.e. stop getting in the way).

by paul 15y ago

anigbrowl 15y ago
Congress has to do that, the executive branch can't. To the extent that the executive branch is streamlining the existing immigration system, they're being derided as amnesty-offering traitors by the xenophobic know-nothings that want Berlin Wall 2.0.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  Just as a side note, you really don't want an executive branch that can do that (fixing the immigration and patent systems). edit: sorry if it didn't end up as clear as it should
  - anigbrowl 15y ago
    -
    - anigbrowl 15y ago
      The above isn't meant as a comment - it was a question that was answered by an edit in the grandparent, but I then carelessly edited this instead of deleting it. By the time I noticed the error the edit/delete window had closed.
  - thmcmahon 15y ago
    Works OK for countries with parliamentary democracies.
    - jacques_chester 15y ago
      Parliamentary democracies still have distinct executive branches.
      - dimitar 15y ago
        Sure, but they are usually appointed by the majority party of parliament and its leader becomes head of government.
    - maaku 15y ago
      No, that's how a dictatorship works, not a parliamentary democracy. The prime minister/head of state may set policy, but it's still subject to an up/down vote in the parliament. In all cases I can think of, a prime minister can't unilaterally make such drastic changes without (parliamentary) referendum. The U.S.'s federated system just makes it more explicit what's going on.
- twoodfin 15y ago
  You might want to reconsider broadly slurring a bunch of your fellow citizens as "know-nothings" while writing a comment seemingly ignorant of the fact that the Berlin Wall was designed mostly to keep people in.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    Actually, probably unintentionally, Know-Nothings isn't a bad term. The Know-Nothings were an anti-immigrant political party in the 1840's and 50's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
    - anigbrowl 15y ago
      Indeed so. They were named as such not because they didn't know anything, but because of their habit of saying 'I know nothing' if questioned about their political activities. Immigration is kind of my specialty knowledge domain, actually :-) As for the Berlin Wall crack in the grandparent, of course I know the Berlin Wall was meant to keep people in. That doesn't stop people who want to militarize the border with Mexico from explicitly holding it up as a model. Read the comments on any Wall Street Journal story about immigration and you can be pretty sure of seeing it cited approvingly within a few pages.
      - chernevik 15y ago
        So it should be easy for you to provide a link to one.
        anigbrowl 15y ago
        Actually not, because their commenting system uses flash so you can't search for/link to individual comments. As you can see from a simple Google search, though, I am far from the first to make the comparison: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&safe=off&site=webhp&source=hp&q=%22berlin%20wall%22%20mexico&pbx=1&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&fp=d6a6b13212a1ff43&ion=1&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=d6a6b13212a1ff43&biw=1280&bih=866&ion=1 https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=...
westbywest 15y ago
Agreed, but that would likely cost more than $2Billion in terms of legislators' time elapsed and hot air expelled. Although I do believe the supply of hot air is near infinite.
corkill 15y ago
Strongly Agree.
protomyth 15y ago
At some point the realization by a politician that Mexico is a separate problem from immigration in general might be a nice touch.

Fixing the immigration and patent systems would be infinitely more helpful (i.e. stop getting in the way).

by paul 15y ago

Fixing the immigration and patent systems would be infinitely more helpful (i.e. stop getting in the way).

Congress has to do that, the executive branch can't. To the extent that the executive branch is streamlining the existing immigration system, they're being derided as amnesty-offering traitors by the xenophobic know-nothings that want Berlin Wall 2.0.

rbanffy 15y ago
Just as a side note, you really don't want an executive branch that can do that (fixing the immigration and patent systems). edit: sorry if it didn't end up as clear as it should
- anigbrowl 15y ago
  -
  - anigbrowl 15y ago
    The above isn't meant as a comment - it was a question that was answered by an edit in the grandparent, but I then carelessly edited this instead of deleting it. By the time I noticed the error the edit/delete window had closed.
- thmcmahon 15y ago
  Works OK for countries with parliamentary democracies.
  - jacques_chester 15y ago
    Parliamentary democracies still have distinct executive branches.
    - dimitar 15y ago
      Sure, but they are usually appointed by the majority party of parliament and its leader becomes head of government.
  - maaku 15y ago
    No, that's how a dictatorship works, not a parliamentary democracy. The prime minister/head of state may set policy, but it's still subject to an up/down vote in the parliament. In all cases I can think of, a prime minister can't unilaterally make such drastic changes without (parliamentary) referendum. The U.S.'s federated system just makes it more explicit what's going on.
twoodfin 15y ago
You might want to reconsider broadly slurring a bunch of your fellow citizens as "know-nothings" while writing a comment seemingly ignorant of the fact that the Berlin Wall was designed mostly to keep people in.
- philwelch 15y ago
  Actually, probably unintentionally, Know-Nothings isn't a bad term. The Know-Nothings were an anti-immigrant political party in the 1840's and 50's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
  - anigbrowl 15y ago
    Indeed so. They were named as such not because they didn't know anything, but because of their habit of saying 'I know nothing' if questioned about their political activities. Immigration is kind of my specialty knowledge domain, actually :-) As for the Berlin Wall crack in the grandparent, of course I know the Berlin Wall was meant to keep people in. That doesn't stop people who want to militarize the border with Mexico from explicitly holding it up as a model. Read the comments on any Wall Street Journal story about immigration and you can be pretty sure of seeing it cited approvingly within a few pages.
    - chernevik 15y ago
      So it should be easy for you to provide a link to one.
      - anigbrowl 15y ago
        Actually not, because their commenting system uses flash so you can't search for/link to individual comments. As you can see from a simple Google search, though, I am far from the first to make the comparison: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&safe=off&site=webhp&source=hp&q=%22berlin%20wall%22%20mexico&pbx=1&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&fp=d6a6b13212a1ff43&ion=1&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=d6a6b13212a1ff43&biw=1280&bih=866&ion=1 https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=...

westbywest 15y ago

Agreed, but that would likely cost more than $2Billion in terms of legislators' time elapsed and hot air expelled. Although I do believe the supply of hot air is near infinite.

corkill 15y ago

Strongly Agree.

protomyth 15y ago

At some point the realization by a politician that Mexico is a separate problem from immigration in general might be a nice touch.