Democracy requires borders

[Right_in_Virginia]

Democracy requires borders
Washington Examiner, Jun 25, 2018, Editorial Staff

<snip>

Behind these objections is a premise that goes unstated because it is radical and deeply unpopular. It is that border enforcement is itself illegitimate. The notion that we would police who enters our country strikes some as inherently oppressive. Many of our elites, Left and Right, see borders as archaic and arbitrary. This is often related to their doubt about the need for, and morality of, the nation-state.

The unpopularity of this elite ideology has become obvious in elections here and in Europe, where the push to dissolve borders and nations is far more progressed. The ideology is as dangerous as it is unpopular.

Borders are inextricable from self-determination. People are not made to be solitary creatures, or even to live merely in family units. We are political animals, and we have access to our highest potentials only when we live in community with one another. Becoming part of a community is forming an identity not merely as “me,” but also as “us.”

For “us” to have meaning, it has to be defined. At worst, "us" is defined along class lines or racial lines. At best, it’s more open and diverse, like the United States of America. But “us” can never mean “whoever happens to show up.” Unless a community can control its membership — freedom of association is at the core of our Constitution — it can’t be a community. The nature of democracy and society prohibit that. A society has rules, and in a democracy, the rules are determined by the people. If an ever-shifting mob makes up “the people,” there are no consistent rules, and thus no society, no community.


More:  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/democracy-requires-borders