Commentary:
By Patrick Osio
Ignorance is a sad state that stops being sad when the ignorant is a person holding public office whose actions can be harmful to the community, state or nation he/she serves. Particularly when adding to ignorance is 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 bring unintended consequences that can be grievous causing far worse problems. A prime example is the present problems faced by Arizona having its roots on 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has led to the most draconian law yet enacted by a state of the union that defies the US Constitution and if not rescinded by the state or the court can lead to the most deplorable civil and human rights violations of our times.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 personally, 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 address, both Mexico’s failure to provide economic opportunity and US businesses’ appetite for hiring cheap labor, the fence would not stop them, 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 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. But Duncan Lee said it had stopped 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 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 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 her 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 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 US 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.
Patrick Osio is Editor of HispanicVista.com. Contact at POsioJR@aol.com