As Trump and his supporters have called for stronger borders, and in particular, building a wall that separates Mexico from USA. Many have objected to the wall and even the need for stronger borders on the grounds that these efforts are hateful, racist, and extreme.
Do we really need a wall? Is it so bad to let in all those illegal aliens? Most of them just want a better life, don’t they?
They cry, “USA became a nation built by immigrants so why should we turn our back on one of the foundational principles that made this country a superpower?”
There’s a big difference between legal and illegal immigrants, – one respects our laws and the other does not.
Yet what does it matter if those illegal aliens are good people? Won’t they make our country better?
It matters because borders represent the self-esteem of a nation. What does that mean? Let’s first check out this description of personal boundaries regarding interpersonal relationships.
“There is one area of personal evolution that can make or break your self-esteem and your ability to have healthy relationships.
It’s the ability to set and implement healthy personal boundaries.Personal boundaries are the imaginary lines we draw around ourselves to maintain balance and protect our bodies, minds, emotions, and time from the behavior or demands of others.
They provide the framework to keep us from being used or manipulated by others, and they allow us to confidently express who we are and what we want in life. Personal boundaries allow us to be in the driver’s seat of our own lives.”
-from Live Bold and Bloom
Now let’s take this same quote and apply it to national borders instead of individual boundaries:
“There is one area of a nation’s evolution that can make or break that nation’s self-esteem and it’s ability to have healthy relations with other nations. It’s the ability to set and implement healthy national borders.
National borders are the imaginary lines we draw around our country to maintain balance and protect our citizen’s bodies, minds, emotions, and time from the behavior or demands of other nations.
They provide the framework to keep us from being used or manipulated by other nations, and they allow us to confidently express who we are and what we want in life. National borders allow us to be in the driver’s seat of our own lives.”
By allowing our borders to be weak, we become like a body without an immune system – open to any bacteria, virus, or parasite that wants to take up residence in us.
We’re like a nice guy that can’t say no – he just gets pushed around by others.
Contrast this with a so-called “jerk,” a guy who is a “badboy” – typically unpredictable, and prone to anger or rudeness and selfishness.
For years, I resented women for always picking the jerk over me (the “nice” guy) until I realized that I had no spine – no boundaries. I manipulated people through being “nice” – I expected them to return the favor then resented them if they didn’t.
Through my own journey, I realized that I had to embrace and accept my anger – not necessarily act on it but to allow myself to feel it.
As I did this, I realized that this critical emotional held wisdom that had been cut off from my conscious awareness. The anger helped me to identify where I was being “walked-on” by others – where I was being manipulated and where my boudnaries were being violated.
By reclaiming my anger, I reclaimed my boundaries and with it my confidence, my self-esteem. At that point women could finally trust me- since I would defend myself when needed (and therefore defend them too if we ever became a couple).
They say this 2016 election was fuelded by anger – damn right there’s anger out there. Everyday people entrusted politicians to run this country and keep their promises yet they keep coming up short.
As a nation, our borders are constantly violated resulting in a rift in our nation’s psyche – our national self-esteem is harmed. (For Europe and the immense scale of violation that’s taking place, there’s an equal building of anger and resentment that’s starting to surface.)
The fact that millions of people come into this country without permission or documentation, is a basic violation of our nation’s boundaries. Every time an illegal alien crosses the borders, it’s a violation not only of every American citizen – it’s also a complete slap in the face to every legal immigrant who followed the rules and respected the laws of this country.
(If we decide to let in more people, great, then let’s change the laws to account for this and do it the right way.)
The resulting anger must be acknowledged, accepted, and transmuted into rational and immediate action in order to resolve the issue. That’s exactly the platform that Trump has run and won on – Strong Borders.
Trump does feel more like the “jerk” to many people because his attitude is one of such dominance – yet that is exactly the quality needed to enforce strong borders.
Those who don’t understand why people voted Trump miss this key aspect. They’re blind to the violations that have been taking place for decades, not just in our physical borders but in our economic borders – Trade.
Bad trade deals represent another way Americans have been getting violated.
Trump, a man who literally wrote the book on how to make deals and has become a billionaire through his primary skill of deal-making, promised to fight on behalf of every Americans to get better deals in the world economy.
Do you know how empowering it is for a billionaire to say he is going to fight to get your job back? He’s going to negotiate, push forward, and never back down, all for your interests…does it start to make sense now?
Politicians and the media were stunned that he was elected since he lacks “experience,” yet he doesn’t.
He has more experience than all the politicians in washington combined when it comes to the issue of deal making.
Is he a perfect saint? Of course not.
Is he a human who’s made mistakes along the way. Yes, of course.
Can he sometimes go overboard? Probably, yet Americans don’t expect perfection, they expect progress and honesty.
Even though his presidency is it’s early stages, Trump already began this crucial and much needed process for restoring the psyche and self-esteem of our nation.
By strengthening our borders and negotiating better trade deals, he’s giving back the average American CONFIDENCE in himself and in his economic opportunity….provided that he follows through on his promises.
No longer will we be a “nice guy nation” who bends over backwards to win the approval of political leaders in foreign countries. It’s time to strengthen our borders thereby restore our country’s confidence and self-esteem.
A bit of healthy selfishness goes a long way in developing healthy relationships and is a requirement for reaching the level of INTER-dependance that we’ll need in the global economy.