Is Building a Border Wall a Moral Issue?

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “Facts don’t matter when you are morally right” she is practicing both social and moral justice to tax the wealthy at a 70% federal rate. Both the Right and Left are guilty of using moral and social justice throughout American history. For instance, conservatives would use moral justice to ban alcohol, gay sex, marijuana, sex toys, pornography, gay marriage, and masturbation to name a few issues. Liberals would use moral justice to defend climate change, higher taxes, takings without compensation, illegal aliens (building the wall is now a moral issue), entitlements, diversity, and affirmative action to name a few issues.

Anything that violates the rights of any American, regardless of morality, is against any true meaning of the Constitution to protect everyone equally. Individuals can violate their own rights and morality code so long as their actions affect no one else. For instance, using alcohol, sex toys, or masturbation hurts no one and violate no one rights when done in private and with consent. Morality and social justice are just excuses to persecute the minority in favor of what the majority wants. What does the majority want? More money and entitlements at the expense of their neighbors. But nothing in the Natural Law (morality) or the Constitution permit taking money from a private citizen and giving it to another private citizen. The Fifth Amendment Takings clause permits taking property from private citizens for public use, not private use.

Is abortion morally right, regardless of the facts? According to Natural Law it is the job of citizens to protect the rights of the unborn. This concept plays into the hands of liberals who want to “save” the planet from climate change or conservatives who want to pay down our debt. These are both moral concepts but they conflict: We cannot save the planet by bankrupting future generations. Just because something is morally right, it does not mean government should tax people beyond reproach. This would make taxing for climate change morally wrong. Besides, the government always wants to spend money to solve a problem and very rarely do they want to try innovative means to solve a problem without putting everyone in debt. Socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are the worst. They want to take other people’s money but they will go all out to protect their own wealth. And when it comes to money, there is never enough. As fast as Democrats would implement a 70% tax on the wealthy, they would seek to increase that rate.

Morality is about individuals making the right choice. It is not about the government making what it perceives as the right choice, especially at the expense of others. Morality is not about being concerned what our neighbors are doing, it is being concerned about what we are doing. If people follow morality codes then they will help neighbors in need without government intrusion. Government interference turns welfare into a Right and Left argument, creates expensive lobbying, creates class warfare, and uses the power, interest, and partiality principles which will violate the rights of many.

Think about this, if welfare is a human right then government interference is a violation of that right. Take the government run Veterans Affairs (VA). How many veteran’s rights were violated by government intrusion into their healthcare? If government is making welfare more expensive, cannot properly protect the identity of citizens, generates a monopoly preventing citizens from opening businesses in medical fields, or generates mandates, rules, and regulations that help some but hurt others then they are violating the rights of citizens. A one-size fits all government run welfare program will violate the rights of some while benefiting others. This is wrong. Besides, what people like Ocasio-Cortez fail to realize that there is a big difference between taxing income and wealth. And she certainly does not understand basic economics and the Laffer effect on the economy. Remember, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Russia do not care about facts either and look at the status of their socialized countries.

It is not the job of Congress to implement the will of the constituents that support them. No, it is the job of Congress to protect the rights of ALL citizens. It is time to stop moral and social justice and it is time to protect the rights of all citizens by practicing the Natural Law principle of subsidiarity: To allow local governments and communities help their neighbors.

There is nothing moral about violating the rights of some at the expense of others. Morality is part of Natural Law. The Right and Left only defend Natural Law when it is convenient. Natural Law is the science of reason. This means humans must make free-will decisions based on reason without emotion and feelings. And when reasonable free-will choices conflict, it is then up to humans to choose the more moral choice. Right now, most government decisions are not rational, hence there is no moral choice. For instance, diversity, affirmative action, and protecting preferred classes of citizens is no different than the jurisprudence that led to many of the worst decisions in SCOTUS history: Dred Scott (Slavery), Plesy (Segregation), Buck (Sterilization), and Korematsu (Internment). These are not rational choices and therefore they cannot be moral.

Ocasio-Cortez is wrong that morality does not include facts. I may have an opinion that tattoos and sex toys are immoral. But opinions are not facts backed up by reason. First, tattoos and sex toys do not harm others and therefore violate no one’s rights (if sex toys are used in private and with consent). Second, think of how shutting down sex and tattoo stores will harm the owners of those shops by violating their right to work. Hence, a reasonable decision for me is to say I do not like tattoos and sex toys, but they are not necessarily immoral. Strict Natural Law theorists may dispute this, but in my reasonable opinion there must be harm for something to be classified as immoral. Hence, to come to a moral decision, facts are necessary without emotional rhetoric.

So, what would be a rational decision for the Wall? I tend to favor border security over no security to protect American citizens from having their rights violated. But nothing is ever black and white anymore and people can certainly empathize with those who struggle in other countries. But thinking that way is using emotion and feelings. The law and morality are not about emotion and feelings. And let’s not forget any illegal alien who dilutes the vote of a citizen, takes a job that would otherwise go to a citizen, fails to pay taxes, takes entitlements, or commits a crime is violating the rights of some if not all American citizens.

Maybe we can build a wall and have boarder security for States that may want it like Arizona and Texas. States like California and New Mexico can have open boarders but they will be held liable for any instance of a violation against the rights of an American Citizen for any future boarder crossings. Maybe States can decide if they want illegal aliens residing or travelling through their borders. After all, there must be restitution for a violation of rights. This is probably not a good compromise, but it is the only one I can think of using Natural Law and morality. Sure, it seems morally correct and decent to allow every starving and disenfranchised person around the globe to enter our country. But is this reasonable? No, because it is cost prohibitive and at the same time, we have millions of citizens in this country suffering. Since it is not reasonable, it is not moral.