Jim Acosta and the Invaders

By | November 9, 2018 | 1 Comments


CNN correspondent Jim Acosta got into an argument with President Trump over Trump calling the caravan of Latinos approaching the border “invaders.” But Acosta never imagined that by his rude, aggressive behavior, he was illustrating just how correct the President’s terminology is.

Thousands of Central Americans, joined by Mexicans, are slowly approaching the United States border, loudly announcing their intention to cross it illegally. Meanwhile, they wave Honduran flags, which some take to represent all of Central America, as well as Mexican flags.

What would you call thousands of people marching toward a border and intending to cross it illegally, while waving the flag of another nation? Badminton players? Real-estate speculators? Surely the accurate term is “invaders.” Unarmed invaders, true ‒ that is, if they and their belongings are thoroughly searched, which they have not been. But still invaders.

That is, they intend to enter someone else’s property without permission, and in fact against the expressed wishes of the owner. Then they intend to take the owner’s property ‒ welfare benefits, schooling, health care, and law enforcement. But they show little desire to become Americans ‒ that is, to join with the owner. On the contrary, many of them intend to set up replicas of the nation from which they claim asylum. How illogical is that?

No wonder Jim Acosta identifies with these people. He is acting in precisely the same way. He enters someone else’s property. He acts in a manner hostile to the owner, flouting the owner’s rules and confronting him disrespectfully, even angrily. He then takes an article of the owner’s property, the microphone, uses it contrary to the owner’s wishes, and then refuses to relinquish it to the owner’s representative, the female White House intern. Acosta actually pushed the intern’s arm away. Technically, this is assault and battery. And when she finally retrieves the microphone, and Acosta’s White House pass is revoked, he complains of unfair treatment. How egotistical is that?

But, you object, the White House is not Trump’s house, it is the people’s house. Yes, it is. But the owners, the people, have given Trump a four-year lease. For those four years, Trump is in effect the homeowner. (I believe the legal term is vestee.) He has the right to say who can come in, and who must leave. Similarly, the microphone is his property for those four years. Someone who takes it, and refuses to give it back when asked, is breaking the law.

For an even more egregious example, consider the aggressive mob that yelled threats and insults outside conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s home. Some went so far as to try to break down the door, damaging it in the process. Carlson’s wife was home alone, and called 911 in terror as she hid in the pantry. Fortunately, their children were not at home to hear shouts of, “We know where you sleep!” Carlson’s home address had been publicized by leftist activists, who in effect were inciting a riot.

So you see the similarities between the “caravan” of would-be invaders, Acosta, and the would-be home invaders of the Carlson home: Come onto someone else’s property, act contrary to the owner’s wishes, and go on to become hostile and threatening.

What if that grim-looking man watching Acosta interact with the intern, probably a Secret Service agent, had placed his hand on Acosta to calm him, and Acosta had pushed his arm away? Assaulting a federal officer is a serious crime. “Journalism” does not excuse physical aggression. Neither does “progressivism.” What if the men pushing in the Carlsons’ front door had succeeded, and Mrs. Carlson had been holding a 12-gauge shotgun instead of a phone? If we go further along this road, people will start dying.

You may be sympathetic to Acosta, to the “caravan,” or to the demonstrators at the Carlson home. I am not. But in any case, we must recognize that aggressive, potentially violent behavior risks similar behavior from the other side. A political and philosophical civil war has been raging for some years in the United States. Before it degenerates into a violent civil war, let us all take a step back, take a deep breath, and calm down ‒ before irreparable harm has been done to our homeland.

Beware the fury of a patient man. − John Dryden



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