OPINION:
In the wake of yet another disastrous flameout in the NFL playoffs, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys decided, inexplicably, not to fire the team’s underperforming head coach.
This decision was greeted with the usual swirl of opinion by the sports media, but few of those who get paid to have opinions on such things examined what has been the common denominator in the Cowboys organization across 30 years of failure.
That answer is simple. Coaches and players have come and gone. The only constant has been the owner — Jerry Jones — who, being wealthy, naturally thinks he knows how to construct a winning football team despite all evidence to the contrary.
The House Homeland Security Committee this week voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, not really for high crimes and misdemeanors, but for not doing his job very well or for not doing it in a manner the members of the committee would prefer it be done.
Impeachment seems a bit aggressive in this instance. Mr. Mayorkas has probably not committed any “high crimes or misdemeanors,” or any low crimes, for that matter, if such things exist.
This poorly considered action sets a terrible precedent that will be used as soon as possible against Republican political appointees and thereby accelerate and increase the aversion that wise, careful and prudent people already have to government service.
Most disturbingly, the impeachment of Mr. Mayorkas is the natural terminal point of the criminalization of policy differences or, if you prefer, the use of legal systems to resolve policy differences. Such an approach is fundamentally contrary to the idea that government should reflect the preferences of the people and replace the judgment of the citizens with the preferences of prosecutors and judges — in this case, the committee members.
If Mr. Mayorkas is responsible in whole or in part for our lack of a southern border — and it seems likely that he is, at least in part, the remedy provided in our current system is an appeal to the voters in the next election.
One would think that the Republicans, having endured the sham prosecution of a president four short years ago, would be more sensitive to the precedent-serving and extralegal nature of this particular action, as well as to the danger of criminalizing policy differences.
One would be wrong.
This impeachment process, which is grounded in substantial and legitimate concerns about our lack of a southern border, is wrongheaded, especially at the beginning of an election cycle in which the voters will have an opportunity to make their own preferences on this issue clear.
Like the Dallas Cowboys, American governments — led by both Republicans and Democrats — have failed at their fundamental mission for the last 30 years. Like the Cowboys, the problem with the federal government starts at the top.
With the exception of Donald Trump, no president has taken the lack of a southern border seriously. The idea that Mr. Mayorkas is entirely or even mostly to blame for this bipartisan and long-standing failure is nonsense.
Mr. Mayorkas — and Mike McCarthy, the coach of the Cowboys — should both be fired for nonperformance. But we shouldn’t pretend that either action will solve the fundamental problems faced by their organizations.
If Republicans are serious about re-creating a southern border, they need to convince the public and win elections. There are no shortcuts.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times and was a deputy assistant for legislative affairs to President Donald Trump.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.