OPINION:
The first rule of politics is “Never fix anything.”
But just like in “Fight Club,” the second rule simply refers you back to the first rule.
Never. Fix. Anything.
Unfortunately for Donald Trump, he did not go to politician school; if he had, he would have been taught that important rule. Instead, he had to learn the hard way.
Never. Fix. Anything.
In 2016, Mr. Trump got elected president on the most outrageous and impolitic campaign promise ever. Both parties going back decades had allowed millions of illegal aliens across the border into the United States. And — as he famously observed when he announced his candidacy — they were not sending their best.
Rapists, murderers and possibly some good people, too.
Mr. Trump was immediately denounced by old political hands in both parties. The political press called him a racist. A “nativist,” they said — whatever the hell that is.
Once in office, he got right down to business building his wall and negotiating with Central American governments, threatening to cut off foreign aid and halt trade if they did not stop the flow of illegals into the United States.
He forced Mexico to secure our border from the south — thereby keeping his promise to “build a wall” and “make Mexico pay for it.” It was a “wall” as wide as Mexico is deep.
By the time the 2020 election campaign rolled around, Mr. Trump had succeeded in drawing down the illegal invasion to a trickle. It was not perfect and there were still millions of illegals roaming the country that needed to be dealt with. But Mr. Trump had fixed the most acute part of the invasion.
He had … Fixed. The. Problem.
Sure, he had kept his promise and accomplished something that everyone in Washington had said for decades was impossible. But by fixing the problem, he had eliminated his best campaign issue.
And this is precisely why the first rule of politics is “never fix anything.”
If you are a politician who wants to get reelected and the biggest issue in your campaign is taking away people’s guns, are you really going to take away people’s guns? If you did, what would you run on to get reelected?
Similarly, if you are a politician who wants to get reelected and the biggest issue in your campaign is stopping all abortions, are you really going to stop all abortions? If you did, what would you run on to get reelected?
This goes not only for politicians in Washington, but also the armies of lobbyists on both sides of the aisle who make fortunes off problems — so long as those problems never actually get fixed.
See, for the innocent voter in America, a problem is a problem — something that needs to be fixed. But to politicians and lobbyists in Washington, a problem is a golden goose that never stops laying its eggs.
Those golden eggs get you reelected for as long as the problem doesn’t get fixed. And once you jump over into the lobbyist world, it then buys you sports cars and beach houses.
Since Mr. Trump already has all the cars and golf courses and beach houses, he didn’t go to Washington for money. He went to fix problems.
And he did. And he paid the price in the next election.
Lucky for Mr. Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is such a perfect political creature of Washington that she and President Biden knew exactly what to do when they got into office.
Bring back the problem! Bigger and badder than ever!
The Biden-Harris open border program created the biggest invasion of illegal aliens in U.S. history. The carnage is everywhere — no matter how hard the political press tries to cover it up.
Indeed, the victims of the Biden-Harris open border program have been raped and murdered. Criminal gangs and human smugglers own the border that Mr. Trump had secured. American taxpayers are paying all the costs for millions of illegals Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have waved into the country.
And she is on record as wanting to legalize them all, allow them to vote and give them free health care.
Luckily for American voters, there is an alternative in this election. And we know from experience that he is not afraid to actually … Fix. The. Problem.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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