Ellen - honcho of Talk Radio News - was back at it this morning: "I want to say again . . . I know it gets a lot of mail, why I am in favor of really having open borders between Canada and Mexico, because there is not going to be a way -- you will have lots of -- "
A palpably shocked Kiran Chetry, hosting the segment, interjected: "Open borders? Who else is saying open borders besides you?"
Ratner: "I may be the only one in the world. I will continue to say it."
Ratner's conservative counterweight, Newsday and TCS columnist Jim Pinkerton, explained the consequences of Ratner's proposal:
"If we have open borders we won't have a country. America will cease to exist. The 250-year experiment in democracy will stop. I disagree with you Ellen. I think most people do. Most Democrats do."
Ratner had no reply to Pinkerton's seemingly unassailable logic, focusing instead on the politics of the matter: "I understand most Democrats want an election-year issue. Face it. You can have all the power point presentations [you want] about closing borders and if you need people to pick . . . tomatoes they will come through. Period."
By the way, to answer Kiran's question, I can cite at least one other person promoting open borders. On last week's edition of 'Right Angle,' the public-access TV show I host in Ithaca, a Cornell campus radical, Danny Pearlstein, also advocated open borders.
Pearlstein even managed to up the anarchistic ante on Ellen, taking the position that not only should we open our borders, we shouldn't screen people for criminal backgrounds . . . or even for being active members of Al-Qaida! Now, I wouldn't expect Ratner would go that far, but these are the eccentric circles in which Ellen swims!
Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning public access TV show 'Right Angle'. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net
